2006 R1200GS Adv Stick Coils

My GS has been having an intermittent engine miss when under heavy throttle use. It would idle fine, and would get up to speed fine, but if I was to try and pass a vehicle, it would stumble and miss.

After much reading and studying, I pretty much had diagnosed the problem being with the secondary stick coils. I tried the pull a coil and test to see if I could diagnose which coil was bad, but could only illicit a response from "normal" if I pulled a coil on a primary plug. So I gave up and chose to just go ahead and change them all out.

They arrived in the mail today and I got busy when I came home from work. Took less than 1 hours start to finish, and then went for a ride tonight. YIPPEE!! All is good again. It is nice to have the old girl back!

My bike is a 2006 with 50k miles (original owner).



The replacement parts have arrived!



I go out and pull the plugs and original stick coils.

Top L plug:



New Stick Coil:



New on the left, Old on the right.





Bottom L Plug





Right Side Plugs Top then Bottom:





Old Stick Coils with the new still in the box...



I forgot to take any more pics. When I finished I went for a short ride around the neighborhood and immediately felt a difference, so I suited up and went for a couple of hour ride. FELT GREAT.

This past April Helga (its what I named her) turned 8 years old and now with the the new coils she feels brand new again! Seriously.

Yep, your symptoms sure sounded like the secondary coils. Glad it was a simple job to replace them. Plugs looked very normal for a R1200. The lower is always a bit blacker/dirtier.

WoodButcher said:

Yep, your symptoms sure sounded like the secondary coils. Glad it was a simple job to replace them. Plugs looked very normal for a R1200. The lower is always a bit blacker/dirtier.

Click to expand...

Yep...I figure I am about due for some at 70K miles...my lower plugs looked liked that too....Mine Still runs strong...saw 125 on GPS coming into work on my favorite road

does BMW do the coils backwards? on vehicles with dual plugs the secondary plug is normally only used under cruise conditions to help improve combustion for emission control reasons. under heavy throttle the secondary plug is turned off to prevent detonation.

I think part of the culprit that led up to this is my riding habits have decreased to be just a fraction of what I used to do. I don't think I put 1500 miles on her last year. Maybe on 5 thousand in the last 3 years. Between meeting Dianne and my career demands I am riding less and less it seems.

I am even thinking of selling the RT. Who knows.

focus frenzy said:

does BMW do the coils backwards? on vehicles with dual plugs the secondary plug is normally only used under cruise conditions to help improve combustion for emission control reasons. under heavy throttle the secondary plug is turned off to prevent detonation.

Click to expand...

No idea.

The bike would start just fine, idle just fine, and maintain hwy speed just fine.

But while at highway speed if I was going to twist the throttle and juke around traffic, it would stumble/miss. It was very intermittent, but over time it then got to where I could re-produce it on command.

I would have to be in 3rd gear or higher, be maintaining a constant speed, and then try to quickly accelerate. If I just lightly rolled on more throttle I would never notice anything. It was only under hard acceleration that the symptoms would present.

I gave up trying to figure out which coil was bad, so I just replaced them all, call it repair and preventative maintenance I guess.

It looks like the new one makes a tighter fit around the plug. I wonder if junk was getting up inside the old ones and messing up the contact with the plug?

Dang! That expensive bill.

TwoSmokeDS said:

Dang! That expensive bill.

Click to expand...

Yes, but Max BMW was so much cheaper and more immediate than taking it in to be serviced by a dealer. The BMW shop south of Houston wanted much more for just the stick coils, so much more that I thought she was pulling my leg.

Yes, on the BMW the secondaries kick in at higher rpm as I understand it.

Ok I googled it.
"In the previous BMW motorcycle two-spark engines, the plugs fired together to for a better fuel burn. The setup on the R1200GS can is different as ECU interprets throttle, lambda & anti-knock sensors and can stagger the ignition timing of the two sets of plugs so the engine runs smoother. This set up is supposed to make the engine run smoother."

"The primary fires before the piston reaches the top of the compression stroke, at approx 6 degrees before top dead center. (TDC) This is pretty standard and provides the bulk of the energy required for the power stroke.

The secondary fires just as the piston reaches TDC which aids in total combustion of the air gas mixture and aids a more efficient evacuation when the piston returns on the exhaust stroke and the exhaust valve is open. This is typically why your secondary plug is dirtier than your primary when you pull them out. Not a bad idea to cycle plug position between replacements although not required."

Both from BMW techs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free