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Flickering oil pressure light "04 R1150


Kingofneon

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I have a couple questions.

1) what is the " normal" range for oil temp as it indicates on the bar graph on my '04 R1150 rt

2) my oil temp guage usually indicates about halfway up while riding. After anytime in traffic, the oil temp climbs to about 3/4 and the oil pressure light starts flickering at idle.

Any thoughts?

The bike had 44k miles and runs too well to have a worn bottom end

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I have a couple questions.

1) what is the " normal" range for oil temp as it indicates on the bar graph on my '04 R1150 rt

2) my oil temp guage usually indicates about halfway up while riding. After anytime in traffic, the oil temp climbs to about 3/4 and the oil pressure light starts flickering at idle.

Any thoughts?

The bike had 44k miles and runs too well to have a worn bottom end

 

Evening Kingofneon

 

The oil temperature doesn't sound out of line with other BMW 1150RT's.

 

The oil light shouldn't flicker at idle unless the oil temps are maxed out & the engine idle is way low.

 

Your oil light issue could be a very low engine idle & thin engine oil, or very thin engine oil, or a failing oil pressure switch, or an engine bearing problem, or an oil pump issue, or internal oil leaking from an oil passage, or a oil light circuit issue, or a mixture of the above.

 

The proper thing to do is to hook up an oil pressure gauge then see what kind of oil pressure you really have at hot curb idle.

 

Without an oil pressure gauge then if it were my bike I would install a new oil pressure switch, change the engine oil to a good 20w50 oil, & set the engine idle to hot engine specs.

 

If the problem goes away then you are golden, if it doesn't then you (or somebody) has some serious troubleshooting to do.

 

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I am hoping its the sensor. The oil is fresh 20/50 and the bike was tuned by the local afermarket BMW guru. I was also hoping ( for a change ) " this is a known issue with that model".

What is considered " too hot" on that guage?

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Mine normally runs at five bars once it's warmed up. Maybe six if it's warm & in traffic. Highest I've ever seen it is seven for a short time while I was stuck in traffic and it was hot, like upper 90's (well, actually, upper 90's is only considered warm here...hot is over 110 but I usually don't ride when it's much over 90 :) ). Never seen the oil pressure light on if the engine was running.

Edited by MarkAZ
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Tried to load a pic...it would appear that the oil pressure switch has a very factory looking rubber cap but no wires leading away . any one know of a second switch?

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Tried to load a pic...it would appear that the oil pressure switch has a very factory looking rubber cap but no wires leading away . any one know of a second switch?

 

 

Morning Kingofneon

 

Only one oil pressure switch (for oil light) different oil pressure sensor for oil temperature gauge. Oil light sensor switch is on L/H side of engine just to the rear & above the sight glass.

 

41uh17i.jpg

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Yep...thats where mine is ( buried under the side cover) i am guessing the wire exits the cap towards the block. As an old VW guy...the oil light flicker just scares the crap outta me. I rode the boke on a 250 mile trip ( 75+) and it runs crazy strong. When i made it back home...got stuck in stop and go traffic...heat went up to 80 percent of guage and then comes the flicker at idle (800 to 1000) rpm. Is it just idling low?

My mechanic is 80 miles away!

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"..heat went up to 80 percent of gauge and then comes the flicker at idle (800 to 1000) rpm. Is it just idling low? "

 

Yes, too low. Set your idle to 1100 RPM.

 

Take off the fairings on both sides. Locate the throttle bodies and then locate the big brass screw on each throttle body. Make sure you have driven the bike about 10 miles so it is at full operating temperature. Turn each of the big brass screws counterclockwise by an equal amount - probably just 10-20 degrees. Turning them counter-clockwise increases the amount of air at idle and will increase the idle RPMs.

 

I'm giving you these instructions since you previously used a mechanic to set your throttle bodies before. The big brass screws are only effecting the air mixture at idle. There are loads of written and YouTube videos on syncing the throttle bodies on these bikes. You should learn to do this for yourself. Add your location to your profile and maybe someone nearby can assist you.

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Yep...thats where mine is ( buried under the side cover) i am guessing the wire exits the cap towards the block. As an old VW guy...the oil light flicker just scares the crap outta me. I rode the boke on a 250 mile trip ( 75+) and it runs crazy strong. When i made it back home...got stuck in stop and go traffic...heat went up to 80 percent of guage and then comes the flicker at idle (800 to 1000) rpm. Is it just idling low?

My mechanic is 80 miles away!

 

Afternoon Kingofneon

 

I don't know what is going on with your oil pressure switch but yours doesn't sound like a stock BMW switch. Maybe you have an automobile switch installed that has a higher pressure setting.

 

That 800 RPM hot curb idle is definitely too low & even the 1100 rpm's are just a bit low (oil light should not come on at 1000 rpm's though).

 

At 44,000 miles you are probably getting some idle air passage & BBS screw tip coking (that restricts idle air flow) so it might be time to remove the BBS screws & clean the under-screw air passages & clean the BBS screw tips, then do a good throttle body balance & hot engine curb idle reset to a balanced 1050-1150 RPM's.

 

In the mean time I would try to verify IF your oil pressure switch is a true BMW switch calibrated for the BMW boxer oiling characteristics.

 

If you experience the flickering oil light again then just use your choke lever to raise the base idle a little to see if the light stays out (the choke in NOT really a choke but ONLY a fast idle lever so there is no fuel richening involved if you use the choke to raise idle rpm's)

 

 

 

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