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Engine & cooling

2002 BMW K Series Engine problems

Owners have filed 1 complaint about the 2002 BMW K Series's engine & cooling with NHTSA - 50% of all its complaints, most recently on June 20, 2025. They describe 0 crashes, 1 fire and 0 injuries. Stalling, loss of power, oil consumption, overheating, head gaskets, timing chains and engine failure.

Complaints
1
Recalls
0
Crashes
0
Fires
1
Injuries
0
Deaths
0

Engine complaints

Engine & coolingFuel systemFire

Approximately on Nov 25, 2024, my BMW K1200RS started on fire. I backed out of my garage and driveway onto the street. I started it up, and within a couple minutes it began smoking. I turned if off immediately and looked under the front of the bike and saw flames. I ran into my house and grabbed my fire extinguisher, and put out the flames. I had help pushing it back into my garage. About a week later I took off the left side panel and reviewed the damage. I put in a claim to my insurance. The agent that contacted...

Read the full complaint

me acted as if it was my fault and did this on purpose without saying so. I would agree to having the company take it away. I did not believe I would ever see it again if I complied. I canceled my claim and decided to repair it myself. It tool me 4 months to get parts and repair it. It was a very difficult job. I took many photos to document the damage. I contacted BMW about it because I discovered that others that owned the same model or very similar model with the same engine also had the same problem with about the same mileage and same year. I sent photos to a BMW representative that had its team review the photos. I did this because I think that it needed to know and investigate. After a month later, the representative contacted me, and told me they did not determine anything. I was told that since I repaired the bike, they could not make any determination. My photos were enough to show the cause, which I still have. My conclusion is that one of the fuel injectors had cracked somewhere and the voltage connection to the injector started the fire. Even though I was able to save the bike, the flames had burned many parts including the wiring harness on the left side. This was not a maintenance issue. I did my own oil changes, etc. I owned this for over 5 years, and was the 3rd owner. I believe that the injector was faulty. This should be investigated. I have photos to prove my claim. This could have caused an explosion.

Filed Incident Engine · Fuel / propulsion systemNHTSA 11668176

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Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaints and recalls, checked . Complaints are owners' own reports and are not verified. How we use the data

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