BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

Ok, I'm starting to think more about the RT and it's servicing.
I have a fully kitted out workshop for just our motorcycles.
I have done all our own servicing myself using genuine parts bought from dealers for many years.

Now i was going to carry on using BMW to service the RT as it's only 4 years old with BMWFSH.
It will be 5 years old at its next service date.
But I'm now thinking what will i gain in paying them to service it over servicing it myself.
All i need to get is a oem workshop manual.

How many of you guys do your own servicing on your RT at home.
How old is your RT or how old was it when you stopped using the main dealer for servicing.

My RT is 11 years old and has a BMWFSH. I used to do some servicing myself and get the dealers to do some bespoke items to get a stamp in the book and hopefully maintain the T&C's of the warranty. Most recently, I had the following items done at the dealers for a labour only cost of £85.50. BMW Service, Engine oil change, with filter, Oil change in rear bevel gears, Gearbox oil change, Correcting engine synchronisation and replace spark plugs. I supplied the oils, filter and spark plugs, did the air filter myself. For the cost which included free collection and delivery, a total of 140 miles, it wasn't worth doing it myself and not meeting the T&C's of the warranty.

I just bought my 2008 RT but will do all repairs and maintenance myself, as I have on my 2016 BMW C650 Sport that I bought in 2018 with only 1,960 miles on the clock (now 11,000). Only factory recalls were done at BMW for obvious reasons. Besides substantial cost savings, my main reasons for doing the work myself are:
- inconvenience of having to travel X miles to and from the dealer and arranging (renting) alternative transportation
- poor quality of work by dealers. For example, at the last visit for brake recall, I asked the tech to check on the C650 timing chain tensioner, a known weak point on these bikes from pre-2017. He declared it 100% healthy, but the sound coming from the engine told me otherwise. Decided to replace it with new myself and sure enough the old one was defective. Could have destroyed the engine.
- I really enjoy doing the work. Been doing all work on my modern + classic cars myself for the past 10+ years and probably saved over $20K during those years.

I use the agent to complete the required services whilst under warranty, but any other consumables ( brakes etc) I would do my self also things that the dealer done not change often such as final drive oil. Once out of warranty I do just about everything myself. The only thing I have not don't is the valve shims if they need sorting I let a local engineer to do it as he is cheaper than buying the tool and shims.

If you are buying new/nearly new bikes and changing them every year or two then main dealer servicing is a must to retain value.
My bikes are 27, 15 and 14 years old and I generally keep them for at least 10 years. Self servicing is the only way to get to know and trust an older bike.

There is a sliding scale in the between these two extremes that will depend on spare time and availability/cost of specialist tools. I'm an old git with a garage and a fair bit of time.....!

As far as my old Buells are concerned a main dealer history is generally a negative. With a couple of exceptions most HD dealers didn't know or care how to look after Buells. A 10k service stamp from a main dealer was a guarantee that it had not been done properly. I've always had to either do it myself or take it on a trailer to Manchester to get the only guy I would trust to do the work.

As soon as my 2 years warranty was up is the day it stopped going to the dealers

It helps that I managed to get all the cam timing tools too and also have a gs-911 although motoscan is just as good and cheaper

Just asking.

If you have a BMW service plan, and the valves are found to need adjusting. Is that an extra charge on top to have done ?

If it is, where can the tools for doing the timing and valve adjustment be found.