Ducati Monster Oil Change

Oil And Filter Change on a Ducati Monster 696

I recently did some basic maintenance on my 2011 Ducati Monster.  After doing an easy spark plug change, it was time to do an oil change.  The great thing about the Ducati monster is it doesn’t have any fairings.  This makes access to the oil pan and oil filter to do an oil change very easy.  This procedure is very close to many other Ducati models.  If you have an older or newer Ducati Monster 696 or other models it should be pretty close to doing this oil change.  Considering it cost me over 50 bucks to mount my street tire at the local dealership, doing this oil change will save you a lot of money at the dealer.

Parts

The only parts you will need for the Ducati Monster oil change are an OEM Ducati oil filter and  15W50 oil.  The Spin-On Ducati OEM oil filter is part number 44440038A.  It fits all Ducati’s with spin-on filters and replaces part numbers 44440035A and 44440037A.

When you remove the oil plug there is a copper crush washer that you can also replace. It’s not necessary to always replace it if you don’t have one, the old one can be reused.  I bought a new one down at the local dealer and it was only a dollar or two.

 

For oil, you should use a high-quality 15W50 synthetic oil. The engines on the Ducati Monster are air and oil-cooled.  You need an oil that can handle high temperatures and Shell and Motul are good choices.

I used Motul 300V Synthetic Motor Oil since it has a lot of good reviews and I’ve used Motul in other bikes I have owned.

Tools

Unlike most engines that you can use a socket on, the Ducati Monster oil drain bolt, and oil screen cover uses hex bolts.  The oil drain bolt takes a 5mm hex bit and the oil screen cover takes a 14mm hex bit.  You can get a hex bit set if you don’t have these 2 bits, or get them individually.

Besides the hex bolts, the other tools that you might need would be a torque wrench and oil filter cap wrench for Ducati oil filters.

Draining

Set a drain pan underneath the bike.  The Ducati Monster 696 holds less than 4 liters of oil, so the drain pan doesn’t need to be that big.

Loosen the oil fill cap.  This will let air into the motor and let the oil drain more easily.

Use the 5mm hex bit and loosen the oil drain bolt.  There are 2 drain bolts on the bottom of the motor, the one in the center of the case is the drain for the motor.

Cleaning

The oil drain plug has a magnet that will collect small bits of metal on it.

Clean the oil drain plug magnet with a paper towel and replace the washer if you have a new one.  I’ve reused old washers with no problems, but a new washer is only a couple of bucks if you can get it.

Install the oil drain bolt and torque it down to 20 nm with a torque wrench. If you don’t have a torque wrench you can tighten it hand tight plus a quarter turn. You don’t need to crank down on the oil drain bolt but tight enough that it will come loose

Under the oil screen cover, there is another drain plug.  You don’t need to take this out, it only drains the little amount of oil that is held in the oil screen.

 

Using the 14 mm hex bit on screw the oil screen cap and washer.  Make sure you don’t drop the copper washer into the oil pan.

 

With the oil screen cap removed, you can also use the bit to extract the oil screen from the block. The oil screen might have a couple of flakes of metal on it. You can clean it with some brake cleaner or just a paper towel. Reinstall the oil screen finger tight.  Install the oil screen cap to hand tight plus a quarter turn.

Oil Filter

For the oil filter replacement, you can use the oil filter cap wrench for Ducati if you have it. The oil filter is easily accessible and you can pretty much twist it off with both hands if it is not torqued down too hard for the previous installment.

Reinstall the new oil filter and torque it down to 11nm.  On the oil filter, the torque spec is MUCH lower than the seat-of-the-pants approach.   Most people tend to over-torque their oil filter than under-torque it.  Over-torquing the oil filter will distort the o-ring and can lead to sealing problems.  This will show up with a slow drip-drip of oil coming out on your garage floor.

Oil Fill

Unscrew the oil fill cap and insert a funnel. I use a clean funnel on all my bikes. It makes keeping the final clean of dust and dirt in between uses.

The manual calls for between 3.5 and 4.0 L of oil. Fill the bike 3.5 L initially and check the oil site.

 

fill the bike until the oil is at the top of the oil site markers. Run the bike for 30 to 60 seconds and shut it off give it another 30 seconds for the oil to settle. With the bike held up, check to see that the oil level is right in the middle of the two oil site marks and you’re done!