Camhead final drive lube 2012 R1200GS

[marchyman]

The pinion bearing failures occurred early on and may have been the direct cause of a FD/bearing change. The original hexhead FDs used a 30x16 needle bearing, part number 33 11 7 683 038. In 2006 that changed to a 32 x 16 bearing, part number 33 11 7 698 132. Haven't heard of many (any?) failures of the pinion bearing since then.

[sloride]

"What you might consider doing is several flushes of the drive with clean oil until the drained oil runs clear. If it was me - I'd probably use some inexpensive GL5 gear lube to do the flush, saving the good stuff for the final fill (others may want to spend their money other ways.. see "Conclusion #4" above.)"

Don

Thanks for the suggestion

That was my first final drive change at 380 miles. I'm scheduled to have the dealer do the 600 mile service ,actually 700 on the odometer this Wednesday.

That will be 2 changes in a 700 mile period. I'm comfortable with that. I usually change the final drive when I change rear tire or sooner

I did an early change on the engine oil also at 165 miles. I like getting the original oils out early

[187132]

Just a heads up.. my local friendly BMW dealer now has in stock the actual original spec oil (which was a Castrol XO 75W-90) as "Final drive gear oil" C-SAF-XO) SAE 75W-90 GL5.

BMW PN: 07 51 2 293 972. Retail price was $23.49/liter. For those of us who are somewhat anal about using what BMW spec'd in the service manuals - this IS the stuff, formerly almost unobtainable in the US (there are rumors Land Rover dealers carry it.. but I haven't checked that.)

BTW - Anthony, document your service carefully. BMW has been known to squabble over warranty on bikes where the initial service wasn't done (or it couldn't be proved it was done.)

I sell the Land Rover and the BMW Motorcycle dealer the same gear lube. 16 gallon kegs of Mobil 1 LS 75w90 and 75w140. You can buy it in cases for less than $9.00 per quart. BMW and Land Rover both rip off the dealers which then pass it on to you. You can actually purchase the Castrol from a Castrol Automotive or Industrial job Ed a lot cheaper than the OEM programs.