Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Oil warning light on at tickover?

[Yellow Bip]

Took bike for a long blast last sunday in the blistering heat done about 60 miles and then all of a sudden oil light came on at tickover, blipped throttle and it went off straight away until it settled again to tickover. Now i use fully Synthetic Shell oil so it can't be oil breakdown could it? is there any thing i should know that i haven't come across already?
Help requested please.
Thank you.

[Jools]

Sounds like the dreaded duff oil pressure switch again. It lives just behind the oil filler. They're notorious for giving up the ghost and giving you an oil warning light when you don't actually have a problem.

There are loads of threads about this so a search might do the trick. If you have good oil levels and you've done 60 hard miles it would've blown up by now if you had a real oil pressure problem

I went through this last year and ended up doing about 5-600 miles with the oil light blazing until Nelly sorted it out at a service

[pguenet]

Yeap - just had the same issue and it was full of oil. Cheap to replace so no worries.

[Shazaam!]

It sounds like it's behaving properly but there's always a chance that the pressure sending unit is out of calibration. Hook up a pressure gauge to where the sender mounts to the engine and check the pressure.

The oil pressure should be as follows:

Hot idle - at least 1.1 bar
Cold idle - at least 2.5 bar
4,000 RPM - at least 4 - 6 bar

Evoluzione sells an inexpensive pressure gauge, as do others. http://www.evoluzione.net/

The most probable to least probable reasons for low oil pressure:

Low oil level
Wrong viscosity oil (you should be using a 50 weight)
High oil temperatures (check for bent oil cooler radiator fins)
Plugged oil filter
Plugged oil pickup filter
Stuck (open) pressure relief valve
Stuck (open) bypass valve
Worn (out of spec) oil pump
Worn (excessive clearances) bearings

It would be really unwise to just continue to ride it without knowing if the oil pressure is actually low. Low oil pressures cause (expensive) rod and main bearing failures.

[Yellow Bip]

Cheers Guys.

[Marty916]

There have been quite a few oil pumps show up with too much clearance between the gears and cover allowing oil bypass at low revs/idle. You might check that the oil pump cover plate is straight and flat as well as the clearances between the gears themselves are up to spec.

YB,

More than likely the oil pressure swithch.

I have a brand new one in a box if you want it for a tenner plus postage, if I remember rightly there are two types, mines part no.53940301A

If you are coming to Rockingham on Wednesday or anyone you know is I can take it up there for you.

Just drop me an email.

[Guido]

Yellow,

I agree with Shazaam!

Could be the OPS but it's definitely worth getting it checked out.

My old 748Bip had these symptoms at 6.5k miles. 200 miles later the engine went bang in a big way. Main bearings had failed.

Most dealers can do a pressure test for you. It will show the signs that you can't see hear on your own.

Better to be safe than sorry.

[ST4]

The four valve motors also do the thing with the crankshaft blanking plug backing out. Not sure if it hapens on the the two valvers though. You get a bike running perfectly then all of a sudden you get zero oil pressure as the plug gets ground away on the carnk case.

Paul.

[crm250]

Yeah i also agree with Shazaam, because i know bugger all about engines (apart from 2 strokes - can you tell i have had plenty of practice) and he sounds like a clever bugger and a safe bet