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Does your K1200RS/GT burn oil in the A/M?

7294 Views 31 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  Titto
Hello all fellow 'K' owners, I just took delivery of my new '04 K1200RS couple days ago. Got it home and parked it on the side stand and sat for a day. Next morning started the bike up and noticed a large amount of blue smoke out the exhaust. Bike only has 20 miles on the clock. I am sure it is oil, and not condensation. Took a good warm up to clear things up.

Any suggestions as what causes this? Is this normal in A/M starts? Oil level is about 1/16" above the center of the window. At delivery, it showed no signs of oil burning. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
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"They all do that."

Your BMW dealer has a service card that must be memorised prior to receiving their first check.

Side 1 states, "They all do that."
Side 2 states, "We've never seen that before."

Your category fits side 1. Relax, it diminishes over time. The cylinder walls are very slick, and the head is on the downhill side, so some oil collects at the rings when on the side stand. You'll get a lot of post on your question, but relax. "They all do that." :)

Wait until 6,000 miles or no oil consunption before going synthetic. Those slick rings need to seat first. After that, 150,000 miles of bliss awaits.

btw, One astute member stated that is's a lot easier to sit and admire your steed on the centerstand.

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The smoke was the result of the bike sitting on the side stand for 24+ hours. When you are going to park it overnight use the centerstand and you won't have that problem.
side stand oiler

that would be normal, if you can use the center stand mostly. After several thousand it will diminish or go away entirely. Don't worry about it. it is kind of embarassing though so I use the center stand exclusively. Kots of posts on this in the archive section.
replies

can't even type fast enough to be the first reply, wow. Looks to be an active forum here
Mine did that when I first had it. The dealer said it would go eventually and it has.
Dimish

Not only were there 2 post when I hit submit, but you and I gave the same response --- it will "dimish".
:cool:
I have a 04 zebra with 6,500 miles and a 01 checker with 32,000 miles...both do it. The 01 does not do it as much now.
Enjoy the Ride........
thanks for the response

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Faster response than my dealer! That's good to know that it is normal or should I say 'charactoristics' of the bike. It's my first BMW. Many Honda's before, but nothing like this.

I placed the bike on the center stand today. Hope it won't be so embarrassing tomorrow A/M.:D
Smokes after 10 hours on the sidestand

I have an '04 Zebra with 3,500 miles on it. When I park it at work, on the sidestand, for 10 hours, it smokes like crazy for at least a couple of minutes. It's embarrasing, I look around to see if anyone is looking! When I park it on the center stand, no smoke at all.

I love these "features".

Ron
I started mine in my basement once after doing some maintenance. Needless to say my smoke detectors work! Your results may vary.
one more

if u insist on the sidestand, after turning off ignition, let bike stand upright for 30 seconds or so............the oil will go into crankcase. wont drain up into valves and get into spark plugs.
I prefer to put it on the sidestand...it's just easier. But, I put it on the center stand most of the time to avoid the smoke issue. One morning it smoked for about a mile after leaving the garage. Hope no one noticed!
sincGT said:
I prefer to put it on the sidestand...it's just easier. But, I put it on the center stand most of the time to avoid the smoke issue. One morning it smoked for about a mile after leaving the garage. Hope no one noticed!
Keep a sign "Mosquito Abatement" handy for those odd mornings...



Oil Burning??

Hello all fellow 'K' owners, I just took delivery of my new '04 K1200RS couple days ago. Got it home and parked it on the side stand and sat for a day. Next morning started the bike up and noticed a large amount of blue smoke out the exhaust. Bike only has 20 miles on the clock. I am sure it is oil, and not condensation. Took a good warm up to clear things up.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

..a new '04 with only 20 miles on the "clock"..aren't that many around..most interesting..
The dealer out in Cali have couple of these RS's left. Must not sold very well. I think there's still a few new 'o4 KGT's left in CA. I checked, unfortunately the GT's didn't have heated grips nor cruise.

Low 0.9% finance, BMW makes the first 5 payments, bike discounted 2K off the MSRP...bought the last RS. I'm just hoping it was a wise decision. Of course standard equipped to smoke every so often.....:p
Actually it's a little more than just leak by the rings. If the engine happens to stop with both valves closed on one cylinder, as the bike cools a vacuum can be formed in the combustion chamber which, if the ring gaps are aligned just right can suck oil past the rings. They corrected this on the 1989 K100rs by adding pinned rings.

I have a 1989 K100rs and it has never smoked when left on the side stand. I was quite surprised when my 2004 GT smoked on the side stand. I thought they fixed that problem in 1989!! I will say though that with 15k on the clock it has gotten much better.

By the way, the smoke that I get from my 2004 is nothing like the smoke that I got from my 1988 K75S. I remember literally clearing out a cafe on St Denis in MOntreal when I fired up the K75s at the curb. Very embarrasing.
I have an 04KGT and the dealer told me about this before I bought it. This is my 1st beemer and they tried to let me know what to expect. I like to park mine in the back lot at work with the Harleys on the sidestand so it will smoke at start up. I tell them it was a $300 optional pre oiling system that beemer offers. If is gonna smoke then might as well have some fun from it.
Later == Bobby
It will stop as soon as the rings seat. If you followed BMW's break in procedure, you have a long way to go, probably about 12K.
Personally, I used this method from the start, and my K does not use oil or smoke on the sidestand.
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
Re; Break in

Bob, interesting break-in info. Has anyone tried the break-in method on their bike yet? Any positive results?
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