Total Complaints
1 filings
BMW R 1150 GS · model year
1 NHTSA complaints, and 1 recall campaign listed for this cohort. A VIN lookup is required to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA overall rating
Not crash-tested
New Car Assessment Program
The 2003BMWR 1150 GS carries 1 consumer safety complaint in NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation database for this specific model-year cohort. Within that volume, owners reported 0 crashes, 0 fires, 0 injuries, and 0 fatalities. No NCAP 5-star crash-test rating is available for this model year in the federal database.
The most frequently selected component label in reports for the 2003 R 1150 GS is service brakes, hydraulic with 1 filings. Complaint categories reflect owner reports and intake categorization; they do not establish a defect pattern or cause. This cohort has 1 NHTSA recall campaign listed below. Enter a VIN in NHTSA's official recall lookup to determine whether a specific vehicle has an unrepaired recall.
NHTSA currently has 34 investigation files overlapping the 2003 R 1150 GS. Owners comparing this cohort against neighboring years should read the complaint-by-year trend as report volume, not a causal diagnosis. Use the related-complaint feed and the official recall lookup when researching a specific vehicle.
Total Complaints
1 filings
Crashes Reported
0 reports
Source
NHTSA ODI
Federal complaints database
At or below the fleet median complaint volume.
| Component | Count |
|---|---|
| SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | 1 |
POWER TRAIN:MANUAL TRANSMISSION
ON CERTAIN MOTORCYCLES, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE 3RD AND 4TH TRANSMISSION GEAR (SHIFT) WHEELS MAY NOT BE SECURELY SEATED ON THE INTERMEDIATE SHAFT. CONSEQUENTLY, WHEN ATTEMPTING TO SHIFT FROM 5TH TO 6TH GEAR, ENGAGEMENT OF THE TWO GEARS MAY OCCUR SIMULTANEOUSLY.
TWO PROBLEMS; 1. ABS INTERMITTENTLY WORKS, AND INTERMITTENTLY LOCKS UP FRONT WHEEL ON GRAVEL ROADS, CAUSING UNDESIRED WHEEL LOCKUP....VERY UNSAFE. 2. ABS BRAKE ASSIST SERVOS (POWER BRAKES) INTERMITTENTLY FAIL TO OPERATE, CAUSING UNEXPECTED LOSS OF BRAKING POWER, ONCE ASSIST SERVO POWER IS LOST THE RESIDUAL BRAKING IS APPROXIMATELY 20% OF ASSISTED BRAKING, THIS CAUSES HEART STOPPAGE WHILE TRYING TO NOT CRASH AND/OR HIT OTHER TRAFFIC.....VERY UNSAFE WHEN THIS HAPPENS. BMW SAYS, SORRY BIKE IS OUT OF WARRANTY, AND THEY WON'T CORRECT DEFECTS. THIS BIKE HAS BEEN VERY WELL MAINTAINED AND TAKEN CARE OF, IT ONLY HAS 13K MILES ON IT AND SHOULD NOT HAVE SUCH FAILURES. IF IT WAS AN ISOLATED FAILURE PROBLEM I WOULDN'T EVEN BOTHER WITH THIS COMPLAINT, HOWEVER DOING SOME RESEARCH I FIND THAT IN JUST MY FEW DAYS OF SEARCHING AND READING BMW RIDERS POSTINGS THAT DOZENS AND DOZENS OF OTHER SIMILAR BMW'S HAVE HAD THE VERY SAME FAILURES WITH ZERO SUPPORT FROM BMW. *TR
Mileage: 13,000
Data vintage: August 2026. Sources: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) complaints database, NHTSA recall campaign API, NHTSA NCAP crash-test ratings, and NHTSA FARS for fatality cross-reference.
Every figure on PlainCars is rendered directly from NHTSA complaint and safety data, no number is typed in by an editor. This year-specific record is rendered from NHTSA ODI, recall, and NCAP rows for the 2003 BMW R 1150 GS; no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.