Reset Oil Change Light

Must have shop/dealer do it

What is the mileage interval programmed into the ECU to alert you an oil change is due?

Would ignoring this (or not re-setting it) invalidate an aftermarket
warranty?

Any thoughts or ideas?

I'm sure this info is in owners manual ... ... I haven't read the whole manual yet, just spot reading here and there.

I think it's something like 3k, 6k, and then 9k from then on out. My bike is still under warranty and the dealer pushes for a 3k interval still, which I'm sure is because they are old school and also, they like my $$$. I'm not hard on the engine, but I'm not always smooth so I suspect once I'm outta warranty and have no need to stay in the dealers good graces (they've been really good to me and a friend on warranty work) I'll probably change it every 6k as I do notice the shifting improves with fresh oil.

-- Nathan

N4teTheGreat said:

I think it's something like 3k, 6k, and then 9k from then on out. My bike is still under warranty and the dealer pushes for a 3k interval still, which I'm sure is because they are old school and also, they like my $$$. I'm not hard on the engine, but I'm not always smooth so I suspect once I'm outta warranty and have no need to stay in the dealers good graces (they've been really good to me and a friend on warranty work) I'll probably change it every 6k as I do notice the shifting improves with fresh oil.

-- Nathan

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Thanks for the comments Nathan. I assume you're using Munroe Motors?
I've known Nick and Matt for over 20 years ... back when both were employees of Jim and Pat Munroe.

If my Marin dealer keeps screwing around I may bring the bike to Munroe's or to my buddy Scott Jenkins who owns Desmoto in the City. I got to know Scott when he managed the BMW dealer in Marin (BMW/Triumph). Now all out of business.

I normally do my own oil changes between 3K to 4K miles depending on the kind of use the bike has had during that time.

Sporty touring with other riders has the bike getting ridden pretty hard, so 3K on oil/filter. But if just putting round, then closer to 4K or even 5K. Full Syn high end oil does help extend useful life of the oil, IMO.
Cheers!

A 3k interval? That's just crazy. No need to change oil 3x more often than specified by Ducati.

Hyp Noob said:

Thanks for the comments Nathan. I assume you're using Munroe Motors?
I've known Nick and Matt for over 20 years ... back when both were employees of Jim and Pat Munroe.

If my Marin dealer keeps screwing around I may bring the bike to Munroe's or to my buddy Scott Jenkins who owns Desmoto in the City. I got to know Scott when he managed the BMW dealer in Marin (BMW/Triumph). Now all out of business.

I normally do my own oil changes between 3K to 4K miles depending on the kind of use the bike has had during that time.

Sporty touring with other riders has the bike getting ridden pretty hard, so 3K on oil/filter. But if just putting round, then closer to 4K or even 5K. Full Syn high end oil does help extend useful life of the oil, IMO.
Cheers!

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Yup, Munroe. A buddy of mine owns a multi he bought from them and recommended them. I've gotten nothing but great service from them so I'm happy to give them business. I think they're service department is great. My buddies Multi spun a bearing and they covered the rebuild under warranty. I brought my bike in with the VERY specific complaint of "surging and stumbling around 80 - 90mph... sometimes) they spent the time to go over it and finally found that a wire to the O2 sensor had failed inside the sheath. No idea how long that took, all covered under warranty as well.

I wouldn't say I put around, most of my riding is spirited on the backroads, but I'm not launching from every light or bouncing off the rev limiter. I figured with the quality synthetic required by the motor pushing to 6k is probably reasonable, I suppose the only way to really know if to start doing used oil analysis, but that's not as appealing since my shop is the sidewalk

-- Nathan

This is "one of those debates", but with synthetics in a modern watercooled engine, 3K is overkill. The viscosity breakdown of synthetics is remarkably better than with traditional oil.

I think it's still important to change oil before long storage, but 5-9k shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure ducati is very conservative with their oil change recommendations.

https://youtu.be/tYkg0oDUXs8

appliance821 said:

\ I'm sure ducati is very conservative with their oil change recommendations.

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I'd venture to say the opposite. They're increasing the intervals so their bikes have the appearance of lower maintenance costs.

I had an oil analysis done after 3k on amsoil full synthetic, and they told me I had roughly 2k miles left in the oil before they recommended I change it. So round it down to 4500 and do it between minor services. What's the cost in doing one more oil change in between the 9k services? $10 filter + $40 oil = peace of mind.

monocog007 said:

I'd venture to say the opposite. They're increasing the intervals so their bikes have the appearance of lower maintenance costs.

I had an oil analysis done after 3k on amsoil full synthetic, and they told me I had roughly 2k miles left in the oil before they recommended I change it. So round it down to 4500 and do it between minor services. What's the cost in doing one more oil change in between the 9k services? $10 filter + $40 oil = peace of mind.

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I'm pretty sure they wouldn't do that - broken bikes aren't good PR, and most engineering specs have a large margin of error. The bikes, relative to the air-cooleds, do have a much better maintenance schedule.

I change around every 5k miles - probably don't have to but....

RSL: True about contaminates, especially if most of a person's riding is short local hops. That's why I change if the bike is going into long storage.

Not so sure on the dirty looking oil thing. Since it also lubes the clutch, I wonder if it's a good metric - it looks dirty pretty fast. I honestly don't know.

I recall someone posting an e-mail from Ducati corporate about how they increased the service intervals to change the image of the brand to make them seem like they require less maintenance. That was a while ago. I change my oil every 5k

message comes to the scheduled services every 15t km or equivalent in miles, maybe 9000.

RSL said:

I change the oil when the sight glass view is dirty.

While oil does last a long time compared to the old days, but there is still combustion byproducts that are suspended in the oil. Fresh oil is clean oil. Clean oil is a good thing.

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Hey guys, Thanks!! for the feedback on oil/filter changes. My 3K to 4K interval is based on my Air/Oil cooled DR650 Suzuki. I only change filter every other oil change. Thoughts?

But, in fact ... I use RSL's technique as well. When the oil goes black in the site glass, I know a change is near. So far, my oil is clear, but only about 1000 miles since the change. 6K miles or more would be AWESOME! Hope I can make it!

Hate to bring this up ... but how have you guys done with Amsoil synthetic? Always heard GOOD THINGS but never tried it.
What other synthetic is popular for you guys?

In my DR650, 1050 Tiger and V-Strom, I simply use Mobil One full synthetic car oil (not the slippery, high effeciancy one).

About $24 for 5 quarts. (now do you see why I change at 3K? ) 60K on
DR650, 90K on Vstrom ... sold Tiger at 22K miles.

I'm thinking of giving this HyperStrada the royal treatment regards oil. I know many use $$$ Motorex $$$ and Shell synthetic.

I've used Motul until they stopped sourcing it from France ... now source it from ... L.A. from former shut down oil company (forget name). Also used
Spectro, Bel-Ray. All pretty good.

I'd like to try Amsoil ...

Oil and filter midway between scheduled changes is very cheap insurance. It's easy and quick to do.

I've been using Motul 5100 after it was suggested by my local Duc dealer. It made an enormous difference to the snatchy clutch issue - it's just like a regular clutch now Cheers.

Ug. I took my new 939 in for it's 600 mile first service today. The bike has 580 miles on it. Dealer let me know I would be back soon as the service light will come on at 620 miles and they can't reset it until it comes on. I went ahead and had the service done but will need to take it back in to reset the light in a weeks time. No charge but pita to have to run it back to the dealer.

kuksul08 said:

I recall someone posting an e-mail from Ducati corporate about how they increased the service intervals to change the image of the brand to make them seem like they require less maintenance. That was a while ago. I change my oil every 5k

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Yeah - 5k here too, but maybe overkill.

I think regarding service intervals, 2 things come into play:

Water cooled engines can be more precisely engineered with tighter tolerances etc.. because they operate within a controlled environment. Kevin Cameron writes a lot about this. No news here - but that's why our valve interval is 18k miles and the scrambler is 7500k.

With a given engine, the manufacturers err on the side of caution when they're newly introduced. As the stats from thousands of service records come in they can change things. I think they start conservatively though.

I had a cb500f before this bike, and the first year they had a 300mile check - something like that. The next year no check was required. My valves on this bike needed no adjustment after 20k miles.

Oh, and synthetic oil - that's 3 things.