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Hi
Facing my first oil change, and my Q is whether it's important to remove and drain from that infamous made-from-cheese second plug? I mean, when the filter comes off will there still be any more oil left in the engine ?

I believe seeing a post suggesting to also drain by removing bottom hose at oil radiator - could that be a substitute for the second drain plug, or simply a third point to drain as much as possible?

TIA

Even with all drain plugs removed there is the 'residual'oil in the enginge. With the sump plug removed with the bike in the upright position seems to make sense, looking at the position of everything, when that appears drained put the bike on s/stand,remove filter cover,1 second spin on starter depletes all remaining dirty oil, make yourself a coffee,give it 30/45 mins to drain..... thats me being fussy

SimonDk wrote:Hi
Facing my first oil change, and my Q is whether it's important to remove and drain from that infamous made-from-cheese second plug? I mean, when the filter comes off will there still be any more oil left in the engine ?

I believe seeing a post suggesting to also drain by removing bottom hose at oil radiator - could that be a substitute for the second drain plug, or simply a third point to drain as much as possible?

TIA

When you have drained the oil tank and remove the filter cover you will be surprised how much oil comes out.
If you are just changing the oil and not the filter personally i don't remove the filter cover.
I don't wait a long time between oil changes so i change the filter every other time

Thanks guys, let me try with a slight rephrase of question :
Once the primary drain plug + filter has been removed, how much more oil will drain when the second plug is removed?

SimonDk wrote:Thanks guys, let me try with a slight rephrase of question :
Once the primary drain plug + filter has been removed, how much more oil will drain when the second plug is removed?

Ah OK - I can answer that.

Most of what's left







I'd say that although it's not a huge amount, it's enough to make it worthwhile .... but if the drain plug was hard to remove then maybe I'd not risk damaging it

i wouldnt worry about the last dregs mate itl be fine leaving a few mill in the engine

I recollect that the second drain plug is magnetic so it's good to remove it to check for early warnings.

I always removed the second drain plug... mainly due to the fact its magnetic as eluded by HisNibbs, plus once I removed it the first time (very difficult) its much easier to remove from now on.

I just changed the oil in my Falco and found that I couldn't remove the second drain plug or get the in-talk oil filter out.

I was changing the filter as well, so pulled the hose off the in-tank filter and a good amount of oil came out. Next time, I'll have another go at removing the second drain plug and have a proper sized spanner to get the in-tank filter out.

It's a bit disappointing to find out that the "reputable" Aprilia dealer I was sending my bike to for servicing didn't drain the oil properly. It makes me wonder what other things they didn't do.

As others have said not much oil is left in so don't worry.
I recently took the in-tank filter out for the first time, when I swapped the oil tank.
It looked pretty clean, so I would not worry about this either.
Like others I initially had problems with the second drain and left it once. The next time I made sure I got to it whilst the engine was still hot and got it out. It moved quickly so I was happy, if it struggles to budge it still is probably better to leave it rather than risk damaging the crank cases.