Ball Joint Change - HELP!

sproggy · Post by **sproggy** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 10:16 pm

Based on today's evidence I'm starting to wonder whether bigblackfalco was right - the bike's been messed with. For reasons that I won't explain (

) some fork oil escaped from one fork leg. So, off to the dealer to get more oil, drain out the old oil and.........HOW MUCH?

The manual states 170ml of oil per leg. After spraying some all over me, the garage floor and the bench I measured 470ml of (red) oil!!! So probably a total of around 490mm including what I lost. Where did that come from - some monkey's been messing with my forks.

Did the other side and drained 460ml out (red again). Replaced with the correct amount of BMW fork oil (nearly clear, with a slight yellow tint) and I'll be interested to find out tomorrow whether the bike is any different to ride.

So, worn balljoint after 11k miles, wrong quantity of (probably) non-BMW fork oil.....accident damage repaired? But the bike is HPi clear. I'm just glad my little....er.....miscalculation caused some oil to escape, otherwise I'd never have known. I know the quantity of oil probably isn't hugely critical as it's there only for lubriaction but there was considerable resistance to movement before that isn't there now. I suspect that some previous odd characteristics of the front end might now disappear......

winger · Post by **winger** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:28 am

People put too much faith in the HPI thing,all that means is when someone threw it down the road they went via the insurance to get it fixed,i've seen loads of write offs re-built and not on the register because the insurance hasn't been involved.

sproggy · Post by **sproggy** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:43 am

I realise that but to have needed replacement or rebuilt forks the damage must have been quite extensive to the rest of the bike too. Given that it would have been fairly new at the time it's surprising that insurance wasn't involved, although the previous owner did live in Park Lane so he can't have been short of a few bob.....

I'll never know, but it means I'm checking everything else on the bike (that I haven't already pulled apart

) extra carefully as I work on it. If it was crashed it was repaired well - no sign of damage to or misalignment of any part, all plastic lugs intact etc.

Steve W · Post by **Steve W** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:42 am

Sproggy

With regards to the amount of oil in the forks, I had the same problem when one of my fork oil seals started leaking.
Checked with South London BMW who had to check with BMW technical dept and found that the amount quoted in all the manuals is for the original bikes. Later bikes (at least 2001 on) had 0.49 ltrs per leg.

Steve

sproggy · Post by **sproggy** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 3:46 pm

Steve W wrote:Later bikes (at least 2001 on) had 0.49 ltrs per leg.

Oh, bugger. Mine's a 2002. It's all back together again now...... Thanks for the info, though, Steve. I guess that explains why BMW sell fork oil in litre containers, then - I thought it was a lot.

I suppose I can try 'injecting' the other 320ml through the bleed valve hole to avoid having to strip the front end again.