my 998 oil leak

i got my bike back from the dealer couple of weeks ago for the 6000 mile service and before i ever took it in the oil cooler and the front cyclinder head never had a drop of oil and just noticed oil on my oil cooler in front not so much in the back of the oil cooler this weekend and i saw just a little bit of oil on the rubber gasket but almost seems like its the oil cooler. damn i dont know whether i should be blaming the dealer for this and try to make them fix it free of charge since they worked on my bike last or should i pay out of my own pocket to fix it. any suggestions would be great.

Is it leaking or is it oil that spilled out when they serviced it and didn't clean it real well? If you know it's a leak and you think it's a good shop, I would call the service manager and calmly explain it has always been bone dry and after they serviced it now it leaks. If it's a good shop they will get it in pronto and fix it.

at first i noticed alittle bit of oil on the oil cooler and i just wiped it off then the next time i went out for a ride i saw how dirty the oil cooler became on the front from oil all over it, but not enough to where it leaked onto the road or on my tire. i checked the hoses and didnt see a leak form that. its just flat coverd in dirt on the front . i cant tell if its a leak on the front of the oil cooler.

When they had the cam cover off maybe they spilled a fair amount of oil onto the cooler. Spray the thing with some brake clean and anything else in the area with oil on it. Ride it and check for fresh leaks.

thanks phil, i do that and see what happens, maybe its just oil they didnt wipe off and just collected alot of dirt.

Are you going to Ducati Seattle for servicing?

thats where i had my 6000 mile service few weeks ago. ducati seattle is a very good shop. the leak started like a week after i got my bike back. not sure if their to blame for the leak.like phil said it just might be oil that never got wiped clean so im gonna clean the oil first and go from there.

I've had exactly the same issue on my 998 after my 2 yrs service: it was a little leak behind the horizontal belt cover. The mechanics remove this belt cover and found it quickly, and fixed it so easily.

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Ding ding ding.... we have a winner.

ok mine's a 916 but after returning from a Ducati workshop a while back I had oil running on the oil cooler, burning on the exhaust downpipe and running out of the fairing, I suspected oil cooler lines and it seemed to be mainly around the banjo bolts ('coz they had replaced the hoses) but it turned out that they had cross-threaded one of the rocker cover bolts (on the LH side of front cyl there is an extended bolt which acts as a support for the Radiator) and oil was leaking from the threads, as the shop was a long way from home I looked at it myself and I managed to repair the thread and refit ok and it's fine now.

Now a reputable Ducati workshop shouldn't make that sort of mistake - but they did.

Don't know if 998 has same type of bolt but it would be worth checking them anyway.