K1200RS Fuel Smell?

[old1951]

I just added an cherry '02 K1200RS to my current '02 K1200LT stable. The new (to me) RS only had 7,810 miles on and runs beautifully. But...... if I park the bike on the centerstand, the garage starts to smell of gasoline within minutes. When it's on the side stand there is no gasoline smell. I'm new to the RS so I'm a little confused by this. Any brilliant thought by "RS" owners. I've never experienced this condition on the LT?

[old1951]

For anyone who might be interested, I think I found the culprit for my fuel smell problem on my '02 K1200RS. At a friends house this weekend I noticed the severe fuel smell again right after I filled the fuel tank and parked the bike was on the centerstand. It was outside and not in a confined area and the fuel smell was extreme. I was over 125 miles from home, but I couldn't stand the fact that this beautiful bike exhibited such a problem. During our attempt to find where the fuel smell was coming from I noticed that the round flat fuel tank cap gasket had a very slight wear groove where it mated with metal tank filler lip. I was nowhere near a BMW dealer to replace it with a new gasket. My friend suggested in lieu of new parts that we disassemble the cap and flip the flat gasket over so the groove was facing away from the tank. I had also noticed that the area of the fuel tank just above the oil fill plug was wet with fuel. Initially, I thought it might be due to the gasket that seals the fuel pump/filter assembly to the tank or the o-rings on the fuel line quick disconnects. We wiped up all the residue (all that was possible without peeling the tuperware) and flipped the filler cap gasket over.

Viola! No more smell!

Apparently the 5 year old filler cap gasket had dried out, taken a set and was venting fumes and dribbling fuel out through the overflow drain hole when the tank was brim full (and just fumes when it was not full).

This weekend I intend to peel the plastic and verify this was truly the problem and replace the flat gasket with a new one. It apparently leaked just enough to dampen surrounding parts and then flashed off since there never was a wet spot or puddle on the ground.

This was a classic example of how age and the atmosphere deteriorate rubber parts. When I get to my next service (12K) I'm going to replace all the rubber gaskets and o-rings associated with the fuel system. I suspect that many older bikes (especially ones that aren't ridden much) tend to suffer from the dried out gasket problem. My '02 LT has never exhibited any similar problems, but that bike is ridden regularly (sometimes excessively) and the service intervals tend to come quickly. As a result, o-rings, seals, gaskets, etc. are replaced and never suffer this condition.

Guess there's a message here:

Just Ride It!