R1250RT brake fault

[PeteM]

Took my three week old 1250 in for it's first service last week. Front brake caliper is leaking, dealer not happy with me riding it. BMW have no stock of replacement calipers* and don't know when they will have stock. Dealer is doing everything it can to sort out the issue, I've got a courtesy bike from them on long term loan until mine is back but it is F750GS which is no good to carry a pillion with mobility problems, as my wife has.


Complained direct to BMW during the week, apparently there are a number of people with the same issue but they have no idea when it will be resolved, one of the senior customer service managers is dealing with it but he will not speak to me. They are going to try and get a more suitable load bike to the dealer for me next week but no guarantee and I have in the meant time not had a bike for a sunny long weekend.



You would have thought after the muck up when they introduced the 1200 LC that they would make sure everything was perfect this time round.


I am not a happy bunny. >:(


* I actually don't believe this, they will not have stopped the production line, they are just choosing to feed their stock to the line rather than disgruntled customers.

[Casbar]

There have been a number of GS with the same issue. I was told that it was an issue with the calliper assembly and BMW have now sorted the problem on new build bikes, but not sure how true that is. Was yours a stock bike or was it built in the last couple of months? I knew about this and have been keeping an eye on my front callipers. Although its not as bad as the suspension mess up when the LC was launched.

[PeteM]

It was built in early March I believe

[Casbar]

Ok, when they started to have some issues with the GS early March and there was a bloke on the RT facebook group that had a leak as well they apparently changed some process in the calliper build. My bike was due to be built the 27th of March, but they delayed the build for a week. Not sure if the delay was due to the callipers issue though. But somebody on another forum said that Hayes shipped new callipers to the factory for the production line so that is probably why there is no dealer stock at the moment. But its not all bikes that have had issues, so its not a recall as yet. But as I said, I'm keeping a close eye on mine. Others have also said it only seems to be the right front that has a leak, but I'm not sure if that is correct. Hope you get sorted soon.

[Douglas]

Hi, I am new to this forum and just got my RT 1250 3 wks ago. Took it for a long ride a couple of days ago and when I got back I noticed that the front right rim was full of black splatterings. The left side of the front rim also had black specks but not as many. I inspected the splatterings with my finger and it looked like damp brake dust. I then passed my finger beneath the caliper voids and my finger came back completely black. The dirt did not appear to smell of anything. I suspect that the splatterings are created by some sort of brake fluid leak, although I have not seen any physical leak.
Has anyone out there had this problem with their RT1250 and is it brake fluid leakage?? I'd hate it to be a leak but the bike is due for it's first service in 400km so if it is brake fluid leakage I can have the dealers to have a look.


Douglas

[Hors Piste]

My rear rim gets splattered with black gunge more than the front.  I'd assumed it was stuff coming off the brakes, as with the alloys on my car, as I can't see any sign of a leak (and rear is Brembo so presumably couldn't be same assembly problem?).

[Douglas]

Haven't used my bike for 3 weeks as I've had some lower back issues. This morning I saw a few droplets of brake fluid on the front right rim of my bike. I also stuffed some cleaning paper into the calliper and there were brake fluid patches when it came out. Definitely brake fluid leak. Anybody else out there with this issue??

[David.]

Definitely brake fluid leak. Anybody else out there with this issue?

1250 Calliper issues, viewtopic.php?t=5

[Douglas]

Thanks David, I have seen that thread and it seems that I am not the only one. Interestingly I mentioned the problem to my dealer some time ago and he told me that it was the first time he'd heard of it. I wonder what he'll say now. Don't know if it's safe to ride the bike or not.

[Casbar]

Thanks David, I have seen that thread and it seems that I am not the only one. Interestingly I mentioned the problem to my dealer some time ago and he told me that it was the first time he'd heard of it. I wonder what he'll say now. Don't know if it's safe to ride the bike or not.

Think your dealer is telling porkies. Most seem to have got the issue before the bike left the show room or it is found at 600 mile service. I have done 3k now and fingers crossed still have a dry calliper. My mates calliper was changed at the 600 mile service.

[David.]

Interestingly I mentioned the problem to my dealer some time ago and he told me that it was the first time he'd heard of it.

I wonder how many R1250RT's your dealer has sold on the Rock.

[Douglas]

I've only done 585km on mine so I still have to do the 1000km 1st service but I emailed the stealer this morning and am waiting for a reply. No BMW Motorrad dealers on the Rock, I had to import it from Spain

[MEM62]

You would have thought after the muck up when they introduced the 1200 LC that they would make sure everything was perfect this time round.

Errrr...... No.  BMW have form for releasing less than fully-developed and tested products and letting the punter be the test mule to find any remaining issues. 

[Bertie]

I was in a BMW showroom 2weeks ago and noticed a spot of fluid on the floor by the front wheel of a brand new 1250 RT, felt under the L/H calliper and it was wet with brake fluid. And that’s before it has even seen tarmac.
Doesn’t look like anything has been resolved yet.

[Casbar]

Errrr...... No.  BMW have form for releasing less than fully-developed and tested products and letting the punter be the test mule to find any remaining issues.

Not all bikes have the issue, apparently its an assembly issue, so maybe at the pdf stage. So easiest to just fix the ones that have an issue, if they did a recall for all bikes, people would winge that they had to take their bike for inspection for no reason. There is only a small number that are impacted, RT and GS/GSAs so I guess their approach makes sense.


Bad to have one sitting in a showroom with a leaking calliper, would have thought the dealership would have sorted that pronto.