It's happened to me

[Gator]

The curse of the final drives has now reared it's ugly head and attacked my RT. I took my bike to Hebert's in Baton Rouge this morning for scheduled service. I have 48,500 miles on the 06. It's not quite three years old but well over the warranty in mileage. After Cory took it in to the service area he came out and asked me to come in to the shop. He told me to check the play in the rear wheel. There was noticeable movement and slight noise when I checked it. It appears as though the bearings in the final drive are going out. The good news is there is no oil seepage or leaking and no metal flakes in the oil. Hopefully we caught it in time before any real damage was done. I had just checked it before going to the Dogwood Rally and there was no play in the rear wheel then so this is something that just started. He has ordered the parts and they will check with BMW NA to see if they will try to help me out on this. All of the service has been done on the final drive since it was new. The oil was changed at the 600 mile service and every 12,000 mile after. I wonder how long it would have lasted if I had gone with the owner's manual and not changed the "lifetime" oil in the final drive. Hopefully we can get BMW to cover the parts for the repair but I won't be holding my breath. It has got to be fixed no matter what so I guess I'll just have to grin and bear it. At least it didn't happen on the way to the "Chickin" Rally next month. Well so much for the dependable, high quality, high mileage touring machine. I had ridden the bike to Hebert's for 8 AM and Wnada was at work and doesn't get off untill 4PM. They had one of the employees drive me some 50 miles back to my house, pretty good service.

Gator

[R90srider]

Welcome to the club. I wasn't so lucky with mine. It grounded me about 100 miles away from home, but Terry and Joan Ware came to the rescue with their trailer. I was also fortunate to find a low mileage rear end for $250.00 shipped. That was 8,000 miles ago and so far so good.

Looking forward to seeing you and Ms Gator at Sloppy Floyd.

[RonR1200ST]

Hi Gator, Sorry to hear about the rear drive. It IS a blessing that you found it before you were out on a long ride. I'll be real interested to hear what BMW does for you. I know how you ride and how well you take care of your equipment...there's no excuse for such a failure. The rear drive certainly hasn't been abused.

[Gator]

Thanks Bob and Ron. You are absolutely right, it could have happened on a trip in the middle of outback nowhere with no cell service. Sadly though, once it is repaired I will still not have the confidence I had before this happened. I'll always have that spectre hovering over me any time we're on a trip. I could be more at ease with it if this had happened when I had 80 or 90 thousand miles on the bike and had never had the oil changed in the final drive, but to have it go out with relatively low mileage for a machine of this caliber after having all of the required service done to it is not very confidence inspireing. I was told that after the repairs I would have a two year unlimited mileage warranty for the repairs, but that would cover the parts only. I am not very confident that BMW will cover any portion of the repairs but I guess it does't hurt to wish.
Ron, I hope everything is mending well after the surgery and things go well for you from here on.

Gator

[Gator]

More bad news. Hebert's just called.They opened up the final drive unit and found that the bearings seem OK but the crown gear and pinion are bad. They said they had not seen this happen before(ain't I lucky). Short version-a complete new final drive unit would be around $1828 plus labor(labor to replace unit would not be that much). Parts to rebuild final drive unit, new crown gear set, bearings and seals would be around $1000 parts plus labor to rebuild(which would be considerably more). Plus I have to hope that they have enough experience and knowledge to do the rebuild job correctly. They have e-mailed BMW to see what type of good will help they would be willing to provide. They haven't heard back from them yet. The bike is on a lift with the final drive off and torn down so it ain't going anywhere. We're going there Saturday to hang out as we do sometimes on Saturdays. I had already cooked a deer meat gravy to take over there for everyone who comes on Saturday. I told them that we'd talk about it then and I would make a decision on what I wanted to do. I'm kind of undecided on which would be the best route to take. A complete new unit assembled at the factory would cause me to worry less after the replacement but is more expensive. The rebuild would be somewhat less but still expensive and would cause me to ride with a much larger dark cloud following me wherever I go. Any suggestions, other than buying a new 09 bike?

Gator

[R90srider]

Bummer Gator!

Sorry to hear the bad news. You might go on IBMWR.org - market - oil heads - parts and see if there is is a rear end that will fit your bike for sale. Some times, folks trike their Rat's or part them out. Also, try Fred Rowland at Cycles Recycled <Cyclesrecycled@charter.net>, or Beamer Bone Yard (don't have their website). So far, my previously owned final drive is doing well.

That deer meat gravy sounds good and is making me hungry.

[Bikebum]

Gator, when my rear drive failed it turned out that a new one was a few bucks cheaper than a rebuild. Ask them to price out the rebuild. That may help you make up your mind.

[jdubeemer]

I would go with the replacement. The final drive on my LT quit at 24K and fortunately was under warranty. They replaced the entire rear chunk and I have since just turned over 71K. Since they don't admit that they have a problem to start with, I think they make sure the replacement parts are better than the original. Just guessing of course. But the good thing is, it's still cheaper than a new bike.

[Gator]

Thanks for the input everybody. I think that for peace of mind I'll probably go with the entire new unit. Now ya'll can all ride over to Hebert's Saturday to eat deer gravy
Gator

[Vance]

Well Gator...I just got in from my trip to Johnson City this week. BUMMMEEEERRRR!!! But as Cornbread mentioned above, welcome to the club! At least it didn't eat the tranny on the way to killing the final drive...it is new bike time then...ask me how I know!

I second everyones comments above. tolose these drives with 50K or less is really ridiculous. However, I guess this is the curse. When I was trying to decide what to do about mine there was good and bad about new and about used. Used is usually cheaper but like you, I want the confidence that things are fixed correctly. The new unit is basically bolt on and comes with the waranty. Likely more peace of mind that way..but it will probably be a bit more on the front end.
But I guess this is an expensive hobby...kind of like all the other ones I know of too....
Good luck with it...just know there are a bunch of us that have felt your pain...and sadly I am sure more will follow....

[SteveHebert]

I hat to hear it Gator. I had the input sline disaster on my 02 RT. Terry Ware really helped me out and got BMW NA to cover 50%. Keep trying with Hebert's (no kin to me unfortunately). It sounds like you are a loyal customer and they should do you right.

I would go for the new one as well. Piece of mind.

Look on the bright side, I just had to put a new engine in my daughter's car. $4500!! an 02 Ford Focus with 91K miles. Talk about decisions. She is graduating college this year. My options were to get her a new car (who pays for it though?), or get her another used car (someone elses problem). The service manager at Long Lewis in Birmingham was excellent to work with and gave me a few options. He suggested spending the least amount and having a piece of mind for the next 3 years/100K miles. So we opted for the engine. Basically if nothing else happens to the car in the next 3 years, we should be able to get 50% of the eingine cost back as a trade in.....

[Gator]

Vance, welcome back from J.C. Hope you had a good and productive week and the rally preps are coming along well. It's usually fun belonging to a club but I could have gotten along just fine not joining the FDFC(Final Drive Failure Club). There seems to be way too many of us in it. I wouldn't mind it so much but the dues for joining are a bit much. You are right that hobbies are expensive and this one is no different. I guess you gots to pay to play. Kinda wish I still had that old bicycle with the Briggs & Stratton engine and belt drive that I built when I was in High School but sadly the engine on it blew up. The maintainance costs on it were low on it untill that happened though I think we should close the membership on this club thing for a while. All in favor say Ayy.
Gator

[Gator]

I got my bike back today all repaired. One week from the time in to the time out. Got a brand new complete final drive unit with two year unlimited mileage warranty from BMW. And the best part is that BMW covered the entire cost under warranty, parts and labor even though it was out of waranty(48,500 miles). The reason I was told was that my service records showed that all of the maintainance on the final drive and the bike had been performed according to the maintainance schedule at the proper mileage intervals. Wow! I know other people have had issues with their final drives that were not resolved to their satisfaction but I am definitely not complaining about the resolution of my problem. And I can't say enough about the staff at Hebert's Cycles. First Cory detected the problem while performing a scheduled service even before I knew I had a problem. Then James and Cory stayed on top of it with BMW with e-mails, facs-ing service records and with phone calls to reach a resolution to the issue. Kris in parts did a great job getting the new final drive unit in so quickly. It came in this morning and the work was completed before lunch. I can't thank them
enough.
Just for ya'll information the problem with the final drive was not the bearings or the gears being worn. The surface on the axle tube that the race for the inner ball bearing rides on had somehow worn and the diameter was less than it should have been causing the bearing race to be loose on the axle tube which caused the play in the rear wheel. Since the race does not turn on the axle tube but with it, then the problem should not have been caused by any lubricaton problem. The bearing surface on the axle shaft should be shiny but was instead dull and rough looking. For this to occur because of lubrication and bearing failure the bearing would have had to seize and the race spin on the axle tube. The ball bearing is fine and turns smoothly with no looseness. There is no discoloring on the axle tube or race indicating heat. It seems to me that there was a metalurgy problem caused by improper heat treating or with a too thin wall thickness of the axle tube. Just my own opinion but who knows for sure. But I'm back in the saddle and happy with the outcome.

Gator

[Bikebum]

Gator, glad to hear all the good news about BMW covering the repairs to your bike. I know you have heard a lot of horror stories about this but you came out okay, plus another two year warranty on the rear end. It don't get no better than that!

Does this mean that we will see you at Sloppy Floyd this weekend?

[R100R Rider]

That's great that you have your bike back and not out any dollars. Look forward to seeing you Sunday. I will give you a call Saturday night.