NHTSA Complaint #11617088 — 2012 YAMAHA XT1200Z

At 12 years old and 34,500 miles the rear brakes began feeling soft and eventually traveled to the bottom and the rear brakes stopped working. Front brakes worked normally. Several attempts at bleeding the air out of the rear system only resulted in safe operation for a few days. Eventually the rear brakes stopped working after each air bleeding attempt. The problem is the ABS pump has failed and the combined braking engagement admits air to the rear braking system when the combined braking is engaged through the ABS pump. The only fix is replacement of the ABS pump with a new part at $1,900 retail ($1,600 street price), using a used unit ($450 or so), or repairing the old unit ($550 with shipping to France). I elected to repair the existing unit with a company in France as the bike is out of warranty and several other Super Tenere owners have reported Yamaha is not offering any coverage under warranty or goodwill. I installed this myself and the repair costs would have been much higher had a shop been paid to diagnose and repair this defect. It is probably a $3,000+ repair from a Yamaha dealer The bike was well maintained and brake fluid has been changed every few years as recommended by the manufacturer. This is a know issue and these critical safety systems should function for the life of the vehicle with normal maintenance and use.