I had my 2nd one put in my 09 GSA about 3 months ago. The first one was showing I had more gas than actual. Now the 2nd one is dropping out before the fuel gets low. It's been showing about empty around 230 - 240 miles and when I fill up it's about 5.5 gallons so about 3.2 left in the tank. I wondered if there might be different strips for the GS and GSA since the Adv. has a larger tank and I got a "short one". Don't the non-adv. have a range of about that?? Anyway, I was hoping someone had goofed but checking all years of both bike the fuel strip is the same part # for all of them. On the floats...I asked about those becoming standard and was told the only bikes to have floats are the ones (without the on board computer) which is generally none you see in the dealers. Gotta call the dealer for an appointment...
Mine worked in the showroom... was wheeled outside and immediately quit functioning. I had it fixed under warranty 2300 miles later its all good...maybe
In the fiche's it specifies that the strip is a pre 8/10 sensing assembly, and the float is a post 8/10 sensing assembly. Is the electrical input and output different between the two? Did the computer change post 8/10 as well? I'm looking for a solid answer as to why you cannot retrofit. Is it only because the internals of the tank are changed post 8/10 allowing the float to be mounted?
The strip is a capacitor which varies capacitance as the fuel level changes. The float type sensor is a variable resistor. I had an idear, there are mechanically variable capacitors used for tuning radios. What if one were connected to a float and used as a substitute level sender? Yes there are details to work out such as figuring out the capacitance in fuel and float mechanism and other stuff.
The aircraft I work on use capacitive fuel quantity, and they are generally rock solid. What's letting go in the fuel strips? Are they repairable?
according to my dealer (just had the fourth strip installed today). The first, past warranty strip, is your dollars. If the dealer installs it, and it fails within the two-year (dealer installed) warranty period, the replacement is on BMW. ("if")
that dont jive with what my dealer says and does.I took my 2007 adv. in about 4 months ago ,OUT OF WARRANTY,for the first fuel strip,and they said bmw is taking care of these out of warranty as a good will gesture,that being said the repair did not fix the gauge. my gauge starts out okay,then pretty quickly(within about 150 miles)goes to 2 bars,and stays there for a long time and then ends pretty acuratly.
I don't think it is doable. Those mechanical variable capacitors are limited in the maximum capacity they could achieve. And we don't even know what is the range on the sensor. And manufacturing a reliable floating system is not easy and cheap. Probably one thing could be done- a soldering a capacitor instead of the strip, so it would always indicate a full tank an eliminate the triangle. Sort of like implanting a glass eye in a blind person.
Yes, there are details to work out… The capacitance of the strip can easily be measured and the mechanism to move the variable capacitor can perhaps be adapted from the float type system. Using the odometer to determine remaining fuel is great especially if you have a reserve setting on the fuel petcock. Hmm, theses bike don't have any sort of reserve setting. It has been my experience that the low fuel warning is pretty accurate. And, the bike is sold with a fuel gauge as a part of the instruments. It isn't a novelty thrown in as a gag. Well, if so, it's an expensive and annoying joke.
Alternatively, get the fuel pump flange with the built-in float (the pre-2008 version) and do a retrofit. Possible issue: are the fuel tanks' internal shapes roughly the same? Then you'd need to some electronics to convert from variable resistance to variable capacitance. Now it's an EE problem rather than a MechE problem. OR, maybe there's a setting on the computer that allows it to switch between expecting a resistive vs. capacitive fuel level sensor.
So...BMW is taking care of this? OUT OF WARRANTY? Did you call BMW or did the dealer call for the approval? The fine folks at BMW or the dealer never made the offer, when I made my case! <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden"><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
The dealer didn't even call bmw, they said with all the known problems with the gauge that bmw is fixing them out of warranty.
This month's "Nuts and Volts" magazine has an article on a relatively simple gas gauge based on measuring the injector pulse. The only problem with this approach is that you would have to make sure you filled the tank and reset the gauge. It tracks the fuel used, not the fuel that is present. Terry
Just had the fourth strip die this last week. Took the bike in when it was failing, but they wouldn't replace it until it "throws a code". Now it is a glowing yellow light. Very irritating. Bike goes out of warranty in less than a month. yea. I also reported this to NHTSA.
Mine just quit this week. It is a 2008 R1200GSA. I filled up went for a ride, a hundred miles in I made a U turn and saw the yellow triangle and FUEL FUEL FUEL. Dealer blames Ethanol and BMW trying to get fancy with their design. They have a special Techron product that is supposed to fight the ethanol. It is supposedly different than the Techron from the auto parts store. Fuel pumps may be next in the failures. I thought I beat the fuel gauge failure.
