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This is a MUST

58K views 132 replies 53 participants last post by  cgnjrpilot 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello everyone,
as you remember, exactly one month ago, forum member and cool dude Websterize shared with us a problem that our bikes have with rust on the fuel filler, all because for some reason Beemer decided to cut that corner.

http://www.r1200rforum.com/forum/bmw-r1200r-general-discussions-7/best-%243-you-can-spend-your-r12r-abdeckring-tank-cover-2481/

After following his thread, I decided I didn't want to spend $9.00 shipping on a $3.00 item so I ordered one with my dealership.

One week after that it arrived and because I have being extremely busy growing grey hair with help of my architect, contractor and DOB, it took me this long to install it.

At first, I thought it would take 3 minutes, pretty straight forward procedure, remove 4 screws, install gasket, replace 4 screws.

Good thing I followed Clem's curiosity and removed the red filler just to make sure everything was ok. Oh what a nasty surprise.

Please consider that I keep my bike indoors at all times, I rarely ride on the rain and NEVER wash it.

I really don't know why Beemer didn't just put that gasket, or at least some kind of rust proof coat, or at least just paint it, it's just the naked pure steel down there, it makes me think they just want to secretly make some money after few years when we need to replace the whole tank and the warranty has expired.

They know that the gasket is the same for few bikes and the R1200Rs before 2010 has it, so why did they just decided on cutting this corner?

I know the well known fuel strip problem is annoying but as long as you keep track of your mileage, you'll be fine, many bikes years ago didn't have fuel level readers at all, but non of them where predisposed to rust. I'm sad, mad and disappointed.

In this first picture there is no sign of any damage whatsoever, last time bike saw water was before winter.

Auto part Motorcycle accessories Disc brake Vehicle Helmet



This is how much it really cost for us, the costumers, how much did BMW saved by cutting this corner.

Receipt Text Document Material property Font


Here is the thing

Circle



The only tool you need (plus whatever you attached that to)

Product Skin Tobacco products Spark plug


Remove the 5 screws.

Auto part Technology Vehicle Automotive wheel system Car



Remove the top fuel filler cap.
At this point you can just place the gasket, replace the filler and screws and you are set.
If you wish to see the condition of your tank, then go ahead.

Bicycle part Wheel Rotor Rim Bicycle drivetrain part



Remove the remaining 3 screws.

Wheel Auto part Rim Automotive wheel system Disc brake


Remove the red filler

Pink Magenta


Surprise surprise :cursing::2guns::cursing: :crying:

Auto part Wheel Circle Metal



Remove this gasket

Cable Metal




Somehow it was wet.

 
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#2 ·
I didn't want to remove the whole tank to fix it, and didn't want to sand the rust because the dust would end up inside the tank, so after drying it, I used metal polish and old good elbow grease.



Once all the rust was gone, I taped the interior of the cap, which is painted just like the rest of the tank, and just how the bottom supposed to be.
And used some foil to protect the tank.





Made a cardboard cover for the gas hole.



Left a little extra space to be able to remove with a bread bag wire attached to it.



Painted with some exhaust paint I had left over from my FZ6, I used it for the headers and it lasted trough high temperatures and water, so I figured out it will work here.
Same can I used to paint my EzPass to blend with rest of the bike.





After letting dry for 10 minutes and apply another thin layer, remove the cardboard and let dry.



Nice



Clean and replace gasket



Clean and replace red filler with 3 screws



Put the new gasket in place




Replace the top cap with the 4 screws




Final



Hope this was helpful and you are calling your dealership to place an order of such gasket NOW.
 
#3 ·
Thank you, Hoshiko!! Like you, my R12 is garaged, seldom wet, and seldom washed with copious water. I assumed that in my case the gasket would not be necessary...now I'll buy one when I take my bike in for a fuel sensor strip:angry:. I agree, its just cutting corners to allow raw steel in this application...which, btw, is the reason I sold my 2800CS BMW auto in 1978 and never went back for another. The 2800CS had major rust through within 5 years, and never saw salt, winter roads, meticulously maintained and always garaged. I'm still mad. Its not just BMW though...pretty much universal to save pennies in the short run, but lose customers over the longer haul.

btw, did you check my HR1 pics out on the exhaust thread? What an improvement to delete the water heater. Thanks for all your good guidance.
 
#6 ·
F-word. I put in the gasket. . .I am NOT re-dissassembling part of the bike to sand and repaint them. Will ask the dealer at some far distant tuneup.
 
#8 ·
Hoshiko, in your last picture, it doesn't appear the gasket covers the seam from about 10 o'clock to 4'oclock. It should cover the seam all the way around. I posted a photo of mine in the link you kindly referenced above. I have an '09, but I doubt the dimensions of the fuel filler changed after the 2011 facelift.
 
#26 ·
Hey Mister Moo, sorry for taking so long to get back to you, I didn't know how to check that underpart, I passed my finger and didn't feel anything, I was thinking how to look inside, so finally I got a piece of broken mirror, glued to a chopstick, and there is no rust underneath. I forgot my phone/camera on the table so no pictures at this moment.
 
#12 ·
argh! where are my blood pressure pills! . . . sigh
 
#15 ·
Mr Moo - where the **** is Lizard Lick, and why is it so named? I'm intrigued!! We have some strange place-names here - try Wanko, Bing Bong - but yours is near the top of my list!

L of S
 
#17 ·
Mr Moo - where the **** is Lizard Lick, and why is it so named? I'm intrigued!! We have some strange place-names here - try Wanko, Bing Bong - but yours is near the top of my list!

L of S
I spent a few days in Wagga Wagga once; that was pretty amusing for the first hour. :001_cool: Lizard Lick is about the same thing, only less. Wide spot in the road near Raleigh, NC with a funny name - lots of those in North Carolina. Frog Level, Cricket, Cutthroat Ridge, Lizzie, Smackass Gap. LizLick now famous(?) for a bad television show created by the (real) operators of a local towing and recovery firm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=F3a-l8RR1OY&NR=1
 
#16 ·
Thanks Hoshiko! Fantastic pictures to make the ABDECKRING installation a breeze. Certainly thank you for the post, and most camhead owners should consider this modification before rust begins. A small 2"balloon can be softly inflated to fill the hole perfectly, and easily removed after painting.
Just two small points about the reassembly.
It will probably avoid possible leaks better if you slide the black filler tube gasket up onto the red plastic filler tube and carefully fit it into the small groove first, and then put the assembly into the fuel tank.
Don't get carried away and over-tighten these fasteners. Snug is all you need, like using only your finger tips on the driver. Not held firmly in a clenched fist.
 
#18 ·
This is must...

Thanks, MrMoo - with that info in mind I shall now be able to sleep soundly o'nights!

My Abdeckring arrived in the mail yesterday, $4.20 (I said to my wife it MUST be the cheapest bit that BMW markets!),fitting it soon... great help from all these posts....

L of S
 
#19 ·
Lizard Lick

Had a college roommate from that wide place in the road. He told a story of a split rail fence covered in lizards. They would run the fence catching insects. The owner of a local whiskey still always carried a cane, and would smack at the lizards as he walked past. He affectionately called his cane Ol' Lizard Licker. Folks seeking alcohol were advised to drive until they saw the lizards and pull over. Even after the still owner was jailed, the name Lizard Lick remained in use. Lots of strange names for places, and stranger stories to explain them. Truth is stranger than fiction.:)
 
#21 ·
Lots of strange names for places, and stranger stories to explain them. Truth is stranger than fiction.:)

On my biking travels around this wide brown land, I have a habit of mentally collecting the stranger names of some of the thousands of creeks that I cross, later weaving them into the tale of the trip when I write it up.

Two of my favourites are 'Turn Back Jimmy Creek' and 'Hopping Jack Creek'.

Gotta be story or two there, I reckon!

L of S
 
#20 ·
This is a must...

Well, with the arrival of the <$5 Abdeckring, and the computer fired-up and running on these posts, I again studied the words and pix and set to on the job.

But first – I am a strong believer in the inevitability of Murphy’s Law (also known as Sod’s Law), which tells us that if anything can go wrong, it will! So to prevent the screws from around the filler cap and/ or the M25 Tork-head falling into the tank while removing the screws – it’s a little ‘tight’ around there, and larger fingers may fumble a bit - I tightly stuffed a clean hankie into the fuel opening: no – the hanky didn’t disappear!

I also made sure to do the same when replacing the screws - fuel plus screws or Tork-head would not make a happy mixture inside the tank!

Anyway, when the screws were removed and the thing taken apart as shown by Hoshiko I was pleasantly surprised to find that the inner surface of the recess (or upper surface of the tank) was heavily coated in a light-grey material that resembled some kind of epoxy: it certainly wasn’t normal paint, nor was there any sign of corrosion or rust. It was very hard and glossy, and is obviously there to stop corrosion. BTW – my bike is a late-2012 build, sold as a 2013 model, so this minor upgrade obviously came along late in the piece.

So I simply put the new gasket in place and screwed everything back together again, hanky in place – a ten minute job!

Thanks to all, especially to Hoshiko for the step-by-step pix, for alerting us to this potential problem and showing the means of fixing it. I now fully expect the bike to be faster, quieter, and smoother!


Lawrence of Suburbia

outer Brisbane, SE Queensland, Australia
 
#28 ·
Anyway, when the screws were removed and the thing taken apart as shown by Hoshiko I was pleasantly surprised to find that the inner surface of the recess (or upper surface of the tank) was heavily coated in a light-grey material that resembled some kind of epoxy: it certainly wasn’t normal paint, nor was there any sign of corrosion or rust. It was very hard and glossy, and is obviously there to stop corrosion. BTW – my bike is a late-2012 build, sold as a 2013 model, so this minor upgrade obviously came along late in the piece.
[/I]
Can you believe they knew about it, and didn't just have us take our bikes to the dealer for such a quick, cheap installation???:cursing::cursing:

Had a college roommate from that wide place in the road. He told a story of a split rail fence covered in lizards. They would run the fence catching insects. The owner of a local whiskey still always carried a cane, and would smack at the lizards as he walked past. He affectionately called his cane Ol' Lizard Licker. Folks seeking alcohol were advised to drive until they saw the lizards and pull over. Even after the still owner was jailed, the name Lizard Lick remained in use. Lots of strange names for places, and stranger stories to explain them. Truth is stranger than fiction.:)
2 years ago I went to the Catskills with the wife, we passed this town.


I had dinner at a place that had this bottle on their wine list, anyone who speaks Spanish will have a laugh. And of course I had to order it.



And what about this town in the Hamptons area????

 
#22 ·
There seems to be two lots of threads on this ABDECKRING topic - here and under 'the best $3 you can spend...' under General Discussion.

L of S
 
#23 ·
Installed on a Classic if anyone is wondering what it looks like.
Vehicle Car Automotive design Technology Metal


I washed the bike a couple of days before I installed the rubber seal and there was still a lot of water under the gas cap. So this truly is a must!
 
#24 ·
ABDECKRING on a Classic

WOW! That really looks great on the Classic. The black ring around the gas cap matches the narrow black striping. It adds a nice accent. IMO
Nice photo Jokerdef.:goodjob: .........a MUST!
 
#30 ·
Just installed one on my '11. It was also in the white, crusty phase, although dry. I wiped some of the stuff off, but even being very careful I noticed a bit of dusty stuff started falling into the tank. Will the fuel filter take care of that? I didn't want to risk it so I left it as-is, installed the gasket and sealed it up.
 
#32 ·
G’day All,
I too read this excellent thread and checked my new to me 07 1200R and found this



Not happy!! My next decision was weather to drain and remove the tank or fabricate a plug so no nasty bits fall in the tank



This is what I came up with from the fine collection of stuff that might come in handy type things I have kicking around in the man cave.
The Plug o matic


It did the job well and I could move the top support bar around while cleaning to get to all the affected area.

I removed all the big stuff by hand and then got into it with a poor mans dremil.
Purchased a POR starter kit for $35AU and followed the instructions……..sort of I think I put too thick a first coat and it bubbled a little in the corners, so I just hit it with dremil again and recoated.

The POR stuff is good gear…....sets very hard, even in the chilly confines of a Canberra man cave in winter.

The clamp was easy to remove and an inspection with the torch(that’s a flashlight for Yanks) revealed no debris had made it’s way into the tank.


On the subject of the tank I did drop a screw into the tank while working out how to make my Plug o matic , to my relief the area below the filler hole is pretty flat so it was easy to get with a magnet.

Oh and I fitted the seal ring for an S1000rr.

Hope this is understandable
Cheers
Mark

Ps This is a piss poor design BMW:cursing:
 
#108 · (Edited)
Hi,

Thank you all for this thread and for the valuable information.
I would like to share my experience with this issue, so it can inspire others and possibly help them.

I have worked on a friend's R1200R 2012.

It all started when we saw the heads of the screws of the fuel tank filler neck all rusted, when he was filling his gas tank. I told him we need to change the screws, but that there may be underlying problems. We then found this thread. Sure enough, when disassembling the filler cap, there was rust everywhere and it was starting to flake so it really was time to do something !

First, I used a dremel tool to remove as much rust as possible.
Safety advice : hermetically plug the gas opening (see below) when you do so, because of possible sparks, either from the motor of the dremel tool or from the tool tip itself.

Then, I used "Rust Check" liquid bottle rust converter to try to convert as much rust as possible. I'm not totally excited by this product, it seemed to be pretty weak, but we managed to convert some of the rust which is better than nothing, after several coats and letting it dry.

I then used an automotive paint degreaser (based on acetone) to remove all chemical residues and prep the surface.

Then I applied a fair amount of Rust Check silver grey rust paint. It's supposed to be OK on top of slightly rusted metal. I put 3 coats, a first light one, then 2 heavier ones. I put quite a bit of paint because the surface wasn't totally flat due to the rust flaking a bit, and I needed to make sure everything was covered (didn't have POR15, looks thicker so it would have been better I guess).

And then it took AGES to dry. 24h after, it was still not dry !!!

My friend was not very happy, he wanted to ride his bike, which I can understand.

I believe it was because of the fuel vapors dissolving the paint and preventing it from drying.

I took inspiration from this post :

Not happy!! My next decision was weather to drain and remove the tank or fabricate a plug so no nasty bits fall in the tank
http://i1241.photobucket.com/albums/gg504/ejute/IMG_3746_zpsb58f7885.jpg
I made a similar setup (using old circuit boards, I didn't have a suitable piece of metal available) :

(see attached picture)

At this very moment, it's still drying and I will make another post to report the end result, tomorrow.

Of course we'll add the "abdeckring", which is currently on order at our local BMW dealership. But it's nice to have several layers of protection.

-----------------------------------------------------

Now, regarding the screws.

Initially, we wanted to replace the screws to stainless steel screws, but before doing so, I tried fixing them. I put them into hot vinegar for some time, which removed most of the rust. Then I painted them black with krylon matte black paint. They look great now.

(see attached picture)

Normally you don't do this because the rust changed the shape of the threads and there will be uneven torque among the screw which can lead to problems, but there is not a lot of force on these fasteners so I believe it was OK to do it here. Similarly, hydrogen embrittlement could be an issue if the fasteners were subject to a lot of force but it's not the case here.

The screws will be inserted with Loctite marine grade anti-seize (hard to find but best stuff) to prevent any further rust on the threads and prevent possible galling (would have been an issue especially if we went forward and moved to stainless steel fasteners I believe).

I also fixed this way the 4 smaller screws at the top of the cap. Looks much better.

(see attached picture)

That's it for now !

PS : Here is the stuff I used so far (the rust converter is in a glass jar, this bottle is crap and leaks, be careful) :
(see attached picture)
 

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#33 ·
Hoshiko:

Absolutely Dynamite Post ! I live in Fl. and it rains quite a bit during the summer. I get caught in the rain quiet a bit. I checked the Fuel tank inlet area after a heavy downpour that my bike got caught in and it I found a goopy soupy rusty mess. It was ugly. I cleaned out the area the next day. (A tip - for those who may do this. Use a Stress Ball to fill the hole in the tank when sanding out the rust. You can cover it with Saran Wrap if the ball is peeling away like some do). I used some naval Jelly (not much) and wire brush and chisel to get after the rust. A Vacuum in one hand helps to suck away the debris as you clean. Took about an hour and a half. Working slowly. Then hit the area with Rustoleoum Paint + Primer. Two light coats. (Again Stress Ball worked Beuatifully to prevent any paint getting in the tank) Then installed Abdeckring.
I havent been in the rain since (about 1 week) but it will be interesting to see how dry she stays. But with the paint I think its good and protected for the next few years at least. This was a great Tip and I thank you for posting it up. Made a huge difference and now worry free. At least until it rains again.

Beer on Me for the Great Write Up and Tanks (pun intend) a Lot !
Late-
 
#34 · (Edited)
Nice job ejute, I like your hole cover better then mine, and that stress ball sounds like a great idea too.

I was looking at your picture, and it looks like the tank is rusted inside, then again, your bike is 2011- and they might have a different finish inside the tank.

Yours


Mine



Beer on Me for the Great Write Up and Tanks (pun intend) a Lot !
Late-
Next time I go down to FL, I'll cash that beer.
 
#37 ·
Good thread Guys!
I thought i'd take a look under the cap of my 2012 Classic; it was well on the way to the land of rust.
I've cleaned the rust off, treated the area with touch up paint, and have purchased the gasket. Looks good!! Shame Bee Emm didn't put one on in the first place!

Does anyone think that the petrol fumes may attack the newly painted surface of the tank, and that's the reason why Bee Emm do not paint that area?
 
#38 ·
Painted area using rustoleum primer + paint in one. Two weeks ago. Took of gas cap cover and inner part today. Paint holding up beautiful. No peeling bubbling or any other such problem. I will now check every 3 months or so to ensure she stays that away. Bike running better to.
 
#39 ·
I just crawled out from underneath my Toyota 4Runner...where I was applying POR to the rear differential that has essentially rusted through...despite the remainder of the vehicle being literally showroom condition. This is the last Toyota I will own - Toyota, like BMW, denies the entire issue despite myriad formal complaints.

But to the point...as I already had the POR out, I popped the gas cap assembly off of my '11 R12R. A pic is attached. My bare steel looks like the day it was stamped. I'll wager the issue stems from how the steel was originally "pickled", combined with use/storage of the bike. I didn't POR mine, didn't even use red oxide primer, but instead applied zinc chromate primer, which is most appropriate for bare steel without oxidation.

Lucked out on this one...the oxidation gods took mercy on me when they saw EP80/90 oozing through my 4Runner differential housing.
 

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