Slippery Shit

 I have been lucky enough to be doing some decent kilometres on the Ducati of late. Some of that was because I located it in Sydney at Steve’s place so I had transport to get out to Orange to visit Dad and some is because I just love riding it. 😁

What this means is that I have arrived at the half way point to the 15 000km service. Talking “oils” usually opens a can of worms on the various forums around the net but in my opinion going 14 000km (it got a change at the first service 1000km mark) on just three litres of the slippery stuff isn’t that conducive to engine longevity.

Ducati specify Shell Advance as the only oil to use. Just like KTM specify “only” using Motorex to ensure warranty compliance. Well, a mate in the industry enlightened me to the reality of this prescribed oil brand use. Apparently Motorex give a cash kick back to KTM dealers if they sell a certain amount of Motorex. I don’t know about the Ducati/Shell tie up but I would bet all of my biscuits that it is the same kickback deal.

So, my mate, who I trust very much, is a Maxima agent (yes, I see the potential conflict here but I trust him) and as such I can access Maxima fully synthetic for a very attractive price. Obviously with this offer on the table I went ahead with a bottle of Maxima’s finest and a genuine Ducati oil filter. I read somewhere that the genuine filter has a pressure switch in it (ala a thermostat I guess) while the engine warms up, hence the genuine purchase there.

Lucy gave me a hand with the change as I had given her a hand changing the oil and filter on her bike last week (yes, she is on Maxima 10W50 as well now). The little Z400 only holds 2 litres so we will change hers every 5000km in future.

I was a bit surprised at how black the Shell Advnce oil was after just 7000km. I would be horrified to run it to the 15 000km mark! I was also amazed at the torque on the sump plug. Admittedly, Ducati use some sort of sealant on the plug but I reckon it was a 40+nM undo. I didn’t have their sealant when reinstalling so went with some Permatex Blue and used the “elbow feel” 20nM “click” when tensioning it up.😉

She comes with a magnetic sump plug, which I think every bike should come with. Like, how much could it cost? Anyway, It looked pretty clean with just some very very fine swarf on it.

So, it was a very straight forward job and the apprentice Ranga did the refilling honours for me. I am really enjoying showing her how to do these jobs as she is very keen to learn and as an electrical engineering student she is showing me a thing or two with her knowledge. Yes, proud Dad moment here.🤗

So, I am done until the 15 000km service, which I will let Ducati complete so that my warranty remains unblemished. I did stress a bit about mixing the oils put through the engine during it’s lifetime but surely getting fresh fully synthetic oil every 7500km has to be better than letting the Shell stuff run for a full 15000km? I guess time will tell.

Next job will be fitting the Unifilter when I have some spare time.

Till then, Cheers.