Had a 22 plate bike delivered to me a couple of months ago and the oil level was just under the minimum level in the sight glass. the bike sat for 6 weeks for various reasons until a 200 mile day out, the day after putting the bike away the oil level looks to be brimmed, this bike was main dealer serviced 3 weeks before I bought it and after speaking to them today they explained the filling procedure as run the bike up for 15/20 minutes, leave to cool 2.5-4 hours and top up if needed! is it a pain to do an oil service on these bikes as I’ve read varying ways, and as this seems massively over filled? I wouldn’t know how much to put in? Is there any specific tools needed? Apologies for so many questions as first v4 and streetfighter. ideally change it myself as off the weekend and be good to get more miles under the belt. Any help would be much appreciated cheers
The quick way to do it is to weigh the amount you take out and put exactly the same back in. Last one I did was filled correctly but even 30 minutes after stopping it seemed to be low. Allowed to sit a few hours and the level came to the correct height
@raphael ducv2 is correct. There are a 3 oil scavenge pumps inside the V4 Desmo engines, plus the main delivery pump. They all slow the rate the oil drops down into the area where the sight glass is, hence you run the engine, check the oil and it looks low yet the next day appears to have miraculously topped itself up. Weigh it out, or at the very least measure it, but hot oil has a lower mass per cc than cold oil.
All very unnecessarily complicated and all very Ducati. The sight glass isn't really just to give you the level when cold, It is far, FAR, FAR, FAR more complicated then that. I haven't bothered to look this up in a workshop manual, but does it really say this? Does it also include the vital instructions about doing this whilst standing on one leg with your left hand on your head? I trust also that you are instructed to use special DUCATI oil with metal weight saving properties?
This is what I’d read but to me the level I have must be wrong as it looks to have so much in it? I’m thinking if I weighed this and put the same amount in I’d be putting too much in?
If it's been stood for a day and you are absolutely sure it's overfilled then you could drain a little bit of oil until you were satisfied the level was correct then remove and measure the oil as before. It can be a right ball ache.
I’ve come from the big v twin ktm, they are very much like this on the oil levels. There is a lot more to it these days than a crank thrashing around in engine oil. As above, all I do if the oil level was correct before oil change is put exactly the same amount back in. Simple As.
The problems arise when someone who doesn’t really know what you should do does an oil change, then can all go to pot and the poor unfortunate next owner doesn’t know how much oil to put in even if they do follow the correct procedure. Feck me, I once drained 5.5ltrs from a Panigale 1199 , and that’s much simpler.
The scary thing mate, this was serviced by the main dealer a week before it was delivered to me, I don’t normally have a lot of faith in dealers anyway and this just confirms my thoughts on them
I left the last one i did for a full 24 hours to drain. Put enough in to get half a glass, ran it until it was hot then left it until the next day before topping up. I have noticed v4 oil goes black very quickly possibly as not all of the old oil was drained out.
