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BMW changed the part by adding a black powder coating to the unit. On the top. The bottom is still a rubbery compound of some type.
Why did they do that? To decrease porosity of the cheap pot metal that the unit is made out of?
Well, if so, that means they believed the water, if any was getting in thru ... the top! Thru' the porosity of the pot metal top.
So what good would putting sealer on the gasket do?
dc
 
It is not a water throught the top issue. If you hunt around you wil find pictures of this heat sink fully corroded. Heat disipation limited. It is just to keep the fins in good shape. Failure mode, I have no Idea, seems water plays a part though.
 
Well, mine failed in a totally dry environment. And the black element along the bottom looked just like new.
dc

And the other question I have to ask is, if water is not leaking thru' the top, thru' the pot metal, which is quite porous, then why did they go to the powder coat? They had too much powder coat in inventory and they had to get rid of it somehow?
Or, they are trying to lessen the porosity of the top?
 
David13 said:
No. That is your connector off your cigarette lighter. Perhaps you don't smoke, or don't smoke on the bike, or you still use Zippo.
Well, it looks like a cigarette lighter, and they used to be cigarette lighter sockets.
For your bypass, you can buy one.
Or, better yet, since you have the old prone to failure for whatever reason, silver unit, you could go and buy a new one, now, while the old one works, and put the new one in. And use the old as a spare. Tuck it under the seat.
Or, if you do have your failure and then get the new one, take the old one off. You will see your bypass cable underneath of the unit, and hidden from view. Pull the two screws, and you have a pigtail with a connector. That's the bottom end of your bypass, and you must then chop and hack the old unit to get the connector off the top. You then solder the pigtail from the bottom to the chopped off connector from the top, encase it in epoxy, since otherwise the wires will pop off the connector, and you have your bypass.
dc
Hi i dont have a cigarette lighter do all RTs have this wire and connector and cigarette lighter Thanks
 

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It's not a cigarette lighter. It's an external power port so that you can connect up your heated gears for cold weather riding. Of course, you can use it for other things also. The socket is not a standard "cigarette lighter" socket. It's a Powerlet socket.
 
PadG said:
It's not a cigarette lighter. It's an external power port so that you can connect up your heated gears for cold weather riding. Of course, you can use it for other things also. The socket is not a standard "cigarette lighter" socket. It's a Powerlet socket.
Hi thanks for reply am i mistaken or does the plug end look like the same as on a fpc bypass cord
 

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Looks like this discussion is getting all out of whack.

There is a Powerlet female socket on the left had side of the fairing. This socket supplies 12 volts for vests, Lights, etc.The plug that goes into it looks like a small cigarette lighter (plug). You can get 12volts out of the Powerlet socket to drive your fuel pump using a by-pass cord.

The other end of the plug goes into the cable/wire to the fuel pump wire bypassing the bum controller.

If the controller craps out this 12 volts from the Powerlet to the fuel pump will cause the pump to run continuously. This is not ideal but it will let the bike run and get you home or to some place better than on the side of the road. When you stop... turn the bike off and pull the plug out.

There are other options. One is to make a direct to battery jumper to get 12v to the pump. Using the battery direct... not from the Powerlet socket. This may not be as elegant as the Powerlet to Pump cord but it will work.

You do not even have to get the connector. You actually tap into the wires to the pump with Posi-Taps or even just make a bare spot on the wire and tap in. Crude but effective if you know which wire is positive and which is negative- which I do not.

Does this make sense ?
 
Hopz
His question was what is the connector. I'm fairly sure the connector he has, which feeds from the same wire bundle as the fpc is meant to lead down into the fairing and power the cigarette lighter, which most people now use for accessory power, and call a BMW official connector, or Powerlet, or female socket, or can bus connector, or whatever they want.
Why his is not connected to the socket, no matter what it is called, I don't know. But I believe that is the connector, disconnected, as the fairing is not there, to that device, or outlet.
I did not want to cut into my wiring. And if you have a bypass that feeds off the power connector at the top of the fpc, you don't need to. You just need to run it into the connector on the pump, which is hidden under the fpc.
Running the bypass outside the fairing, into the socket and back into the fairing makes no sense whatsoever to me.
dc
 
David13 said:
And the other question I have to ask is, if water is not leaking thru' the top, thru' the pot metal, which is quite porous, then why did they go to the powder coat? They had too much powder coat in inventory and they had to get rid of it somehow?
Or, they are trying to lessen the porosity of the top?
To improve the heat dissipation from the heatsink (fins) as black surfaces radiate more heat than silver ones. You could get the same effect by cleaning up the fins and spraying it with some matt or satin black paint - which is what I've done to mine.
 
In regards to the outlet's current rating, mine (being a 05 1200RT) is rated at 10A, according to it's User manual and a manual that I downloaded from BMW Germany.
So I wonder where this 5A limitation that floats about comes from?
 
The 5amp limitation applied to the early R1200GS model, not the RT - according to the manuals. Possibly the GS's have in recent years gone to the 10amp spec.
 
vulch said:
Hi thanks for reply am i mistaken or does the plug end look like the same as on a fpc bypass cord
Short answer is no! Here is what the bypass cable looks like:

http://www.burnsmoto.com/bmw-fuel-pump-bypass-cable.php

If I was buying one, I would buy the one on the left, which has the Powerlet plug on one end and the other end plugs right into the fuel pump (blue connector).

Hopz - my fuse box is triggered by a relay, which powers it up only when the ignition is on (and stays on a minute after the key is turned off), and so it is better than a direct wire to the battery.
 
PadG said:
Hopz - my fuse box is triggered by a relay, which powers it up only when the ignition is on (and stays on a minute after the key is turned off), and so it is better than a direct wire to the battery.
My comment does not have to be taken literally. What I mean is... "battery" whether it is fused via block or whether it is tapped into any other wire that carries 12v. But, your fuse block with switched power is no doubt a good solution.
 
PadG said:
Short answer is no! Here is what the bypass cable looks like:

http://www.burnsmoto.com/bmw-fuel-pump-bypass-cable.php

If I was buying one, I would buy the one on the left, which has the Powerlet plug on one end and the other end plugs right into the fuel pump (blue connector).

Hopz - my fuse box is triggered by a relay, which powers it up only when the ignition is on (and stays on a minute after the key is turned off), and so it is better than a direct wire to the battery.
Hi I removed the fpc to confirm if the plug i saw would fit and it doesn't i was hopeful that maybe the previous owner wired in a bypass plug ..the plugs were almost the same Thanks for all the replies..just a comment since i had the fpc off and could see what it looked like under it i dont see how water could do any damage there is a well under the fpc if water got in it wouldn't touch the fpc Thanks
 
David13 said:
Hmmm. That may be right. But if so, doesn't that support my theory that it was heat, not water that was burning those things out?
dc
Yes I agree heat. Water may be a secondary cause. The pictures I've seen of ones that got wet show that the fins have built up a pretty thick layer of furry corrosion (due to them being made from pot metal I guess). That layer of corrosion would then significantly decrease the effectiveness of the heatsink, one or more components in the module overheats and pop!
 
JonA, that is my thought also. The circuit board is fully potted, and that is to keep out moisture. However, the potting compound (the black stuff) is not a good thermal conductor, and makes it hard to dissipate any heat build up.

The heavy corrosion of the zinc die-cast heat fins will affect its ability to dissipate heat a great deal, especially since zinc oxide is white (think back to your high school physic and what you know about "black body"). I guess that is why the "better" FPC is powdercoated black.

Incidentally, if you go to the link that I had posted earlier on the bypass cable. On that site, look at the upper right corner and you will see a couple of photos. One shows a failed FPC, and the second is a statistic on the number of failures reported for various year GS model, in the UK. Interesting statistic, and goes to show that even though there are issues, chances at least some of us will never encounter this problem!
 
I replaced the fuel pump thinking that the motor died.
Turned out the controller died instead of the motor. I have bypassed the controller and bike running without any problem.
My question: Is there anybody who is running his / her bmw r1200 without the fuel pump controller? I just don't want to spend $300 on it if it is not really needed.
Is there any place I can buy a cheaper fuel pump controller?

Thanks!
 
Hopz,
There are many failure modes for that silver colored fpc. You're right that most, maybe even all, are moisture related. But remember that without a bypass cable or the ability to make a bypass cable from the old fpc, or a spare fpc, you're stuck if it dies. Insurance with some spare wire so you can cut off the old connector and rig power is only pennies for some wire, a bypass cable is a little over $20, and a spare fpc is $150- any one of those 3 can get you going. Remember that there have been at least a couple THOUSAND of these failures, not just a few, based on published data from the UK GS website, extrapolated to all countries/models/sales numbers. Based on that, I think some insurance while traveling is only prudent.

Here is a summary of failure issues
The fpc carries 7A that it takes to run the pump- that means it gets warm. When it cools there are possibilities of condensation or sucking water into it. It sits in a well that doesn't drain and collects water from riding in the rain or just washing the bike, The uncoated fpc housing can corrode easily and when it does, it will break the seal that protects the circuit board from water intrusion. Sometimes failure is immediate or you might get a few miles or a couple starts worth of warning. In any case, the sealer used is a cheap production method and not up to the task - it will leak even on the new replacement parts that are coated to prevent corrosion. The gasket around the fpc does a bad job at keeping water out of the lower part of the well- only 2 clamping screws into plastic, another bad design bit. In summary, the well is a stupid design, the part is badly made, and the replacement only addresses some failure modes (not all). It is not clear whether the board itself has issues from poor heat management in the design (the reason the housing is finned) and I have not yet dissected a new fpc to see if there have been circuit board changes. Failures of the new part are reported, also but I think its too early for meaningful comparisons about rate which in any case will be complicated by the fact that most folks put the replacement in with silicon sealer or a good grease coating on the gasket. something missing from the original factory assembly method.

Maybe if you live in AZ and never wash your bike, you can forget about the possibility of the fpc failing but considering how easy (even cheap) it is to be prepared, I wouldn't choose to be one of those folks who ignores this issue- unless perhaps I never went more than a few miles from home. Remember that dealers and parts places are typically not available if you get a weekend failure on the road.

This bit reminds me a lot of the ballast resistors on old Chrysler built stuff from the 70s that only cost $1.25 at the time and failed regularly, preventing the starter from running. But in that case, there was typically a car parts place somewhere nearby that had one. Still, some owners (including me) threw a spare in the glovebox when they went any distance. Eventually I got the chance to use my spare- think I was way up in the Canadian woods fishing at the time.
Can I ride on the back of this thread and ask where the information on the UK website might be found? I have a fuel sender/strip gone bad and since BMW UK won’t deal with it to my satisfaction I’d like evidence of sender failures. If you can direct me to this site it might help my case.
I also think they fitted the wrong sender for my build date since the MAXBMW microfiche says the part they fitted was only up to 08/10. My bike was a 2011 build.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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