New Third Party Fuel Strip design

[RonKubara]

My 2008 RT1200R has had three fuel strip failures within 20,000 km. First, the factory, then a factory warranty, then again a factory strip bought outside of warranty, which only lasted one riding season. I have zapped and zapped…but the gauge reading would never be accurate or last very long. Tired of using distance to decide on fuel, I came across a new third-party strip made in Germany: https://www.fuelsensortech.com/
Then found a supplier in Texas: https://www.motohank.com/ info@motohank.com
Hank was great; excellent communication and shipping. The cost, including shipping, was less than buying another bad unit from BMW parts. The strip is visually different as it has “hard” contacts vs carbon contacts used by BMW. Installation was straightforward; anyone with mechanical and soldering skills should be able to do it. Calibration was important as, without it, the fuel gauge reading was erratic. To calibrate, I bought a 9-pin to OBDII converter cable, the OBDLinkLX sender unit and the MotoScan App at Ultimate Level to receive the signal and provide the “coding”. There is a learning curve as “all this” is far from user-friendly, and instructions are, well, I was going to say non-existent, but they are available online, just hard to find.
After a successful calibration, it was nice to not only have a fuel gauge reading but also an accurate remaining distance reading. I can only hope this one lasts!
As a bonus, I was able to change several settings for my gauge display, change the service setting period, read codes, including why a brake failure light, which confirmed a failed ABS pump, oh yes and clear all my codes. I also changed some of my display readings, such as fuel use from Kms/L to L/100 kms, Celsius vs. Fahrenheit, etc.
Still too soon to confirm, at only 1 month, I give this new fuel strip a thumbs up.

[SimonD]

Interesting. Mine failed this weekend.
I'm not in a hurry to do anything but will be interested to hear any feedback. In the back of my mind I had planned to use the updated BMW part. Mine was replaced at 10k miles (many years ago) and the odo reads a little over 40k now.

[Hpitty22]

Hey I was just thinking about getting my strip replaced and happen to be in texas as well. How is it holding up?

[RonKubara]

After using it the rest of the summer it got more and more accurate. At one point it indicated that I can drive 480 km on a full tank. I question this so I took 1 gallon of fuel with me and I ran it until the fuel gauge showed a sliver of a line. Then instead of running it out of fuel I went to the gas station and filled it up and it took 26 l. The tank holds 25 l so either the gas station is not calibrated or the fuel tank can hold a sliver more than 26 l. The bottom line is it seems to be dead accurate. I get 5.5 l per 100 km and the gauge seems to be extremely accurate and still working.!

[JRR1200RT]

Hello from Houston. Just completed the 3rd fuel strip replacement in 8 years and 3000 miles. First two were BMW and this time I bought Sensor Tech product.

Cost breakdown this time around ...

Strip from Bobs in the UK for ~$240 delivered
Motoscan ultimate - $43
OBDlinkLX - $80
Cable - $12

Had Motorola phone laying around. OBD would not stay connected on phone at settings level. Tried and tried but it would connect then disconnect pretty quickly. Got it to work by connecting through OBDLink app and leaving it open. Then opening the Motoscan app and running through a pretty quick (sub 7 minutes) process. Doing the happy dance right now. Having motoscan capabilities now will open up a new opportunity for PMs. Brake fluid is long overdue for flushing/changing.

Any questions, let me know.

[Doctor T]

Had 2 of mine replaced. The last one fitted by BMW as a warranty job was an upgraded version. Still working 10 thou miles later.

[stablesowner]

Good to know. Wondering why you went through an intermediate in Texas rather than order directly. I am Canadian also and have zapped my 09 a few times. Just waiting for it to fail again.