BMW Luxury Touring Community banner

Final Drive bites the dust/ FtWorth BMW Dealer

4K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  tomandmelanie 
#1 ·
Hi All,

On Monday I was riding from Houston toward Oklahoma City no my trusty silver Frau, when I started noticing a kind of buzzy, un-natural vibration. At first I thought it was the road surface, but it slowly got worse and worse. At this point, I was almost to Bowie, TX, just south of the Red River. I pulled over, because I though it might be a bad tire. They were new, with about a thousand miles on them, and thought maybe one had started to shed a skin. Wrong, they looked perfect. I put the bike on the center stand, and spun the rear wheel, and it felt like there was gravel in the final drive (or gear box). Got back on the bike and limped into Bowie. Finally made arrangements with AAA to haul her over to the BMW shop in Ft. Worth, where she is resting, waiting for someone to check her out and determine the source of the problem.

Have any of my south central bros had any dealings with the Ft. Worth dealer? Any recommendations?

The BMW rep is supposed to be at the Ft. Worth shop tomorrow, and I asked the warranty lady to see if BMW will stand behind the problem.

The bike is a 2002, with 27500 miles. I got her used in Dec. 02 with 2000 miles. I've changed the gear and final drive lube, when I got her at 2000 miles, with BMW gear lube. Then I changed them again at 12000 miles with Amsoil full synthetic, and again at 24000 miles.

This shouldn't have happened.

At this point, since the shop hasn't even done anything yet, I plan to pick the bike up on Friday (if I can rent a pick up), and drive it home, where I can work on it myself.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Dang Larry - so sorry it happened to you too - bummers. :mad: Shout if there is anythang us folks in the Hill Country can do. And I'd lobby for a full warranty replacement, even tho you say you wanna do the work yourself. You're well within the 'goodwill' coverage term that has a history of success if a dealer will go to bat with BMW NA for ya. Hank at Rhinewest can do the swap in about 3 hours; not sure if he can get you warranty coverage tho.

And hey, salvage the trip and stop in at the RTE in Lampasas on Satiday!!! :D
 
#3 ·
Thanks Dick

I appreciate the good words.

I don't feel like the warranty lady at the Ft. Worth dealer is being very supportive. They were spouting the company line of 'they haven't ever seen a problem with the final drive unit's on the LT's'. I told them that they should look up the survey on the LT website, to see how many hundreds had failed.

She is supposed to call me tomorrow to let me know what the rep says.

Sure would like to meet up with everyone at the RTE. Need some friendly ears to whine to. We'll see what happens between now and then. I might be marooned in Ft. Worth.
 
#4 ·
Other options

lad said:
Hi All,

The bike is a 2002, with 27500 miles. I got her used in Dec. 02 with 2000 miles. I've changed the gear and final drive lube, when I got her at 2000 miles, with BMW gear lube. Then I changed them again at 12000 miles with Amsoil full synthetic, and again at 24000 miles.

This shouldn't have happened.

At this point, since the shop hasn't even done anything yet, I plan to pick the bike up on Friday (if I can rent a pick up), and drive it home, where I can work on it myself.
Sorry to hear the news Larry. Let me know if you want the rear drive from my 2000, though getting a warranty claim is the best way to go. Have you spoken to anyone at Gulf Coast? Of course you'd have to find someone awake over there!;)
 
#5 ·
lad said:
REAR DRIVE...
The bike is a 2002, with 27500 miles.
Hey, I thought when the rear drive problem occurs at greater then the 50K milage range. Now you have me worried. I'm outa warranty in March.

Good luck with the fix...sounds like things could have been a lot worse for you. I'm happy to hear your safe.
 
#6 ·
Sorry to hear about your bike.
The folks as Ft. Worth BMW told me that was one of the major reasons to get the extended warranty that they sell, so I bought the warranty; but at Lone Star BMW in Austin. I'm new to owing a BMW, where should I go in the DFW area? Sorry, that should be a differnt thread. :)
 
#7 ·
#8 ·
Bo, I have a great relationship with BMW of North Dallas. I trust George, Ken, and Jonathan 100% -- George does most of the work on my bike. Ken does any electrical/gadget addons. And Jonathan does the 6K services. So I spread the good will around. Merrin Austin is the service manager and is a straight up guy.
 
#9 ·
eljeffe said:
You can see the results on the Survey page at:

http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/survey.php?&do=results&sid=28

If anyone has had a rear drive failure and you haven't filled out the survey (on the old site or the new site), you may do so at

http://www.bmwlt.com/forums/survey.php?&do=take&sid=28
Thanks, I remember reading it at that time, but was mistaken about the miles when the failure occurred...SHOOT...Guess I'll cross my fingers or maybe use this as justification to trade up to a 2006. Wonder if the wife will buy into taking a preventive trade?
 
#11 ·
I had a clutch replaced and a major service by BMW of FW and will probably try BMW of North Dallas in the future. The particular tech I had did nothing to instill confidence, especially with everything I have had to redo. I had to insist the seals be replaced ("if they're not leaking, don't mess with them") and he almost cost me an extra $600-800 due to a hasty mis-diagnosis. Fortunately I postponed the decision long enough for the facts to surface. I just changed the oil and couldn't believe how tight the filter cover screws and filter were. It was ridiculous.

The shop is close to my home and I really wanted it to work, but it isn't worth the heartburn. I have heard others say they had good experiences.
 
#12 ·
BMW Ft. Worth vs BMW North Dallas

I'm relative new to the BMW community of riders. I've had my LT for about 3 months now. I have gone in the FTW dealer's location twice, and will not be back. I gave them the benefit of the doubt the first time. The 2nd confirmed my original thoughts. BMW North Dallas treated me with respect, very helpful, not pushy with any sales and the parts department is excellent. If your in the DFW area or passing through, I personally highly recommend them.
 
#15 ·
So what did the dealer and the BMW Rep say about your bike? I saw him there on Friday, he doesn't look like he even owns a motorcycle. :)
 
#17 ·
Still Waiting to Hear

Texas42 said:
So what did the dealer and the BMW Rep say about your bike? I saw him there on Friday, he doesn't look like he even owns a motorcycle. :)
I drove my rent car :( back to the dealership on Friday and met my nephew (with a borrowed trailer) there. I picked up the bike and took it home.

The warranty lady who was supposed to check with the Rep was not there. The service manager, who was not there when I dropped the bike off, knew nothing... The warranty lady was supposed to call me, but I haven't heard a peep from them. Very helpful...NOT.

I'm in meetings this week, and between preparing for presentations, and sitting through the meetings, I have not had a chance to call them back.

When were you there on Friday? I was there, picking up my bike at about noon.

I'm going to send the rear drive in to RhineWest to let them replace the bearings/ repair.
 
#18 ·
:) I had ordered some parts to mount my GPS and other things, I was there at about 4:30 and the mechanic, warranty lady and the rep were talking. They were discussing this stuff right out in front of everyone and it didn't sound too good for the customers that they were discussing. Long story short, the parts were the wrong ones, so by the time the parts guy had reordered the right ones I overheard more than I wanted, but nothing about an LT or rear drive.
 
#19 ·
I've been doing my own services ever since I lost the faith, the FtWorth shop is only 10 min's from the house and where I bought my LT. Now I just buy parts there, but I double check the part numbers with the ones that I know will work (aparently wrong part numbers are not uncommon). I have not yet been to the Plano dealer.
 
#20 ·
Seems like there are two types of drive failures. The grinding and able to limp along for a bit type and the seal failure where the drive pours fluid out all over your rear rim tire and brake. I've had both.

The grinding failure let's you limp along for a good distance and get somewhere safe.

The seal failure is an instant end to your riding.

I guess the moral of the story is if it grinds you can keep going, if it pours out fluid you are stuck where you stop.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top