How to resolve a Waterlogged Engine – F650GS fuel injected

It occurs to me now that it’s not that easy to find information when you need it most. In particular, I really needed to know how to solve my problem of having dropped my bike in a river and the engine got waterlogged.

This is information for the BMW F650GS fuel injected version.

STEP 1: BEFORE YOU GO!

Before you set out on your travels you will be much better off getting hold of a copy of the Factory Workshop Manual for the F650GS. These are found on ebay and I bought a CD copy for £1.98 including postage. I have printed out a copy and, believe me, it’s brilliant and the instructions are clear and well illustrated.

Also add a 24mm hex 6 point socket to your ratchet set. Now, BMW supply a spanner to get the oil sump plug off. Do not use this! Use the 6 point socket with flat sides that hold the sump plug snugly, with an extended handle and have this as part of your tool kit. With a long handle and a short crack movement, the plug should loosen without damage. If you use a wrench with 12 points (star) it is likely to round the sump plug and the BMW tool will never get it off. Don’t use brute force on this plug as the engine casing is soft and can be damaged. The plug is also soft and can be damaged.

There are ways of getting damaged oil sump plugs out eg filling edges to make 2 flat surfaces to grip. Heat the engine with blowtorch and then ice cube on the plug should also loosen it by the engine expanding faster than the plug and so it’s slightly looser.

You might like to invest in a long socket to remove your spark plug because, again, BMW have supplied us with a pants tool and the spark plug is in a very awkward place. Unless you have small hands and a lot of patience, it’s unnecessary hard work.

Keep a new oil filter and air filter in your spares kit. These parts are not all that expensive and can be bought from www.motorworks.co.uk and posted to you. The parts are small and light enough to carry as spares and that way you won’t be waiting for post to arrive.

I don’t really know how practical it will be to carry extra oil with you but if you are at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, you might wish you had an extra 5L of oil to flush through the engine. Perhaps carry and extra 1L and you will have to find some cheap oil locally.

STEP 2: CROSSING RIVER

The obvious advice is to avoid dropping your bike in a river. The air intake on the F650GS is high up just under the headlight so basically you should make it through relatively deep water without problem.

However, as soon as the bike has dropped, turn the engine off as quickly as possible. Those seconds make a very big difference. The difference between hours of work on the engine, a couple of days waiting and quite a lot of £ being spent – especially if you need a mechanic to help.

STEP 3: ON THE BANK OF RIVER

Once you have pushed the bike to the bank, if it starts up immediately, it is fine. You are lucky. If not, you have water in the engine and so don’t keep turning the engine over as it just pushes the water through the whole engine. I repeat: DON’T KEEP TURNING THE ENGINE.

I know you will not want to believe that this is a disaster but you must accept it’s a bloody disaster and move on so that you can keep calm and maintain control of the situation.

[A side note for girls: guys don’t know more about bikes than you do, so don’t let some hero step in – make sure you sort the problem out yourself because a lot of things can still go wrong.]

STEP 4: GETTING IT TO RUN

There is water everywhere so try to get out what water you can by tipping the bike to the sides and if possible tip upwards to get water out of the exhaust.

* Remove the oil sump plug and drain the oil out of the engine.
* Remove the spark plug.
* Add fresh (cheap) oil and turn the engine over.
* Drain the oil.

Repeat this a few times and then when the oil looks clear you can put the spark plug back in and hope the engine fires up. Oil mixed with water turns into something creamy that looks like Baileys. Delicious to look at but will make you cry.

If possible, empty water out of air intake tank too at this point. Use the manual for this – it’s easy.

The bike will struggle a bit but you could drive to the nearest town.

STEP 5: AT A BIKE SHOP

What you have to do next is get all the water out of the oil, fuel and air intake.

* Make sure the oil is really running clean.
* Change the oil filter.
* Change the air filter.

To check if you have water mixed with petrol, peer into the petrol tank (open under the seat) using a torch and as petrol and water don’t mix you will be able to see the different colours in the liquids. Petrol shines blue.

* Drain the fuel tank.
* Drain the fuel filter.

To drain the fuel tank according to the Workshop Manual requires removing the frame of the bike. It’s much easier to raise the bike and get a bucket at a lower level. Place a section of hose in the tank and suck until the fuel starts to move down the hose – gravity will then pull the fuel out of the tank and drain it.

Using the Workshop Manual to guide you, all this is not that hard to do.

But good luck all the same as you will probably be stressed out and an unhappy bunny for a while. But look on the bright side; if you read this and are prepared, you will get through with minimal damage and delay, all things considered! I’ve learnt it all the hard way and its costly and frustrating.

Hey, if someone else has some ideas and advice, then please send them and I’ll add to this blog. sandilangton@yahoo.co.uk.

Blue day but still silver lining about

It’s been one of those weeks.

I took my bike off road and crashed it into a river, flooding the engine with water. The downside is there is water in the engine and it’s a mission to get out. The upside is, I’ve now done it and have to learn how to fix it. Apex motorcycles in Hampton are my heroes and I’ll go there on Saturday to fix the problem gaining some of that desperately required hands on skill. www.motorworks.co.uk have also been really helpful as far as ordering parts go.

The downside to the whole problem is I discovered that after a proper BMW service record, the oil sump plug is far too tight for a person (or two) to take off by hand (with normal human strength). I also discovered that BMW is generally not helpful outside doing an annual scheduled service and I suspect you need to famous or part of a big marketing con to get any customer service. It is so hard to get information. I’ll probably never buy another BMW for this reason. I doubt BMW cares at all as the GS is the biggest selling bike worldwide and they don’t need little insignificant customers. They also clearly make their money on spares and servicing - the price we pay for a brand.

BMW is not for hands-on bikers.

Wherever I go I meet bikers who are pretty much always, wonderful people. I mean, I can’t think of a time I’ve met bikers and they weren’t great, helpful, kind people. There is this unspoken fellowship we share. Unfortunately BMW does not share this ethos.

The next bike I get will be a proper little off road bike that is completely easy to manage and no “black box” features. If I’m ever tempted to get a road bike, I fancy the latest Kawasaki (who has a new MD with a whole new customer focus and inspiration). I guess the GS makes a good compromise but it's irksome not knowing how to solve things.

I guess the cherry on top really is what transpired yesterday: it was a particularly bad day in my career, I’d say, the worst over my entire career. By midday I walked out of the office. I’m feeling really confused about what to do and if there is any way of making the best of the situation. I’ll have to try to muddle through. I’m so wishing we had left 1st week of October as we had planned because this would all have been avoided. Clearly, it's not worked out that way.

Well. I've not shot myself in the head nor run riot with a semi automatic weapon. Things can't be too bad.

When I was 18 I had a particularly annoying manager, who used to order me to make coffee in a particularly rude way, just to wind me up. To retaliate I used to add salt to his coffee. I knew it always tasted rank but he still demanded his f*ing coffees in his usual big prick way. So one day I spat in his coffee. He never asked for coffee again. I'm not sure why. It must have been the nicest tasting one I'd ever made (no salt) and presented with a smiley face.

As for this job - it just sucks and I can't imagine I'm ever going to have the satisfaction of getting things even.