Urgent 2012 owners please read!

[Beamish]

After my bike suffered problems with cushdrive/sprocket carrier it appears the rear spindle spacer fitted at build is incorrect!

I took my bike in after discovering excessive lateral play on the sprocket/carrier. My dealer (not at fault as the bike was built elsewhere) has discovered that the rear spindle spacer (sprocket side) fitted to my 2012 bike is substantially shorter than the one fitted to the demo 2012 bike. The mechanics checked the parts ident/diagram and it lists the shorter item which is incorrect on my bike. The discovery could well initiate another recall to check the 2012 bikes. The shorter spacer means after the spindle nut is torqued up correctly (100NM) it still allows lateral movement of the sprocket carrier and also the wheel/chain alignment is incorrect and the swingarm has extra stress loading that the designers did not intend. I am very pissed at the moment as I just did Cadwell and the rear end was everywhere, at the time I put it down to cold conditions but I now know it was only sheer luck that stopped the chain coming off or worse! This may be an isolated case if so thats brilliant, but if it has happened to me it could happen to others and I feel you should all be aware so you can check.

 

[Beamish]

If anyone is on the US forum, it might be worth a cut and paste on there.

 

[unionjack]

Hooooleeee shit that is serious

 

[Gordo]

Cheers for the heads up mate will get mine checked when
they do the side stand recall

Cheers

Gordo

 

[Shft_Ctrl]

Was the swingarm changed on the '12 bike?

 

[Beamish]

Was the swingarm changed on the '12 bike?

Not sure whether it was the swing arm, wheel or sprocket carrier but there is definately two types of spacer. Not sure whether colour is relevant but out of the two I have looked at, the smaller suze is a charcoal colour and the larger a Goldy colour. Basically if your sprocket carrier/chain have excessive movement with the spindle nut torqued correctly you may have a problem.

 

[Billy]

Does any body know how MM of thread should be showing past the spindle nut when its torqued up? Surley this would tell you if you have the correct spacer fitted.

Billy

 

[Ducky]

Is the spacer behind the sprocket carrier or in front of it?

 

[Beamish]

Is the spacer behind the sprocket carrier or in front of it?

It is the spacer between your sprocket carrier and the inside if the swing arm. The dealer has been excellent so far, just waiting for some new parts.

 

[paul1098]

Doesn't sound good. Checked mine & it certainly moves a lot in some directions but seems OK laterally. First bike i've had for ages with these strange sloppy cush drives, won't complain about Italian engineering in future.

 

[Beamish]

Picking up the bike this afternoon (I know great weather for it) New spacer/cush drive / sprocket carrier / sprocket / chain fitted. I hope BMW realise that this is not enough to restore my faith in the brand, if a goodwill gesture is not forthcoming I will take matters further. Although the parts have been replaced the bike is only now returned to as it should have been anyway with 1500 miles on the clock! It has cost me £50 in fuel shuttling between my home and the dealers and the bike was a death trap until I spotted the error ( and I mean a death trap the cahin had extended nearly two inches in 40 miles!. Put it this way, interflora fooked up on my order of flowers for my missus at valentines day, I emailed them and said the product was poor...........they just sent back a full refund no questions asked! That is customer service. I am not kicking off yet and I will see what happens. I have had three new bikes in three years from BM so lets see if they truly value their customers.

 

[he-be-gb]

Got a similar story, not quite as alarming, but rode my 900 mile 2012 s1000 for first time last Friday,with the little weather window we had , and having collected it on trailer in January, didn't do anything other than check levels, tyre pressures, side stand!! and basic suspension settings for average comfort use at first.

Well, bike was awful ,gave it ten minutes up long bypass to get fluids working, bike was like a fecking workbench, solid both ends,knocking my fillings out.....

Got to small village petrol forecourt and looked at things closer, took toolkit and manual out and went through it, trying to adjust preload in front forks- well only found both sides absolutely locked solid against the stop with maximum preload - no further adjustment available, hard against stops!,,,

Guess what at the rear, ? Correct, absolutely locked solid maximum preload again, against the stop. Wound both front and rear back to what seemed appropriate sag, without measuring , but turned out I got it pretty close by feel....
Well, now love the bike, road superbly, few fine tuning tweaks and tests to do, but at least it's not trying to kill me now...... Have informed the dealership, don't think the guy really understood what I was talking about- sadly..... Have tried to forewarn him that I have a fair bit of experience and made a presumption on what a PDI even on a used bike means, but that if he is sending people out on super bikes that are set up in a very dangerous manner, could have serious repercussions......

Didn't really get much of an apology just a wishy washy stumbling " oh , we'll, I wonder why that would be.."

- don't want to name dealership yet, am waiting for any further developments on a couple of fronts, however, so far, not so very good.........

Shall be checking rear spacers imminently......Cheers, GB.

 

[MOz]

Has anyone else with a 2012 discovered anything amiss with their rear sprocket spacer yet??

 

[Billy]

Mine is ok

 

[Beamish]

I really hope no one else is in the same boat.....rode home this aft through a fecking snowstorm back from the dealers, got home and washed off the salt and slime etc....... guess what........fecking sprocket moves! I am livid, BMW assist sent someone out and he agreed its not right and took it away. I can only guess that the 1500 miles riding with the incorrect spacer has fecked the wheel or the wheel is out of spec, to be honest i dont know but they bloody should!. Well the letter I have just sent BMW should get something moving I can tell you ;(

 

[Gordo]

Hi Beamish

Just checked mine and it has a couple of mm play back
and forth will see what my dealer says but not holding my
breath as I asked if I can use 10w40 but was told no as we will
not honour the warranty even though it says it in the owners manual

Cheers

Gordo

 

[unionjack]

Motul and Silkolene both do 5w40 now so they can suck on that

 

[Beamish]

Hi Beamish

Just checked mine and it has a couple of mm play back
and forth will see what my dealer says but not holding my
breath as I asked if I can use 10w40 but was told no as we will
not honour the warranty even though it says it in the owners manual

Cheers

Gordo

Thanks Gordo, it is apparently normal to have play but I have asked for a reason/explanation . I will wait and see.

 

[Gordo]

Let me know how you get on mate I'm in the same boat
as all the blades I have owned never had any play at all
I have just realised I posted in the wrong post but least you
seen it
Ps my spacers seem fine just small amount of play back and forward
and none sideways

Gordo

 

[MickyC]

Am I right in saying the play is when you face the sprocket and rock it? If so, mine has a fair few mm and the bike has only done 800 miles. Time to contact the dealer also and get them to check it out when they sort the side stand issue, although luckily mine hasn't loosened... yet. Needs to be sorted before Silverstone GP track day in May!