Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 998 / 996 / 916 / 748 > Oil, Oil, Everywhere...

[antonye]

...mainly down the right-hand side of my engine!

From what I can see, it looks like the oil pressure switch has gone and it is coming out of there - the connector that drops in the top was not in, so I put it back in but it's still coming out.

Anyone had something similar?

A bit of a bummer when you're in the middle of France and 250 miles from home!!

[andyb]

Its not the oil cooler pipe connections is it, come loose, the connectors to the crankcase?

Ive had that before. Has yours got an oil cooler?

I've had the same mate, funnily enough in the middle of france last year ... oil all over the rear right side, wheel and tyre .. be careful as it gets driven onto the edges of the tyres .. which made for some inetersting miles ...

had mine put right by a great french duke dealer ...

switches are cheap mate .. just be careful ..

P

[Rushjob]

Yup, I've had oil pressure switches blow out on my 900ssie, Guzzi 850 & Renault 25, all looked like I'd spectacularly blown my engine until I got the Gunk out!
Funnily enough, the switches all continued to work after the seal went on them - bizarre!

[rapidomoto]

If this is of any help, new pressure switch approx £16. Heath Robinson measure is to cover switch in silicone till you get home. Happened to me once, believe its the switch rocking around in the housing. My faulty switch I now use as an emergency spare aftering sealing loose switch in the housing with Araldite. Mind you I was 40 miles from home and not in France!

[bostrom998]

Yep.had that on my Senna, but easy to sort.......doesn't seem to happen with 998's.........

[Clippy]

This sounds familiar…

I had this happen to no less than 12 oil pressure switches on my ’99 748BP in the course of 18 months/12,000 miles.

The first sign that something was wrong was usually the oil pressure warning light coming on. This induced a mild level of panic the first time it happened, but I was reliably informed that if the engine really had that little oil pressure it would have already eaten itself by the time the light came on…great!

At this point the switch would still hold oil, but if you then revved the bike hard it would start to seep between the metal housing and plastic switch.

This happened to me just outside Tours in 2000, and I nursed the bike all the way home by not exceeding 6,000rpm all the way home. At these revs it was not pushing any oil out through the switch. As a point of interest, you can get 180 miles out of a tank of petrol at a steady 6,000 rpm and not need to stop for over 2 hours – this was the only time that happened!!!

On another occasion the whole process happened in one go, resulting in a pint of oil sprayed over the back wheel. It’s a real shame I was tucked in and nailing it down the start/finish straight at Donington at the time, as my braking point became the start of a slow motion trip into the gravel… On the bright side I was unhurt, and Ducati paid for the switch, engine casing and new fairing under warranty!

Eventually On Yer Bike replaced the OE part with a switch they sourced from Pro Drive, the Subaru rally car specialists, and I never had another problem until I sold the bike – but that was only 1,000 miles later!

Now I’ve had 3 years of Aprilia Mille reliability I’ve leapt back into the Ducati fold, but perhaps I ought to take a spare oil pressure switch with me to Le Mans next week…?!?!

[istanbulian]

...yep, same here with my 748SPS. Oil ****ed out and I did not notice until a particular right-hander that saw me dumping it big style because of oil all over the right-hand side of the tyre.

Then rode it a further 200km back home with oil everywhere having put almost a whole litre in.

faulty oil pressure switch as everyone else says

[John W]

Clippy,

any details on that switch you got from ProDrive ??

I've had one let go on my 996, and since the ST4S has the same engine I think a couple of those ProDrive ones might be a good investment.

Cheers,
john.

[Clippy]

Sorry John, I sold the 748 3 years ago and passed on all the papers with it so I have no record of which switch was used.

I doubt whether OYB will recall either as John, the service manager at the time, has moved to pastures new...

I believe it was exactly the same spec. as the Ducati one, but a different manufacturer - sorry I can;t be more help...