You pays you money you takes you chances.

[2Evil4U]

If you like riding over engineered bikes with a few glaring design flaws.:fireangry:

I got caught in a monster turd-floater on the way home last night. Probably the heaviest rain, for the most extended period of time I've ever ridden the BMW in over the last 21000 miles. (It has sat at work in some hellacious shit, but this was really the first time I've gotten totally drenched while riding.)

This morning, between the Highland and 73 exits, while passing a semi, the bike just died. Engine cut off, but I had all other electronics and no fault codes.

I managed to cut to the right shoulder without causing a wreck and started coasting.

After resetting the kill switch, it started back up and I rolled on. About a mile later it did the same thing.

I managed to limp it to work and figured, after reading ADV rider for the last few years, that the fuell pump controller had gotten wet. (It is set into a sump on top of the tank and has a bad O-ring design.)

Sure enough, when i got it disassembled, there was a significant amount of water under the controller and evidence that there has been quite a bit of water there on several occasions.

I took pictures, cleaned it up and put it back together. Still about the same problem, though. So I took it apart again and have the controller unit, (It's a little epoxy-sealed solid-state doohickey), sitting on the jug to see if I can drive off the internal moisture that is causing my problem.

I've got to call hebert's to see if they might randomly have one of these in stock to do a quick swap otherwise I probably need to have them come pick it up.

Oh well, at least it didn't rain on the trip and a spare controller is only $139.:bow2:

[Swampy]

You would think that one of the wingnuts on ADV would have designed something with a blue tarp and some duct tape to keep the water out of the sump.. What about Dielectric grease once its back together to keep the contacts water proof (or resistent) My GPS is water proof but the contacts get wet on occasion and it powers on and off randomly..

I put some grease on the contacts . problem solved for another few months..

[2Evil4U]

It's a multi-faceted problem.

Can't cover it as it is a resistive shunt and would overheat.

All the actual connectors were dry as bones.

I think the main issue is once water gets past the crappy o-ring under the controller, the mini-atmosphere in the cavity reaches equilibrium and vapor can track into the potted unit via the plug wire/epoxy interface.

Heating it on the head for an hour, seems to have helped drive out some of the issue. It's running again, anyway.

The new one, or this one if it keeps running, is definitely getting siliconed or greased into place.

[scootertrash]

Post up the pics, I am thinking that the bunk cheap o version GS I had that is not as superior as your Adventure NASA designed model had the same little do dad controller. I rode my turd through some hellacious rain a couple times and never had a problem. but always had a worry in the back of my head. Hope you get it lined out out Aaron.

[2Evil4U]

No soap. I took it out for a test ride and it ran for about 2 miles before dying again. I managed to limp it back to within 300 yards of my office and pushed it the rest of the way. Then i fabbed up a pair of jumpers to bypass the controller.Looks like I'm back in business. Going to hit Hebert's on my way home so they can look at it and warranty a new one for me.

[2Evil4U]

Stopped by Hebert's. He looked at it and ordered me a new one. Didn't even make me unwire my jumpers to prove it. Should be in next week. I'm still riding though.

They're also going to order an extra just in case someone else has the same problem.

I also found out that the R12RT has nearly the same thing on it. The part # for my GSA is 16147720776. The R12RT part was 16147720777. They looked identical but there is no way of knowing why the part was superceded so they ordered the correct one for me.

Nearly every one of BMW's current injected bikes has one of these. The new F650's and F800s as well as all R12 and K series bikes. If yours is set up like mine and can collect water, I'd recommend taking it apart, cleaning it out really well and using dielectric grease or silicone to put it back together. Otherwise, make sure you're carrying a set of torx drivers, a little 16ga wire, strippers, tape, and zip ties for when if finally craps out.

Here are some crappy pictures of my handywork.

Top of the tank. (No water would EVER pool there right?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/2evil4u/IMAG0222.jpg

Water condensed on the bottom of the controller.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/2evil4u/IMAG0223.jpg

Water pooled under the controller.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/2evil4u/IMAG0224.jpg

Corroded screw from sitting in water.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/2evil4u/IMAG0225.jpg

Bypass wiring.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v121/2evil4u/IMAG0226.jpg

[king4456]

macgyver!

[allanj255]

My friends F800S cut out in the rain about 3 weeks ago, I will mention this to him. :respect:

[2Evil4U]

macgyver!

Like I told the guys at work while I was cobbling it back together, "A vehicle has to work pretty hard to strand me."

The Uly managed it once when the throttle blade shaft broke in half.

[2Evil4U]

My friends F800S cut out in the rain about 3 weeks ago, I will mention this to him. :respect:

Should be easy to check if you can get to the fuel pump.

This thing is the ansWer to a question that should never've been asked. It's not part of the canbus system, isn't monitored by the canbus (it won't throw a code), and is obviously not required for normal operation.

All it does is allow the pump to run at 80% speed at times so as to recirc less fuel in the system.

Feh. The 1150 & earlier models didn't have it, they should've left it alone.

That being said, I'm going to go hook up my gs911 & see if it sees anything amiss.

Update: it had set a couple fuel related codes in the ecu. I cleared them and the "output stage to fuel pump" code came right back on restart. So either the lack of the controller in the circuit or my wiring is causing that. Oh well, it's running fine.

[Navaho6]

My friends F800S cut out in the rain about 3 weeks ago, I will mention this to him. :respect:


Hmm, might be the same issue as the F800GS sucking rain in through the air intake?

[mattc]

Oh yea? Well my CB started pissing oil out of the shift shaft seal... $3 to fix!

Like you, I'm glad that both of our issues popped up AFTER our trip!

[2Evil4U]

And the rest of my luck ran out as well. I had to put plugs in both the front and rear tires at work this morning. Not sure where I picked up the nails but they were brand new.

[Klantz]

Man, I sure am glad you guys didn't have any of those issues on the trip. Glad you are getting them fixed.

[mattc]

I also lost a rear tube on the DRZ Friday night on my way home from a wedding. That was fun!

True, Kenny. Glad we saved this up until we were closer to home. How was CO?

[2Evil4U]

So I've been riding since 7/16 with the pump controller bypassed awaiting the new part to arrive at the dealer. I had stated prior that I didn't believe that the controller is required. Now, after about 700 miles without it, I'm changing my opinion.

After I bypassed the controller, I had no problems with the bike running. The fuel pump itself is obviously in good condition. According to the research I did, the controller allows the pump to vary its speed depending upon engine fuel requirements. I figured that the bypass system would take that requirement out of the logic and there should be no difference with the unit operating or without.

I noticed immediately that the bike felt a little different at transition throttle, Especially when closing the throttle. It was like a light switch, rather than the smooth decel that i was used to. There were also a few signs of confusion on the bike's part when it came to accelerating through the gears fairly aggressively. (Not WOT, but let's say hard passing on the freeway.) It just seemed to hesitate a little before it decided to go.

Now I had just completed my 24k service (at 26,500 miles) and figured I could have botched up the carb-sync. I was going to dick around with that when i realized that the fuel controller was also at 100% rather than doing whatever it usually does, so I figured I'd wait until the controller came in prior to redoing the sync.

The controller arrived yesterday. The bike has returned to it's normal smooth running, no-surge, no-hesitation self with no other modifications.

Now what I'm wondering is, what if failing open, (like mine did when it shut the bike off), is not the normal failure mode for these doodads? What if failing closed so the pump runs at 100% all the time is more common? This might explaing some of the difficult to diagnose weird problems of the bike just feeling funny or surging depending upon who's describing it.

For what it's worth, the new unit is black anadized versus the uncoated aluminum of the OEM piece. It's nice to be back in business.

[Britton]

I'm glad you got it worked out!

[Klantz]

I also lost a rear tube on the DRZ Friday night on my way home from a wedding. That was fun!

True, Kenny. Glad we saved this up until we were closer to home. How was CO?

sorry Matt, totally missed this one. Co was Awesome... mountain biking down a mountain ROAD to estes park hitting up to 40 mph on the downhill... countersteering a bicycle is a little strange but just as fun.