Fuel Pump Whine

Yesterday I gave my R18 to the 10.000km service at the BMW-Dealer.
Actually there is no official information about a solution from BMW in correspondence with my FIN-Nr. of the Bike.
BMW will be stay quit untill there customers get louder.
Or until there is an actual problem.
There was an actual problem on the K1600B fuel pump mentioned above, and was repaired under warrantee in 2 hours, no problem.
Still sleeps between the R18 and the R1200RT in the hangar.
 
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Or until there is an actual problem.
There was an actual problem on the K1600B fuel pump mentioned above, and was repaired under warrantee in 2 hours, no problem.
Still sleeps between the R18 and the R1200RT in the hangar.
I am not mechanically inclined in the least, so my question may be a dumb one, but here is my thought: it is very common for a pump to whine between turning on the ignition/starter switch in this case and when the bike fires up, the whine goes away. Does that mean that the pump goes into a lower “run” mode, not necessitating the “start” mode and running at full speed? In this case, the pump never stops whining. Does that mean it never slows down to this “run” mode and could be subject to burning out prematurely? This stated gradually for me, but is now Omni-present every single time I ride. Annoying at start up, then I cannot hear it while riding due to engine and wind noise. Let’s say the first stretch of riding is 20 minutes without a stop, then Bamn, first highway exit or stop light and the whining becomes noticeable again. Takes some of the joy of the ride away fairly quickly. Lots of miles in Michigan in-between BMW dealers, so a few hours realistically could turn into a day or more (towing the bike, hoping they are open, hoping they have the R18 pump, etc). Again, sorry for my potentially dumb questions, but my novice head tells me the pump is never slowing down after starting the bike.
 
I am not mechanically inclined in the least, so my question may be a dumb one, but here is my thought: it is very common for a pump to whine between turning on the ignition/starter switch in this case and when the bike fires up, the whine goes away. Does that mean that the pump goes into a lower “run” mode, not necessitating the “start” mode and running at full speed? In this case, the pump never stops whining. Does that mean it never slows down to this “run” mode and could be subject to burning out prematurely? This stated gradually for me, but is now Omni-present every single time I ride. Annoying at start up, then I cannot hear it while riding due to engine and wind noise. Let’s say the first stretch of riding is 20 minutes without a stop, then Bamn, first highway exit or stop light and the whining becomes noticeable again. Takes some of the joy of the ride away fairly quickly. Lots of miles in Michigan in-between BMW dealers, so a few hours realistically could turn into a day or more (towing the bike, hoping they are open, hoping they have the R18 pump, etc). Again, sorry for my potentially dumb questions, but my novice head tells me the pump is never slowing down after starting the bike.
I cannot speak for this model's fuel pump characteristics (more about that pesky missing shop service manual elsewhere in this forum) but my experience is that although some vary in speed proportionate to demand MOST run at a constant speed to simply maintain a constant pressure. Typically you hear the pump most on start up and that sound dies down once all paths are at pressure. Also typically is that as they age and/or become contaminated they tend to get noisier - but I don't think any of us are "there" yet. Some electric motors will be quiet when cold and begin to "whine" when fully warmed up and still be fully functional and reliable - just louder than others (like some of us are). I don't think the mother ship actually builds these pumps (Hell they can't even get accessories made by others out to us) and my best guess is there are pumps in our tanks of identical performance specs made by various manufacturers, and some are simply noisier than others.
 
I' ve got a phone call from BMW FRANCE this afternoon.
They ask me to go back to the dealer to record the noise.
Something seems to happen.
 
In scheduling my bike for it's first 700 miles maintenance, I mentioned the whine issue to the BMW Dealer Service Tech. He said that they have sold 70 R18's and no one has reported that issue. Annoying that this isn't getting more notice from BMW...
 
In scheduling my bike for it's first 700 miles maintenance, I mentioned the whine issue to the BMW Dealer Service Tech. He said that they have sold 70 R18's and no one has reported that issue. Annoying that this isn't getting more notice from BMW...
I miss my 1952 Pan
 
Had the noise recorded yesterday at the BMW shop.
Crossing the fingers.
It's definitely louder with the tank full.
 
This isn't the solution you're looking for, I know...but I recently purchased a Cardo freecom4+ comm system for the helmet. And, it turns out that music playback with the thing is optimized for wearing ear plugs oddly enough. So, I'm now wearing ear plugs always. I always thought that I wasn't an ear plug fan, but turns out that I was wrong. Makes riding much more pleasant. And, a side benefit is that the whine issue is suddenly a thing of the past....though I'd already gotten used to it...
 
I've made one more video today.
In fact the noise is louder when riding.
I'll make a french, english, italian and german version.
To be sure BMW will know about !


😅🤣
 
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Hello gerard,
i can hear it clear. And it is equal to the noise at mine R18 was.
I have reached 10.000km this weekend with the second pump.
The second pump is again louder as after the changing, but not yet as loud as the first one.
 
I started to hear the exact same high pitch noise when my R18 had about 900 miles. I took it to my dealer 2 weeks ago. At that time the noise was noticeable but not loud. They said it was from fuel pump and asked me to keep watching. I was told they can replace it anytime if the problem gets worse.
 
Updated the video in four languages !
Don't hesitate to let me know if my text isn't correct, in any of them.
Particularly in German since it is the google translation.
No doubt BMW will appreciate all of these...
:ROFLMAO:
Thanks for transferring these links !

English :
Italian:
German :
French:
 
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To El Pollo Diablo, could you give me the link for the thread about this problem in the German forum in order to insert it in the texts?
 
It seems that this video has already had its effect: I just had a call from the dealer to tell me that the problem was the subject of a "puma measure" (?) Which consists of changing the pump and making a software update. Except that he tells me that my bike already had this procedure, obviously without any success!
They must contact me again to tell me if they find another solution ...
All the videos had been updated with this info.
:ROFLMAO:
 
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It seems that this video has already had its effect: I just had a call from the dealer to tell me that the problem was the subject of a "puma measure" (?) Which consists of changing the pump and making a software update. Except that he tells me that my bike already had this procedure, obviously without any success!
They must contact me again to tell me if they find another solution ...
All the videos had been updated with this info.
:ROFLMAO:
English: Any information about a recall?
Español: ¿sabes si habrá un recall por esto?
 
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