BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

when I'm in city driving with lots of stop and go I can smell the clutch fluid heating and the temperature gauge rises also.
Is there an adjustment on the clutch or am I doing something wrong?


I am riding a 2013rt

Dry clutch, air/oil cooled engine, tend to run warmer in stop and go traffic, yes if you slip the clutch you can smell the friction material. Try letting clutch and engine speed match so less slippage. As for temperatures running high, look for the police fan system which offers more cooling at low speeds

R.T.s have always "suffered" from a relatively high 1st gear. (Police models have a lower gear). Under most circumstances it works fine but problems can occur when heavily loaded. I can recall pulling away from a standing start on a very steep hill in the Alps whilst carrying a passenger, full panniers and 49 litre top case. You could smell the clutch for ages. Quite concerning at the time but it seemed to recover fine.

I've had some experience of this issue with an air-cooled R1200RT. High ambient temperatures, heavy load, stop-go traffic including uphill sections. Smell of hot engine oil and burning ferodo material, plus engine sounding like a tin can full of spanners.
No lasting harm done (as far as I could tell), and the engine sounded better when using 10W50 or 15W50 synthetic oil. As for the clutch,  being gentle with it - using minimum revs / slippage helps, and if spending any time at a standstill, kill the engine and let everything begin to cool a little. You'll use the starter more, but I've done that a lot and never saw any issues - and now cars do this automatically !