Temperature

[lewellen]

Hi, folks,

It's getting warm(er) and I'm starting to pay closer attention to the temp. gauge on my '08 R1200R.

For most situations to date - highway running, or brief around-towns - the temperature gauge stays at "four bars" pretty consistently. Yesterday, though, coming home from the grocery store, I got up to 5.

The traffic wasn't heavy, wasn't light, nor was it an especially long ride. Air temp. was around 70 deg.

At the 600-mile service the dealer put in 20W50.

Any cause for concern here? Besides grocery shopping, I like meandering along tight, twisty back roads, but don't want to fry my engine doing so....

I've ridden for a while now, but this is my first air-cooled Boxer ever, and as I got it in November '07, have no basis for comparison in warmer weather.

Thanks, and good roads,

- Lewellen180

[deilenberger]

Lewellen,

I've had mine for a year and 13,000 miles. The "normal range" for the temperature is between the two hash marks on the left side of the gauge. Below the bottom one is cold, above the top one is hot. My R1200R has always remained between the two, and generally one or two bars above the bottom mark.

I recently had 6,000 mile old BMW synthetic oil analyzed by Blackstone Labs - and it came back just fine. No problems and actually could have been used longer.

I wouldn't worry about it..

[BigAdv]

If it gets to the top, shut it down, otherwise enjoy riding on the twisty back roads. Thats what its made for.

Earl

[Bob1100RTC]

I had my RT 1 bar from the top in heavy rush hour traffic. I had to pull over and shut it down for a while. I put 3 computer fans behind the oil cooler and haven't had a problem since. One thing, use the fans with ball bearing motors they last a lot longer.

[Greenwald]

Had a fan and switch similar to what the law enforcement BMW's (R1200RT-P) use to stay cool installed by my dealer, as well as switched to synthetic oil (better temperature tolerance) at 12,000 miles.

Like you, I have seen my temp bars move too high when bumper-to-bumper, and no opportunity to safely pull over.

No worries now.

Good Luck!

[chfite]

Then, there were the days when there was no temperature guage. You pulled over when you smelled burning legs. :)

[Greenwald]

Ouch!!