Joined
·
1 Posts
WE RIDER’S ARE “BORN TO RIDE”, NOT “RIDE TO DIE”.
I have been a rider for the last 20 years (owning BMW bikes since 2013), and my intent here is only for you fellow riders to be aware of this unforeseen life-threatening incident. An explosion of the clutch basket and the experience as you will not be able to read this anywhere else, let it be in online forums or within the BMW Motorrad community.
Summary of the unfortunate life-threatening incident:
One fine day in Jan 2022, while starting my well maintained 12 years old bike; BMW K1300S of which the clutch basket exploded unexpectedly (refer to pics below with debris). To be honest, glad to be alive, if I was at the explosion side of the bike (which is on the right side of the bike), I would be not writing this message.
Post-incident approaching BMW Malaysia (MY) claiming as manufacturing defect:
I was directed by BMW MY to Auto Bavaria, Ara Damansara (dealer) to investigate further on the explosion. To my surprise, they found nothing that could have caused the clutch basket explosion of my bike upon further investigation by disassembling the engine. Even their world-class expert mechanics are not able to figure it out nor take an interest to find the root cause that could trigger the explosion.
Both the dealer and BMW MY ignored and rejected my service records only because I did not service directly through them, but with a certified trusted mechanic. Often dealers themselves will refer to a certified mechanics for certain issues.
A series of iterations continued which resulted in vain and I finally concluded by asking a few important questions to both BMW MY and Auto Bavaria so that I regain my confidence to ride the bike again. Again, to my surprise, they cannot even guarantee if the bike may be safe to ride even with me agreeing to bear all the cost to repair the bike.
I am left with 2 options suggested by Auto Bavaria:
#1. To repair as per the damage which costs about MYR18K
#2. Replace the entire engine which costs about MYR73K
My response to the above with alternate options such as:
A) Once repaired as per their option #1, can they assist in a trade-off to purchase a new bike. However, the suggestion was rejected by the dealer due to the age of the bike and their concerns on an unknown potential issue that occurred with the bike
B) To dispose the bike but that would result in me paying a sufficient amount for storage fees and other expenses which the dealer did not provide sufficient information. Pretty insane for me to pay to dispose of a bike.
If interested to know further, attached is a pdf with screenshots of all-important communications with BMW MY and Auto Bavaria (Dealer).
Few unanswered questions which have left me in limbo and for your kind read:
I have been a rider for the last 20 years (owning BMW bikes since 2013), and my intent here is only for you fellow riders to be aware of this unforeseen life-threatening incident. An explosion of the clutch basket and the experience as you will not be able to read this anywhere else, let it be in online forums or within the BMW Motorrad community.
Summary of the unfortunate life-threatening incident:
One fine day in Jan 2022, while starting my well maintained 12 years old bike; BMW K1300S of which the clutch basket exploded unexpectedly (refer to pics below with debris). To be honest, glad to be alive, if I was at the explosion side of the bike (which is on the right side of the bike), I would be not writing this message.
Post-incident approaching BMW Malaysia (MY) claiming as manufacturing defect:
I was directed by BMW MY to Auto Bavaria, Ara Damansara (dealer) to investigate further on the explosion. To my surprise, they found nothing that could have caused the clutch basket explosion of my bike upon further investigation by disassembling the engine. Even their world-class expert mechanics are not able to figure it out nor take an interest to find the root cause that could trigger the explosion.
Both the dealer and BMW MY ignored and rejected my service records only because I did not service directly through them, but with a certified trusted mechanic. Often dealers themselves will refer to a certified mechanics for certain issues.
A series of iterations continued which resulted in vain and I finally concluded by asking a few important questions to both BMW MY and Auto Bavaria so that I regain my confidence to ride the bike again. Again, to my surprise, they cannot even guarantee if the bike may be safe to ride even with me agreeing to bear all the cost to repair the bike.
I am left with 2 options suggested by Auto Bavaria:
#1. To repair as per the damage which costs about MYR18K
#2. Replace the entire engine which costs about MYR73K
My response to the above with alternate options such as:
A) Once repaired as per their option #1, can they assist in a trade-off to purchase a new bike. However, the suggestion was rejected by the dealer due to the age of the bike and their concerns on an unknown potential issue that occurred with the bike
B) To dispose the bike but that would result in me paying a sufficient amount for storage fees and other expenses which the dealer did not provide sufficient information. Pretty insane for me to pay to dispose of a bike.
If interested to know further, attached is a pdf with screenshots of all-important communications with BMW MY and Auto Bavaria (Dealer).
Few unanswered questions which have left me in limbo and for your kind read:
- Was it fair for BMW & Auto Bavaria (Dealer) to push back the service records from a trusted BMW-certified mechanic?
- If the service records were unavailable in their system (dealer), from day 1, should they reject to investigate further which caused 5 months wait time with no outcomes?
- With the exuberant price, lack of sufficient BMW authorized dealer workshops, and the long wait time, does it make sense to service the bike (post-warranty) directly through the dealer?
- What do you ascertain of the 2 options provided by the dealer? 73K for an engine? will you consider buying a new bike for this cost?
- Will you have enough trust to ride the bike again if we go with option 1? Please recall that they were unable to identify the root cause of the incident.
- Since the age of the bike is a significant factor in this entire ordeal, should we not trust a BMW bike post 10 years as we may face similar unforeseen life-threatening incidents?
- Aging post 10 years, does BMW bikes required to dispose off? Does it worth purchasing such an expensive bike compared to other competitive bike manufacturers in the market?
- Why BMW is not curious to know the root cause of the incident, and take preventive measures to make sure this incident will not occur to other riders using the same model K1300S?
Attachments
-
459.5 KB Views: 44