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BMW i-ABS III died – now what?




The warning light of your bike's ABS is flashing fast, the servo's stopped whizzing and you have to squeeze the brake handle as if your life would depend on it (it actually does!). Your ABS has died. Hopefully not just before a hairpin bend or close to the rear end of a truck.

Mine died quietly over night. When I left the house the next morning, the warning light didn't flash slowly - as it usually does as part of its self-test - but quickly. WTF? At the end of the driveway I squeeze the brake handle and yep, no brakes. At least not with a gentle squeeze. So I squeeze more. And more. Then a lot more. The bike then brutally stops.

I quickly get used to applying a lot more force to the brake handle, but it is unpleasant. That is on dry roads. It's dangerous on wet roads or cobblestones (which we have a lot in Flanders) for braking gently is nearly impossible using the residual brake.

This blog is about i-ABS III, aka "whizzy brakes" on an R1200RT. After 2006 BMW installed a different ABS system which doesn't produce the whining sound, appears to be a lot more reliable and a lot less expensive to repair or replace. i-ABS III has a reputation. Just check the BMW fora in various countries. 

BMW installed the i-ABS III in K- and R-series between 2000 and 2006. Approximately 260.000 bikes. For more detailed information check

In all fairness to BMW, one has to admit that rh electronics are not totally impartial when they publish their devastating report about this ABS module. There are still boatloads of those BMW's cruising around with a working ABS, but user reports on many BMW fora confirm that they do have a point..

Since I'm now joining the group of BMW owners with a broken ABS I started to search the internet and contact repair shops for information about how to repair it. I don't mind getting my hands dirty. I do mind a ride to the graveyard because of bad brakes.


For starters, check your owner's manual and see if you can fix the problem based on advice published in that manual. If you don't have the manual, you can download it here (you must enable cookies):

https://www.bmw-motorrad.com/en/service/manuals/rider-manual.html

If you're lucky it's just the fluid level in your ABS which is low. That's an easy fix. Take off the tupperware, remove the fuel tank and top up the fluid. 

But there's a catch: ABS doesn't loose fluid for no reason. The juice must have gone somewhere. It's likely that the ABS unit is leaking somewhere because of rubber seals which have gone bad. Apart from the fact that replacing those bad seals is not something for the faint-hearted, it also means that some of that fluid probably ended up on a painted surface and has been eating away paint or even worse. So, just topping up the fluid will buy you time, but that's all it does.
If you're not so lucky one or both servo motors got stuck, one or both pressure sensors have died or the modulator solenoids are not working anymore. Or the electronics have been been fried. There are quite a few things that can go wrong.

Stop guessing and check the fault codes in the ECU - you may need to have your dealer do this for you,  not every OBD tool is able to get all the details from the ABS controller. Depending on the result of that diagnostic scan you will know if your ABS can be repaired or not.


front pressure sensor out of range

Until you make up your mind you can still drive the bike, but with impaired braking function. The residual brake requires you to squeeze the brake fluid through the entire ABS system manually, which requires considerable amount of force and lacks subtility to brake gently on slippery grounds.

Here are your options:

  • Replace
  • Repair
  • Remove

Replace

This is the easiest solution. And the most expensive one. A brand-new i-ABS III will cost you well over 2,000 €. I wouldn't spend that amount to repair a 16 year old bike. But hey, it's your money.

You can also look for a used unit. These days they are becoming a bit harder to find, but from time to time used parts dealers have one in stock. But they don't come really cheap. A used i-ABS III is usually priced around 700..800 € (not including any labor to remove the old unit and install the other old unit). "Used, but in good condition". Well, mine was used but in good condition the day before it died.

Some sources in the BeNeLux area (there may be others, closer to where you live):

Caution: a similar ABS unit has also been used in the earlier R 1150 model, but it's the analog variant, i.e. without CAN bus. You cant' use this on a CAN bike like the R1200 or K1200.

Repair

You can get your ABS unit repaired, or better: get a complete revision, which is more than just a plain break/fix. I don't think that you will find an official BMW dealer who will offer to repair your unit; most of them keep their hands off. On the other hand, there are quite a few independent motorcycle service shops who are willing to repair or revise our ABS. I can't give any recommendation about which ones are experts and which ones are not-so-expert.
And then there are shops who really specialise in ABS revision for cars and bikes. Those are the real experts. They know what they're doing and where to get the right parts.

Below is a non-exhaustive overview of what I found on the internet and thanks to some hints from Gerrit Speek (most of his pages about bikes are in Dutch). Note that none of the listed suppliers is offering spare parts. If you prefer to do the revision yourself, you need to find a donor unit and hope for the best.

Most shops work for a flat fee, regardless how broken your ABS unit is - provided no damage was done by a DIY revision attempt. The prices mentioned in this article either have been advertized on the internet by the shops or communicated to me personally.

Duties, custom charges and VAT apply for customers who have their unit repaired outside the EU. I assume that the same is true for non-EU customers who have their unit repaired in another country.

ABS repair experts

RH Electronics


This company is probably the most professional supplier in this market. They're not cheap, but they use new pressure sensors (if found faulty) for the revision and provide 2 years warranty on the repaired fault.

Location: Hauptstrasse 18, 82285 Hattenhofen, Germany (near Munich).

Offering: full revision for a flat fee, including replacement of the pressure sensors by new sensors.
Price: 949 € (flat fee) + 19% V.A.T. + shipping + shipping of your old ABS unit to their shop. No additional costs within the EU for shipping or customs. Currently (April 2021) they offer a discount of 110 €.
Warranty: 2 years on the repaired fault (read the disclaimer).

Module Master

Module Master in an American company which has  been in the ABS repair  business for more than 15 years and recently started to fix BMW bike ABS systems. I can't confirm this, but it seems that they are still struggling to get this part of their business started. At the time of writing, their web site states "Not Available - This rebuild is currently WAITLISTED and the waitlist is closed due to overwhelming demand".
They are less expensive than RH, but for European customers not so attractive because shipping is expensive and EU customers will have to pay import duties and V.A.T., regardless whether MM's price includes VAT or not.

Location: 2006 S Main St., Moscow ID 83843, USA.

Offering: full revision for a flat fee, using new parts (just wondering where they get those parts...)
Price: 750 US$ (flat fee) + shipping + duties + customs charges (4% + ca. 10 €) + VAT (for Belgium: 21% on product + shipping + duties + custom charges) + shipping of your old ABS unit to their shop, together approx. 1,000 €.
Warranty: 5 years.

Serwis ABS

Serwis ABS is a company located in Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland. The company offers revision for a variety of ABS systems on BMW motorcycles. Their pricing is attractive. For EU customers there is no additional cost other than a reasonable shipping cost, since Poland is part of the EU.


Location: 63400 Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland
Web site: N/A

Offering: full revision of your ABS unit for a flat fee. Seals are replaced by new ones, other parts com from used donor systems.

Price: 720 € + shipping of your old unit to the shop + shipping of the revised unit back to you. Total cost approx. 750 €.

Note: on explicit customer request, faulty pressure sensors can be replaced by new sensors. The price for this revision is 1,000 € and includes 3 years warranty.

Independent Motorcycle service shops

I'm just listing a few names which have come to my attention, but you can certainly find a lot more service shops where repair of your ABS is offered. Note that a lot of those shops will only repair more recent ABS models, for (used) parts of i-ABS III are hard to find and this particular ABS model is a lot more complicated than more recent models.

Leie Motors

Leie Motors is an independent service shop, specialized in BMW, who offers a revision for this ABS.



Location: Baarledorpstraat 44, 9031 Drongen, Belgium.
Contact: leiemotors@telenet.be; +32 476 88 96 66

Offering: full revision for a flat fee. They prefer that you deliver the whole bike, not just the ABS unit, to make sure that the root cause for your ABS problem is the ABS itself and to test that the end result is OK.
Price: 750 €, all-in.
Warranty: 1 year.

Motorservice Peeters


Motorservice Peeters is an independent service shop, specialized in BMW, who offers a revision for this ABS.





Location: Edisonstraat 9, 7131 PB Lichtenvoorde, The Netherlands.

Offering: full revision for a flat fee. The price includes labor to remove and re-install the ABS unit. Obviously you'll have to bring your bike to the shop.
Price: 1,475 €, all in.
Warranty: unknown.

MSA Motor Service Amersfoort


MSA is an independent service shop, specialized in BMW, who offers a revision for this ABS.



Location: Galileïlaan 33-M, 6716 BP Ede, The Netherlands.
Contact: info@motorserviceamersfoort.com , + 31 318 635 354
Price: ?
Warranty: ?


Bypass

If your ABS is broken beyond repair or you don't want to spend a lot of money for a revision, there is another option: you can bypass the ABS system and continue with plain old-style brakes. In this setting, the pump in the brake handle and brake pedal will be directly connected with the brake calipers. This provides good, manageable braking power, but of course without power assistance and without the ABS safety features.

Note: There is a EU directive 2009/40/EC on roadworthiness tests for motorcycles, which has been implemented in a number of EU countries. Some countries already have a roadworthiness requirement, regardless of the EU directive. Depending on the national implementation of the directive and how picky the inspector is you may have a problem to get your roadworthiness certificate renewed if the ABS has been bypassed or removed from the bike. In that case "Replace" or "Repair" may be your only option to keep the bike on the road.



Here is a video testimonial of a biker about brake performance after removal of his ABS:




I'll list the kits that I'm aware of in order of complexity.

Motorworks BRA50965



This kit is mentioned in a number of YouTube videos. It was a more expensive (45 £) version of the successor BRA50965A (see below).



Motorworks BRA50965A

This kit is just for the front brakes. A short tube loops the pump in the brake handle directly to the the calipers for the front brakes. For the rear brakes you can connect the brake line directly to the pump on the rear brake pedal. The job is a bit messy as it involves diconnecting the break lines of the ABS and dealing with dripping break fluids. Below is a link to a YouTube video which shows in great detail how this is done. Note that the video is for an older 850/1150 model, without CAN, but the "plumming" is similar. 
If your bike has CAN, ignore the part about modifying the wiring for the brake lights. See item Motorworks ELA50965 for more information.
Location: Motorworks (UK) Ltd., The Old School House, Meltham Mills Road, Meltham, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire HD9 4AT, England.
Contact: https://www.motorworks.co.uk/vlive/Help/PartsQuoteEnquiry.php;
+44 1484 353600.
Web site: https://www.motorworks.co.uk/vlive/Shop/Parts.php

Product: BRA50965A

Price: 12 £ + 7.50 £ shipping. Since the total value (including shipping cost) exceeds 22 €, there is a fair chance that EU customers may have to pay import duties, custom fees and local VAT on top of that amount (thank you, Brexit).

Below is a YouTube movie demonstrating how this kit is installed (it becomes interesting at 7:00).



Motorworks ELA50965


This component is the pendant to BRA50965A. The CAN version of the ABS requires the original electronics to handle the brake lights and speedometer signals. If you remove the ABS unit, you'll have to disassemble it and re-install the electronics part of the ABS unit. To protect the electronics, use this cover. If you leave the old ABs unit in place, you won't need this cover, but there is always the risk of an unexpected revival of your ABS and spillage of some residual brake fluid. And you will be carrying about 4 kg of paperweight with you all the time.

Company information: same as for BRA50965A.

The alternative to this kit is to cut a piece of sheet metal to the correct size and glue it to the housing of the electronics. Looks terrible, but does the job.


  


Note: if you plan to do this, you can either drill out the bolt heads or use the special bits required to disassemble the ABS. Depending on the year of manufacture, those bolts can either have 3-wing heads of 5-lobe safety Torx heads.
3-wing heads come in 2 variants: 3-wing and Y-type. Check the unit to see what you need.


Regular torx bits have 6 lobes. The safety torx bolts on the ABS case have 5 lobes and a pin in the center to keep hobbyists from opening the case.


Last but not least you need to shut down the alarms on your dashboard. There is no "hack" to suppress the alarm signal coming from the ABS computer - at least not one which can be applied by mere mortals like you and me (see below). What most people do is open the dash box and tape off the warning lights. Brutal and simple.

RH Electronics "Second Life" kit


Technically, this kit does nearly the same job as Motorworks' BRA50965A + ELA50965 combined. But it's a lot more convenient. Disconnect the incoming at outgoing brake  lines from the ABS, remove the ABS, put the Second Life Kit in the same place, reconnect the brake pipes, reconnect the electrical plug, done. Mess with brake fluid is limited. You can keep your old ABS in one piece (in case someone wants to buy it as donor unit to repair another one.
The electronics which come with the kit, will take care of your brake lights and speedometer and suppress the ABS fault signals on your dash. You can even configure how you warning lights should respond to faults. Check the documentation of more details.
The kit exists for analog and CAN versions of i-ABS III.

Web link (CAN version): SECOND LIFE KIT
Price: 699 € incl. VAT + shipping


RH Electronics also offers a "light" version of the "Second Life" kit. Basically, this is just the electronic module of the full "Second Life" kit, which helps you to suppress the error display on your dash and keeps the brake lights and speedometer working. You still have to do the "plumming", for example using the Motorworks kit.

Price: 599 € incl. VAT+ shipping


ABS Emulator



The ABS Emulator can be ordered on ebay. It is manufactured by Serwis ABS, the same Polish company which does the full revision of your ABS. It is very similar to RH's second life kit, but at a substantially lower price point. The electronics in this emulator are not custom made to replace the original electronics; it's the original computer coming from your old unit which has been modified to keep the alarms OFF and retain the other important functions:
  • produce data for the speedometer
  • monitor brake switches to handle the break light.
  • monitor the ABS wheel sensors and produce an alarm if they go bad
Since the kit is using your own ABS computer, it can be used to replace analog and CAN ABS systems

Note: the modification of the electronics is irreversible. If you consider to use the emulator as a temporary solution until you find a fix for your broken ABS, you will need a computer from another donor unit to restore your repaired ABS.

You have 2 purchase options: send in your complete old ABS unit or only send your electronics box to the supplier. Sending your entire ABS gives you a discount of approx. 100 € (surely they will use parts of it as donor for other repairs)
Price: 
  • 288 € + shipping of your ABS computer to the company + shipping the kit back to you. Total cost for EU customers about 330 €.
  • 181 € + shipping of your complete ABS unit to the company + shipping the emulator kit back to you. Total cost for EU customers approx. 220 €. The lower price is a compensation for donating your ABS unit.

FIY (Fix It Yourself)

Finally, a few interesting Youtube links to (try to) fix it yourself. Taking it apart is not rocket science, although it requires a few special tools (see the section about safety torx and 3-wing bits). Finding the correct seals and possibly other replacement parts is a different story. And in the end, you'll have to put it back together without any leaks.

Like the French say: bon courage.

Concerning the videos: click on "YouTube" in the bottom bar of the video to see comments from viewers and responses from the author.

Christinel Petrescu's video (part 1 of 5, English voice-over):



Chantal Clemens' video (part 1 of 2, French voice-over):



Goyo AV's video (part 1 of 2, Spanish voice-over):




R1200RT Servo assist Bypass (English voice-over):



Interesting thread on Hexhead's forum: https://www.bmwsporttouring.com/topic/88074-05-r1200rt-servo-problemsremoval/















Location: 2400 Mol, België

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