I thought BMW regarded their OEM parts as precious at $15 for a final drive drain plug... $35... REALLY? unless that magnet is strong enough to pull my ex wife to Canada from Florida...

I do like the idea of having a hex head on it instead of a torx plus, though...

bob

 

I seems I'm able to answer my own question re the final drive. DIMPLE quote a pack for the LC which includes the 12x1 rear drive plug.

 

I recently stumbled upon "Dimple" brand drain plugs that claim their magnets are 1450 times the strength of stock drain plugs, and are more active in drawing out metallic particles from the oil.

With my 20,000 km service approaching, I'm interested in people's thoughts. I see only the engine/transmission oil plug listed on the internet for the LC models - no rear drive plug.

Is the drain plug the same 12x1 mm as AC models, notwithstanding the different drive (male hex rather than female Torx T45)?

 

Gear Oil

What's the story on all this various and sundry gear oil?

I see that Castrol SAF-XO is no longer available and there's apparently a substitute that's named "long life"... not available here in the US apparently. I got Syntrax Limited Slip 75W-90 and intend to use it in the gearbox and final drive. I'm assuming any oil of the specified viscosity and API-GL-5 spec will do the job? Bottle says for Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, Scooters and ATV's

 

On the LC models, the drain plug is a Torx 47 and the fill plug is a Torx 40.

What's the story on all this various and sundry gear oil?

I see that Castrol SAF-XO is no longer available and there's apparently a substitute that's named "long life"... not available here in the US apparently. I got Syntrax Limited Slip 75W-90 and intend to use it in the gearbox and final drive. I'm assuming any oil of the specified viscosity and API-GL-5 spec will do the job? Bottle says for Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, Scooters and ATV's

I bought a liter of Final Drive Gear Oil at the dealership, and it is BMW labeled "C-SAF-XO" 75W-90 API GL-5. I don't know if limited slip is OK or not. I do know that Castrol had a different product for that: SAF-XJ I think.


I'm going to go with the BMW product, at least while I'm under warranty--after all one bottle will do 5 oil changes. I just changed out the final drive oil because I had the final drive replaced after my accident and I assumed it would have the same oil change requirement at 600 miles as a new bike. Interestingly though, I drained just barely 180ml out of the unit.

 

200ml ?

That is an astute observation. My 2102 came with about 200ml in it from the factory. I carefully measured when I drained it out.
Not all owners have found this to be true, but some have.
Honest answer is I DON'T KNOW.


The RPMs are limited for the first few miles. It would be hard to get it extremely HOT and have any temp. or expansion problems. Also BMW would not want to get caught with a new bike damaged by not having enough rear diff. oil. Err on the high side kind of judgement.


After the 600 mile check and first service the dealer added about 185ml by my calculations. I am going by the amount left in the 1 liter container, and by the amount I later drained out.

 

180ml Final Drive Fluid

I recall the quantity for my 2012 is 180ml.
You can be a few ml. over and still be OK (like engine oil level)
Quantity reduced from 200ml to allow additional space for gear oil expansion.
If too full, temperature and pressure can build up, possibly resulting in premature seal leakage.
Larger rear pinion bearing was introduced.

 

I recall the quantity for my 2012 is 180ml.
You can be a few ml. over and still be OK (like engine oil level)
Quantity reduced from 200ml to allow additional space for gear oil expansion.
If too full, temperature and pressure can build up, possibly resulting in premature seal leakage.
Larger rear pinion bearing was introduced.

Thanks for the explanation as to why. Any ideas as to why the initial fill is 200ml? Thinner oil for gear run in?

 

I may be considered a bit of a madman,lol, but I have my final drive oil changed at every service, it takes minutes
and costs about twelve quid, money well spent in my opinion.
Cheers
Tony

 

madman



LOL -- indeed! :grin2:

 

oil amount has been changed to 180 ml by BMW

 

Can I assume you mean that this change is from the air-cooled to liquid cooled models or to the latter also as a service update.

My 2015 LC spec is 180 ml.

 

Makes you wonder what that black stuff is. Diff oil drained from my old /6 was always pretty clear. R12 gearbox oil always drains clear with no settlement after standing. Different oil, but ... Anyone know why the black?

 

I attended a maintenance seminar at the annual rally and the presenter said most likely there will be cruddy black sluge from the final drive bearings assembly lube and it should go away with subsequent lubricant changes.

 

Having let rest the oil, we can see a sediment rather important (nevertheless the oil had been changed during the first revision at 1500 km and there, it had only 8800km (10300 km - 1500 km)

 

Hey proudpa9697, you could try a plastic syringe from a chemist or pharmacy for the purpose of refilling final drive. Shouldn't cost more than a few bucks
Shishka

 

Great instructions with pics MM. I did this service myself last fall on my '07. My only hiccup was cross threading the drain plug when re-installing. I was careless when I hand threaded the plug in. After partially torquing it up, I noticed that the drain bolt wasn't flush. I backed it out & to my horror there were aluminum slivers in the hole. Ugggh. I got out what I could see (magnet was no help for the aluminum slivers). I have gone about 1k miles since & have not had any issues. I need to get one of those graduated fluid injectors.

 

Even if my R1200R has only 8 months and 10330 km so I decided to change the final drive oil:

both drain and filler plug aren't easy to unscrew until the end (by hand, without lever arm)


oil drain:

unscrew filler plug (with allen / BTR / HC 6 mm):

new oil, sealing washers on plugs, and syringe:

oil colour (from 1500 km to 10300 km) very dark:

for information I changed the gear box oil at 6500 km and the colour was the same :icon_scratch:

 

Doc, the thought had passed my mind. And, of course, my reference to the filler plug being a torx 45 in the second last sentence of my previous post was quite erroneous - it was the drain plug that I was in fact referring to. I need to take a nap.

 

I might be stating the obvious but if you have mangled it that much, I'd suggest having a new one on hand to replace it before you take the old one out.

 

Final drive oil plugs

(BTR 6 = Allen size 6)

[/QUOTE]

Thank you Pierre for going to the trouble of uploading those pics. I believe you have solved my problem. The problem was me. I thought the filler plug was torx (my only defense is that my terrible eyesight told me so) and by using a torx bit have partly stuffed the hex recess (female anatomy) of the plug.

Post this reckless act, I did try to fit a 6mm hex into the now distorted recess, and it wouldn't go in. I shall have to tinker with the plug to find a way of extracting/unscrewing it. A job for the weekend. The joys and personal satisfaction of DIYs.

And despite the filler plug's unusual look, it must be a torx 45 a your photo shows.

Thanks again.

 

Be thankful there is a drain, when the R1200GS first came out it was filled with "lifetime" oil and had no drain plug. When finals drives started cathching on fire BMW decided to go back to using non "lifetime" oil and changing the oil.

 

(BTR 6 = Allen size 6)

 

Thanks Doc, Anthony and Pierre.
What's a BTR6?
Yes, the torx 45 fits into the drain plug OK, but the torx insert of the drain plug looks nothing like the torx bolts on the rest of the bike. And because it seems like I have partly stripped the female torx (assuming it is a torx) insert of the filler plug using a torx 40 (the torx 45 definitely wouldn't fit) I thought best to leave all alone, put the bike back together and ask the forum and do some web searching.
The motor drain plug is hex, as are the filler and drain plugs of the gearbox. Why make the oil filler and drain plugs of the final drive different? Can anyone confirm that the filler plug on their 2013 R is definitely not a hex?
I'll revisit next weekend, and perhaps purchase beforehand a 1/2inch drive torx 40 that I can put a bit more force behind.
Thanks guys for your feedback.

 

I did this work and I had no issue with the tools:

drain plug : torx 45
filler plug: BTR 6

 

BTR 6

torx 45

 

I'm travelling at the moment so can't check but all I have is standard torx tools. I have found that a smaller torx tool will fit the larger bolt but not well. Try the next larger size torx bit and jiggle it a bit to see if it fits.

 

Could they be torx plus?

 

Anyone know the tool for the final drive oil filler and drain plugs of a 2013R Classic? I pulled the muffler and wheel off only to see that the plugs aren't hex/Allen or torx. They are six-pointed like a torx, but they aren't torx and don't look like any of the other torx screws on the bike, or hex plugs. I've not seen anything like them before. I thought, this can't be so, so stuck a torx socket in the filler plug and it felt kind of like it fitted although not perfect, but when I tried to undo it, it started to strip the points. And it's not like I'm using the wrong size torx bit/socket. Any clues anybody?

 

"German Engineering..."

Nicely done Erin.

My '09 R has a bottom drain, while the '06 GS had a side drain. I think the change happened in '07, perhaps as a mid-year running change.

Interesting "German engineering", putting the drain on the side! I read they did that to facilitate lubing the splines 'while you're in there', but they may have changed back to a traditional bottom drain (imagine!) due to community feedback. That was the same time they changed back from servo to regular brakes.

Could be worse, my 135i rear end / differential has NO drain - "Lifetime Fluid". Have to suck the old fluid out the fill hole with a vacuum pump, joy.

 

Well illustrated Erin.

The rear drive change on the later DOHC (Camhead) models is much simpler as the drain bolt is at the bottom of the drive.

The procedure is
1. Remove silencer
2. Remove rear wheel
3. Remove filler plug
4. Remove drain plug and drain oil.
5. Replace o-rings if necessary, replace drain plug (20NM)
6. Fill with 180ml transmission oil
7. Replace filler plug (25NM)
8. Fit rear wheel (60NM)
9. Fit silencer (heat temp grease on inner face of clamp, 19NM to frame and 28NM on clamp)

Dead simple - takes about 30 minutes tops.

I have done this twice in the last fortnight. I used Castrol Syntrax Universal the first time but then decided to change to Castrol Syntrax Long Life, which is the SAF-XO replacement.