BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

This was on the MOA Facebook Page. Take it for what it's worth. Could be bogus, I'm just passing it on.

Steve Anderson Here's the language from the BMW Motorrad USA bulletin: Film Type Fuel Level Sender “Fuel Strip”: Warranty Extension to 12 years without
Mileage Limitation.
Model Year 2005-2013 R and K series motorcycles that contain a film type fuel level sender “Fuel Strip.” On eligible motorcycles, the limited warranty for the film type fuel level sensor has been extended to 12 years without mileage limitation, as determined from the original in-service date.
This is a “warranty coverage extension.” This is not a Recall or Technical Campaign; please do NOT perform this repair as a preventive measure.
There is no immediate repair required unless the BMW motorcycle is currently experiencing this problem

Wow, that's huge! If true. And I just bought, and paid for, my 3rd one just a month ago...

xprof wrote:Wow, that's huge! If true. And I just bought, and paid for, my 3rd one just a month ago...

Apply to BMW for a full refund for dollars spent on a "warranty repair".

Through the dealer? Direct to BMWNA? Any suggestions as to how would be welcome.

Apparently the bulletin was released on June 6.
Steve Anderson Your dealer can access it. Tell them it's Service Information Bulletin 16 002 14 (017).

Thanks guys! My dealer said that he will submit it, and that it ought to be covered.

Mine went a couple of months ago.

Called Mortons BMW this morning and verified that they are replacing them under the extended warranty. Service appointment in August to replace.

Right on.

And here's a plus: my new fuel strip, unlike the previous two, shows a linear drop in fuel through the entire range, and is close to right-on for miles remaining towards the end. Have they improved them? In any case, I'm happy!

Mike - the non-linearity isn't something that could be "fixed" if you open your fuel tank and look down the hole - guess what's right under the filler? The fuel strip. It crosses from one side of the tank to the other and has a section of it that runs almost horizontal. That's the reason for the non-linearity.

Mine does become quite linear when I'm down to around 100 miles remaining on the tank. If I compare the miles remaining with the odometer at intervals - it seems to be fairly linear then. Before then? Well - it often shows me having > 254 miles remaining for at least the first gallon of fuel (50 miles or so) before ever starting to drop. That's strip #8. The others have been similar. I do find the fuel remaining when the light turns on at around 40 miles to be what I'd expect it to be - a bit less than a gallon left in the tank. To me the last 100 miles is the important part..

That's been my experience too, Don. What I'm reporting is that my new fuel strip, unlike all previous strips, starts dropping immediately, shows half when about half full: linear throughout the whole range. So my question is, did they make a change for the better or did I just get really really lucky this time?

xprof wrote:That's been my experience too, Don. What I'm reporting is that my new fuel strip, unlike all previous strips, starts dropping immediately, shows half when about half full: linear throughout the whole range. So my question is, did they make a change for the better or did I just get really really lucky this time?

I think you either got really lucky this time, or they changed the strip to purposely be non-linear to correct for the shape and mounting in the tank, or it's a defective strip but the defect is in your favor..

Put me in the I-Think-You're-Lucky camp with Don. But wouldn't that be wonderful if they actually made it work?

It loses it's linearity when it is getting close to reserve and when on reserve, ie the light is on, it is wishful thinking to think that the odometer will match up to the display. The display counts down far faster than the odometer counts up, at least that's my experience.

I had my bike in for the fuel flange recall this last week and back in march, the dealer got me a good will deal with BMW to cover half the cost of the fuel strip. I picked up the bike last friday and was surprised to see no charge. They confirmed the service bulletin was listed as covering the repair in total. It took BMW a bit to relent to this, but we probably have all owners that took action and file DOT complaints or the like to thank for this. Although it took awhile, its nice to see BMW step up. Where is that anti-BMW guy now? I bet he'll be strangely silent on this one.

I had my fuel pump replaced on Saturday as per the recall, for 49,000 miles I have not had an issue with the fuel gauge on my 07, It has always worked as it should. After getting the pump replaced I noticed that after filling the tank the gauge was 2 bars short of full. Then today the low fuel light came on a little early as per my trip odo, filled the tank and again 2 bars short of full. Called the dealer an he said bmw is going to cover the strip replacement. Thats all fine and dandy, but now I have to wonder if the new one will be a good one or a bum one.

My new dealer in Asheville N.C. told me that the fuel strip failure was 100% caused by the use of ethanol fouled fuel. I avoid it 75% of my fill ups. I don't think that is an option for lots of yous guys though. Watch who you vote for.

celticus wrote:My new dealer in Asheville N.C. told me that the fuel strip failure was 100% caused by the use of ethanol fouled fuel. I avoid it 75% of my fill ups. I don't think that is an option for lots of yous guys though. Watch who you vote for.

You might ask him about the failures in countries where ethanol isn't in the fuel.. or the '05 and '06 bikes that almost never have a failed fuel strip. Whatever - it really doesn't matter. BMW sold a bike in a market - a warranty of merchantability (Google it up) means that it should perform (as a motorcycle) in that market. The fact that the fuel might have different additives should have been taken into account.

BTW - Just my humble opinion - your dealer is fulla'beans. It's a sign of what I call "dealer blather" - trying to sound expert on a subject since if they said "Dunno.." you'd lose confidence in them. I've heard some really bizarre things from dealers suffering from this syndrome.

I no longer vote for anyone who supports a farm subsidy for ethanol. Does anyone besides agribusiness?

OK , So why do you think the stripes fail?

celticus wrote:OK , So why do you think the stripes fail?

Simple - defective manufacturing. I had one fail immediately after it was installed.. so that wasn't ethanol, it was a defective part. Since BMW has now extended the warranty on the strips to 12 years, and since my dealer's service manager said they hadn't seen any redo's on strips installed since about May of last year, the vendor BMW is using probably got tired of eating the cost of replacing the strips and has sorted out their production problems.

Long story/short: Back when I was an engineer at Bell Labs - there was a story about how someone in a Bell Labs production development group came up with a way to streamline manufacturing touch-tone keypads. The keypad had some components embedded in a silicone lump. The engineer found that adding a bit more silicone oil to the silicone potting compound made it flow better/faster around the components and they could speed up production. It saved Western Electric several pennies per keypad.

Millions of keypads were made this way - and the engineer got a bonus and a raise. Everyone involved patted themselves on the back for a job well done.

After about 2 years of use - keypads started failing in use. Lots of study was done on the reason why - and it turns out the silicone oil was slowly evaporating out of the potting compound and created an insulating layer on the keypad electrical contacts. The cure was to reduce the amount of oil added to the potting compound and slow down the production line.

The engineer who solved the problem got a bonus and a raise. Everyone involved patted themselves on the back for a job well done.

Cost to Western-Electric was millions of dollars for replacing the keypad assembly on millions of phones in use (back when The Phone Company owned your equipment.) That cost was passed on to the consumer of their products (anyone who used a phone in the USA.)


I suspect much the same sort of thing happened here. Apparently the original design was good - strips from '05 and '06 rarely fail (you can see the numbers on a survey I ran on the BMW-MOA forums under the Hexhead forum). Then I bet some other engineer found a way to "streamline" the production, lowering the cost for the vendor for BMW. Problem was - the streamlining caused the device to be unreliable, and probably the original tests done for acceptance of the strips wasn't redone, since BMW didn't know about the change in production. Once BMW finally got some pressure put on them (the NHTSA campaign to report failures..) they investigated and found what changed.

Also remember that BMW doesn't manufacture the fuel strips - it's outsourced. I'd bet the initial investigation on failures was done by the vendor, who in CYA style found nothing wrong. BMW usually forces their vendors to eat the cost of a defective part AND the labor involved in installing it. In the case of the fuel strips I imagine this cost was starting to add up, and the vendor finally had to solve the reliability/production problem.

It's all supposition on my part, and I could be all wet, but I do know how these sort of things happen. Sometime read the reports on the Challenger space shuttle failure. Same sort of engineering blunder.

I'd say that assessment is probably the best I have heard. I have an '08 and the original fuel strip lasted over three years and 25k miles of all but one tank of ethanol blended fuel. From what I have read, that's pretty good for the faulty fuel strips.

I paid for a new fuel strip because mine failed out of warranty. I just had that replaced one under the new extended warranty (at no charge) and reviewed the service bulletin with the dealer. It says that if a customer paid to have the fuel strip replaced out of warranty, then the dealership should reimburse the customer, then submit the reimbursement to BMW. Hope that helps those of you who, like me, weren't fortunate enough to have our strips fail in the first 2 years.