General topics » No more factory DVD service manuals

According to an article in the January issue of the BMWMOA Owner's News, BMW's customer service department, when asked why DVD service manuals can no longer be ordered through their North American dealer's parts department as they have for many years in the past, they responded as follows: "Due to the increasing technical complexity of our new vehicles, we have decided, in order to maintain a flawless technical condition and to ensure compliance with legal requirements, that in the future we as a manufacturer will only support repairs by trained staff in specialist motorcycle workshops (for example, at authorized BMW Motorrad dealers and in BMW Motorrad service workshops). Operating instructions and installation instructions for our original BMW Motorrad accessories for the individualization of our vehicles will of course remain available on our homepage for download by end customers."

What is not clear from the article is if this policy will also apply to older BMW models no longer in production (like the R1200 models) and only to the latest bikes like the R1250 models, or if BMW motorcycle owners will no longer be able to purchase the DVD factory service manual for any of their motorcycle models in the future.

Zitat von Richard230 im Beitrag #1

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What is not clear from the article is if this policy will also apply to older BMW models no longer in production (like the R1200 models) and only to the latest bikes like the R1250 models, or if BMW motorcycle owners will no longer be able to purchase the DVD factory service manual for any of their motorcycle models in the future.

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Zitat von Richard230 im Beitrag #1

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According to an article in the January issue of the BMWMOA Owner's News, BMW's customer service department, when asked why DVD service manuals can no longer be ordered through their North American dealer's parts department as they have for many years in the past, they responded as follows: "Due to the increasing technical complexity of our new vehicles, we have decided, in order to maintain a flawless technical condition and to ensure compliance with legal requirements, that in the future we as a manufacturer will only support repairs by trained staff in specialist motorcycle workshops (for example, at authorized BMW Motorrad dealers and in BMW Motorrad service workshops). Operating instructions and installation instructions for our original BMW Motorrad accessories for the individualization of our vehicles will of course remain available on our homepage for download by end customers."

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In the US, I thought for cars it was a legal requirement that manufacturers make service manuals available to consumers. Also, the right to repair laws in a few states might make what BMW is doing here illegal.

Zitat von Paul911 im Beitrag #4

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In the US, I thought for cars it was a legal requirement that manufacturers make service manuals available to consumers. Also, the right to repair laws in a few states might make what BMW is doing here illegal.

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Well, don't we all know that only someone with a certificate on the wall can figure out how to fix modern motorcycles.

Zitat von zer0netgain im Beitrag #7

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Well, don't we all know that only someone with a certificate on the wall can figure out how to fix modern motorcycles.

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BTW, the BMWMOA Owners News article, written by Wes Fleming, addresses the topic of the “right to repair” movement. He mentions that there is no federal or state “right to repair” law in the U.S. at this time. The only state that has such a law is Massachusetts and that law only applies automobiles. It states that manufacturers “shall make available for purchase by owners and independent repair facilities all diagnostic repair tools” which are available to its dealer network. The law does not specifically mention technical documents or service manuals at all. And the Massachusetts law specifically excludes motorcycles. No other “right to repair” laws have been passed by any other U.S. state.

And the Magnusom-Moss Act addresses warranties, not the right to repair or the availability of service manuals.

The author concludes that BMW is not breaking any state or federal laws by refusing to make available a service manual for their late-model motorcycles.

The article also mentions Haynes and Clymer motorcycle repair manuals. The most recent manuals they have published are for a few 2020 Ducati and Honda models. The last BMW manual that Haynes has published is for the 2018 R nineT variants. He is not hopeful that either company will be publishing a BMW service manual for the latest models in the future as they will likely not be given the factory technical information necessary to do so by BMW. However, their manuals are available for the 2017 S100R/RR/XR, 2016 F700/800 models, as well as the 2016 R1200 versions.

Wenn Sie hier auf Links zu eBay klicken und einen Kauf tätigen, kann dies dazu führen, dass diese Website eine Provision erhält.

This announcement was made earlier this year, which is well after the first model year of the 1250 models.

Does anyone know if there was ever a factory service manual available for the R1250RS? I ask because people on Ebay are selling download links for $40 and I'm wondering how legitimate these are. Obviously it's a copyright violation but to be honest, I'm not too concerned with that.

w w w.ebay.com/itm/133955092160

Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #6

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Zitat von Lee im Beitrag #5

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Zitat von Paul911 im Beitrag #4

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In the US, I thought for cars it was a legal requirement that manufacturers make service manuals available to consumers. Also, the right to repair laws in a few states might make what BMW is doing here illegal.

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We have the right to repair but it's a little fuzzy if car companies have to provided repair manuals.

I was in the Chevy shop the other day and asked the service manager if Chevy still had OEM repair manuals that customers could purchase.
As far as he knew that stopped a few years ago. Only aftermarket available now.
He said they access all their technical repair and service information by satellite.

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indeed, everything is going to be like any other valuable media, digitised and behind a proprietary paywall

over here, they have to use common standards to allow the use of generic fault code readers and to allow resetting of service indicators but anything detailed will have to come from the likes of Haynes for physical repairs and Hexcode for software.

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I bought one and so far, so good.

Zitat von Paul911 im Beitrag #10

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This announcement was made earlier this year, which is well after the first model year of the 1250 models.

Does anyone know if there was ever a factory service manual available for the R1250RS? I ask because people on Ebay are selling download links for $40 and I'm wondering how legitimate these are.

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It appears the whole DVD multi-model manual is no longer available