Poor engine performance - 2011 R1200GS

[ErnieA]

Hello fellow enthusiasts:

I'm helping a friend with his 2011 R1200 GS. We are trying to get the engine performance back to a ride worthy state. We are perplexed, and perhaps you might have some ideas for us. There are a few posts here that are very similar, but there is no conclusions drawn from your suggestions. This seems the case in many forums, especially when the bike is finally sent into the dealer for repair. However this bike has a complex issue and there must be others that have had the same, so here goes:

The owner first noticed a problem 3 years ago on a trip to Alaska where he thought he bought bad fuel, however the riding partner pumped from the same station without problems. The symptoms were poor idling and backfire under load at slow speed and went away for the most part at higher speed. He added "Seafoam" to the gas and things seemed to improve over time.

The second time the symptom cropped up was after a fuel pump "service bulletin" came out and BMW requested he bring it in and have it changed out. While the bike was in the shop for the Fuel pump R&R they updated the software and changed the plugs (at about 50k miles). They told him they were fouled and that they flushed the tank and fuel lines. Performance was better for awhile but has steadily decreasing.

He embarked on a cross-country trip last summer he experienced the same problems as before and started the "Seafoam" treatment again with similar results, and made it home. And again this summer on a long trip he started getting symptoms that were worse to the point it the bike is unsafe to ride. The bike bucks and backfires. There is no low end power and the smell of raw fuel is evident from the muffler. The Cat is full of fuel and gets red hot and barks from the after-burn.

He, and a mutual friend started using the internet forums to try to fix it. They did the following up to the point I looked at it and hooked up my GS911:

• They replaced the spark plugs which were soot fouled
• They replaced the upper stick coils
• They followed the TPS reset procedure that is widely used (disconnect the battery, reconnect, twist throttle 3 times, etc

They could get the bike to idle smoothly and it looked good until he took it for a ride and about 1/2 mile later all of the symptoms were back.

We hooked it up to the GS911 and the bike, hardly running at idle, showed the O2 sensors throwing a constant 1+ volt and I thought it would be strange if both were bad at the same time. We tried the TPS reset and reset the stepper valves. We re-synced the cables using a manometer. The bike started right up and all was smooth and sweet! We rechecked the O2 sensors and they were all over the place. We called our local shop and there are none in the US (supposedly) and we went on the hunt for some locally sourced ones. WE found some Nipon Denso that fit and converted the wiring. The bike again started right up and the O2 sensors were operating as they should.

I took the bike for a test ride and I didn't make it a 1/4 mile and all of the symptoms returned. This is with fresh fuel and a cleaned air fllter too. I'm guessing I can try the TPS reset again and I'm going to find it doing the same thing over again for the 3rd time.

What would make it run so well stationary but once you run up the speed to +20 MPH the engine wants to dump raw fuel into it like you are at full throttle? Why is it doing this? Anyone have a clue?

Open to any ideas...

Thank you in advance,

Ernie Azevedo
Milwaukie Oregon
503-799-4026

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[ErnieA]

Attached is the original auto-scan for the R1200GS I'm working on. Any help is appreciated.

[schuppi]

Hello Ernie

Thank you for posting complete records

If you look for "engine load",  it only displayed negativ datas.
So I think there is something wrong with the TPS sensor.

Hope to show you a way for troubleshooting

[ErnieA]

Hello Ernie

Thank you for posting complete records

If you look for "engine load",  it only displayed negativ datas.
So I think there is something wrong with the TPS sensor.

Hope to show you a way for troubleshooting

I appreciate you responding. My friend and I are totally perplexed at the situation. I wish we had a list of appropriate values to compare to the readings, but that is a big wish. We decided to take it into the dealer and tell them what we have done so far and have them diagnose it then repair it. Hopefully they will disclose all of their findings. I will report back what the conclusions happen to be. The bike has not had any computer updates for 2 years anyway. So it is probably a good thing to have them look at it.

Thank you again!

Ernie Azevedo
Milwaukie, Oregon (USA)

[schuppi]

Hi Ernie
here are the sampled datas from my R1200GS,  just to compare 

RPM      (TPS)   Engine load
0         0,1   00:00           Ignition on
0         0,1   00:00
0         0,1   00:00
0         0,1   00:00
0         0,1   00:00
0         0,1   00:00
0         0,1   00:00
0         0,1   00:00   
0         0,1   45,62          starting the engine
0         0,1   45,62
0         0,1   45,62
0         0,1   45,62
1490      0,1   00:00         engine at idle
1341      0,1   14,23

[ErnieA]

Update:

The owner, my riding buddy, and I decided the best course of action was to take the bike into the dealer and have them hook it up to the factory diagnostic machine. And this happened:

First off, we last worked on it Tuesday night and twice the bike acted up as it had before. We did the TPS re-set 3 times, and the engine purred along fine, then as soon as it was ridden (2nd to 3 gear) it started backfiring stumbling and dying each time. After the last time we loaded it up on the trailer and he took it the next morning to the shop, however he didn't start it and show them what we know to be its performance (or lack of) from the night before. The only thing we did was add non-ethanol premium fuel, but the performance hadn't changed.

The dealer called him today and reported that there is nothing wrong with his bike, nothing wrong...

He reports that they hooked up the bike to their computer (we don't know if they tried running the bike before or not) and the only code was an O2 sensor. This code was not there before taking it into the shop (from our last GS911 reading). The tech ran the diagnostic program and said the bike tested fine. He took it out for a ride and it rode well. He let it sit and cool off and then went out on another ride, nothing malfunctioned.

The owner asked them if they were sure they were testing the right bike! He then asked if there was a possible software update that they downloaded to the bike. The service manager reported that the updates are automatically downloaded now, therefore he was not able to tell the owner if anything might have been updated to the bike and "fixed" anything.

We are both more perplexed than before. We will go on some rides and see what happens. In the meantime we will hook up the GS911 and see if any of the reading are different and post them here. I do have a couple questions:

• How can I convert the .csv file to an Excel document so it can be easily read?
  Is the latest software version listed on the Auto Scan?

Thank you for reading.

Ernie
Milwaukie, Oregon 

[Paul Hoffmann]

I have a 2012 1200GS and had the firmware updated in August this year.
The report from the dealer listed the update as K024-16.06-510.
After doing the latest update I now have unknown I levels on the autoscan and am waiting for a reply from Kobus at Hexcode about the unknown I level issue.

Extract from my latest autoscan:
Factory I-Level:   K024-12-02-500
Actual I-Level:   Unknown I-Level:0x92

As far as I understand the two lines above from the autoscan show the initial firmware version and the latest version.
This update also cured the known issue as listed on the hexcode website.
If I am incorrect in my reply above I am sure someone will be along to correct me!

Hope this is of some help
Paul

[Xchallenge]

How can I convert the .csv file to an Excel document so it can be easily read?

Try opening the file.

Excel should recognise it as having comma separated values and present you with a guide for importing the data.

[ErnieA]

I'll have to research the .csv file and Excel. When I open it up everything is jumbled and almost unusable. When you open my file posted above does it appear when the rows and columns come out "normal" to you? To me all of the data is crammed into one cell.

Thanks for your patience.

Ernie
Milwaukie, OR
USA

[schuppi]

Hi Ernie,

try this > so I did it my way
Store this .csv on your desktop
right click on the new icon > choose change / convert  and than open the file
just looks like this

Engine load   Battery voltage
-44,3   14,49
-47,18   14,49
-44,64   14,39
-45,01   14,58
-46,77   14,39
-46,62   14,49
-46,7   14,49
-46,69   14,11

[ErnieA]

Hi Ernie,

try this > so I did it my way
Store this .csv on your desktop
right click on the new icon > choose change / convert  and than open the file
just looks like this

Engine load   Battery voltage
-44,3   14,49
-47,18   14,49
-44,64   14,39
-45,01   14,58
-46,77   14,39
-46,62   14,49
-46,7   14,49
-46,69   14,11

I'm using a Mac with and without Windows and still can't open it the way you are. Puzzling

[Dannyb]

On the ipad it works well. Just open the csv. file with numbers and all just stand in to place.

[Xchallenge]

When you open my file posted above does it appear when the rows and columns come out "normal" to you?

Yes, it looks great. And different from the simple csv-file I created to check the issue, your file doesn't even require any import guide. it simply opens.

On this (virtual) PC I run Windows 7 and Office 2010. I'm sorry but I don't know anything about Macs.