2010 TE 250 Timing gear issue

Has anybody experienced an issue with the timing gear bearings on this model? I have one with low hours and the bearings self destructed and rained all their contents down into the bottom end.

Just wondering if there is a "known issue"...

Someone else here had the same thing happen.

Mine is okay for now.

Have you had your motor apart before this happened.

No. The engine is out of the frame and disassembly starts tomorrow. It has never been apart. The balls and cages from both bearings are missing and feared lost in the abyss.

Engine went from running great, to running poorly to not running at all in a short period of time during a ride. An inspection revealed the timing gear bearing had failed. I started another thread on that subject to see if it was a known issue...hard to think that something like this was completely random.

You can see the bearing races still present in the gearset, and one of the two inner races next to it. The cages and balls are AWOL...




I was able to fish out one of the cage assemblies with a magnet.

Mine has done the same. Failed only after about 1000 miles. 2010 TE250. Bought October 2009

Bits where everywhere in the engine. Don't think anything went through the filter but had a new oil pump fitted. A lot of it was stuck to the magnets in the alternator/generator. Made a mess of the top of the barrel where the cam chain rubbed the barrel.

All OK now. Bike has done over 4000 miles. I would like to check to see if the part number has changed.

Luckily or by design the gears still mesh and turn the the cam shafts even when the balls have gone AWAL...

I am going to have a nose at your rebuild thread. I like the way the engine is designed at put together...

I've got a 010 TC250 and just had the waterpump gear off it ... This bike should have 30 hrs on it or and that waterpump bearing, that had 'Italy' stamped on it, had slight, slight slack in it ... I was really surprised to see any, any looseness in that bearing at this stage of life ...

Sadly, I just found I have this same problem. I have 615 miles on the bike, a 2010 TE250. I had noticed a couple magnetic metal bits on the outside of my mesh oil screen. Actually, I had trouble removing the screen and when I got it out I put a magnet in the drain hole and found some more bits. I changed the oil again after another 100 miles and found nothing but then after yet another 100 miles I found some bits that were clearly from a bearing cage. I just brought the bike to the dealer and they found that one of the top timing gear bearings had failed. It looks like we caught it in time, before any other major problems.
I searched the forum and found at least 4 other incidents of this happening.
I'm actually pretty upset. Obviously the bike is out of warranty (I've owned it almost 2 years), but this clearly is a manufacturing defect. I'm a novice who is not stressing the engine at all and I've changed the oil 5 times already with Castrol full synthetic 10W-50. My maintenance has been meticulous. My dealer has agreed to call Husqvarna... I 'm hoping they step up to pay for the repair.

My advice to anyone with a 2010 250 is to check the oil screen carefully every oil change, and to put a stick magnet into the drain hole with the screen out to search for any problems. Also visually check the bearings on the gear whenever you check the valves. I wasn't really aware what to look for earlier. See the picture below. At the bottom center you can see a portion of the bearing in question. The rounded bumps are the bearing cage that holds the individual bearings. Make sure that cage is intact. There is another bearing on the other side of this gear, I'm not sure you can see it but try and inspect it if you can.

Mine went also at a low mileage. Must be a batch of faulty bearings. They probably changed there supplier and the issue went away...

The powers to be at Husqvarna/ BMW know about the issue (and every issue you could possibly ever have). Whether they would admit it is another thing. Not something they want to advertise. They also come on here to look. Unfortunately there obvious interest is in promoting the product and can be a little political to that end. But this site does provide feed back for them. If they admit to something being faulty, things can get expensive...

There isn't a recall on this but mine has now done over 5000 miles without blowing up! LOL. It was one of the very first in the UK, and in fact WE have just obtained a 2013 TXC310 because we like the bike so much.

Don't think KTM and the like are any better because they ain't...

Recalls (let me think?)

Exhaust camshaft (God knows why?)
Fuel Pump with new rubber housing.
Water pump impeller (but my old one was fine!)
There was a few other things but I can't remember now
Alternator and electric start gears all replaced. The Sprag clutch rollers were well worn as well but still worked...
Swapped out battery for a YUSA model I think its called

My opinion on the 250 TE:

Pros:
Great Engine. Not the fastest but lovely to ride and you don't need to thrash it. Plenty of mid range. Suspension a bit soft. Can ride it all day and don't get tired...

Cons:
The taper on the end of the crank ain't up to the job. Use lock-tight and windy gun...
The crank shaft flexes (Not really an issue with the standard TE250) which can cause alternator destruction, sprag clutch destruction and worm gear destruction. To this affect BMW have added a bearing on the end of the crank for 2013!
Mind you when you think about it they've got a lot of kit hanging way out on the end of that crank.

Check fuses are tight.

Every time you wash bike:
Check harness is not rubbing away anywhere.
Check water pipes are not being rubbed away or slowly being cut away on cooling fan or exhaust etc

Make sure you can get a finger between hydraulic clutch pipe and back of exhaust down pipe (as we proper English speakers would call it. LOL). It gets hot down there! Re-position the holding clip to help you.

Drain hole in bottom of 2010 air-box allows you nicely to wreck the air-filter when playing with a pressure washer. Later air-boxes stop this. Seal up front top of airbox (and sides) with mr gaffer as lots of the wrong stuff gets onto air-filter this way. Use bathroom clear sealer between airbox and mudguard to stop water getting in

If you turn bike upside down it could keep on running as it is injection. Most of the oil will come through the breather pipe into the engine side of the air filter in seconds! BE WEARY OF THIS!!! You only have 900cc

Everybody I know actually recommends Motul Factory line double ester. Its green and glows in the dark...

I have lots more but need to go now!

And why is the text getting smaller???

My dealer just told me the parts are back ordered and it could be weeks to get a part. I take this as another possible sign that this failure has been happening regularly... enough that the parts are back ordered.
Its prime riding season here in San Diego. I'm unhappy. Maybe unhappy enough to trade it in on a KTM.
Carl

Speak to Paul in www.dualsportmotorcycles.co.uk in the UK!
+44 (0)1531 632745

I am sure he has one or two in stock!

And we speak the same language... haha

Checked the parts diagrams.
In 2010, the timing gear and it's two bearings are listed as one assembly: 8000A7319
In 2011 and 2012 the gear is shown as 8000A6625 and the bearings come individually as 8A0077320.
All three years, 2010, 2011 and 2012 use the same part number for the mounting shaft. But there is no way to tell if the gear or bearings changed from 2010 to 2011. But given the change from an assembly to separate part numbers there might have been a change.

At any rate, I was able to find the 8A0077320 bearings at Hall's. I'll have to examine the old gear and see if these bearings will fit in it.
Carl

I have a 2010 te 250 and the engine blew up. I never figured out what caused it but this very well could've beent the culrpit among other things. I had to get new parts for oil pump and crankshaft.

I received the replacement bearings I mentioned in my earlier post. These Husky bearings are SRK bearings from Indonesia.

Well, the dealer just called. Even though I'm out of the warranty period I had hoped BMW/Husky would help out with this.... but.... i got nothing. At least the parts are in and we can do the work next week. I'm still rather unhappy.

Ok, so here is my wrap-up. 5 weeks and $1100 later and my bike is back and ready for action. We found all the bearings and some of the cage bits under the right hand side cover. The rest of the bits were under the left cover stuck to the magnetic parts there. And there were a few bits crushed and wedged up against the crank bearing.
Here a pic of my collection:


Here are my tips for the next person with this problem:
- Count your bearings. If you can find them all and most of the cage bits without splitting the cases... well some people might consider that good enough. If all you do is ride in the back yard on your farm, I might not split the cases. But we did find some bits in there. And its hard to flush them out. I ride in the desert and on trips far from home and a failure out in the field would really spoil a vacation (at the least). So I split the cases and looked.
- The replacement bearings from Husky look identical to the original. They are marked: "NSK 6901 INDONESIA". You might do some research to see if you can get something that is *known* to be better. I'm hoping my originals just were from a bad batch.
- There is a chance that this gear and bearing could be replaced fairly easily during a valve adjustment. I might consider upgrading/replacing the bearings at that time.
- The bearings were $15 and the gear was $22. The parts are cheap.
- Don't ignore and metal pieces in your oil! If you find anything check that top timing gear's bearings. Maybe you can catch it before it falls apart.

Carl

Can you post your engine number? I am curious how close mine is to yours.

That"s a good idea. My engine number: A3AA02083
I'm curious if any of the other failures are with nearby numbers too! Please post them if you have had this failure, I know there are at least 4 - 6 others on this forum.

Hey all, I was changing the oil on my 2010 TE250 yesterday and found some very very small metal bits/shavings (some of the smaller ones were magnetic) some almost appeared to be small paint chips from around the the drain plug hole (blackish on one side and chrome/silver on the other...these were not magnetic). Anyway, this thread has got me a little paranoid so I wanted to see what the early symptoms of this bearing issue are. I stuck a magnet into the drain plug hole and didnt get any significant magnetic bits (maybe a few particles smaller than a grain of fine sand), and I didnt see anything significant on the paper filter. Did find some very small (tiny) shavings on the mesh filter, is this normal (the bike only has 170 miles on it and is powered up)? If the bearing is starting to go, should I be seeing larger pieces of metal?

Once I got the new oil in it and started it up...my paranoia continued as I thought i was hearing pinging sounds (or unusual metal on metal noise) from the engine (or perhaps it was the header). Once the engine got hot, I think the sound stopped. But with this thread out there, I was worried that it may be the sound of the bearing starting to go. Does anyone else who has had bearing go had any experience with any noise associated with the bearing failing? Could the noise have been associated with the oil change?

Based on the above, would you guys recommend pulling the head cover off and taking a look at the bearing? If so, I have a few questions as well:

1) If the bearing is in fact starting to fail...what exactly should I be looking for?
2) If I pull the head cover off with only 170 miles on the bike, do i need to install a new head cover gasket?

Sorry about all the questions, just want to catch the issue (if it indeed is one) early before it causes major damage. Please let me know if i am being too paranoid too early.

Thank you all in advance for your advice!