S4rs expanding petrol tank

Has anyone any experience of this. Bought my S4rs new in 2008 and the tank has been slowly expanding since then,. I know its ethanol problems and poor quality of tank and has been talked about on forums particularly in USA. I should have acted on this when it first started years previously but its now got so bad I cant lock the tank down as strap now fowls the ignition pod . Has anybody had experience of this and can you tell me what you experiences were with Ducati re getting a replacement . No doubt I have left it to late now but any advice welcome

[Darren69]

According to a few who have posted on here with the same problem, if you dry the tank out it will shrink back to normal size.I'm not sure if the paint will be ok.

You can pull the tank a bit further back at the hinges.

I don't think you'll have much luck with Ducati as I think they only replaced tanks in the US to avoid expensive legal action. I think for everywhere else they just supplied modified hinges that allow the tank to be pulled back some more.

[Dave G]

This has been an issue for a few owners, including me. Both my bikes are affected, the s2r has only a slight issue where the latch is problematic to engage properly but my sc was trapping my thumbs when the bars were turned which, as my mot tester pointed out, is an mot fail.

Last September I removed the sc tank and hung it dry over winter, it did go back a bit but not to its original size.

Unfortunately Ducati uk don't give a f@ck about this so don't expect any help from them and is a pretty damn strong reason for me not to buy another bike from them. Both my bikes were bought new from official dealers, Ducati have got the money and have washed their hands of it, along with my future custom.

I'll continue to use and enjoy both bikes but it does leave a sour taste as far as customer care goes.

Best you can do is let it dry out and then get the inside coated. BP Super Unleaded and Esso Super has 0 ethanol in it I think. I had similar with my MV, but MV warrantied me a new tank.

[damien666]

I have to lever mine at the front and force it down to get it to hook under the latch.
I ended up ordering an ally tank from Beater in japan. (Not painted or fitted yet).

I had this problem with my S4RS - I took it to a dealership and asked them to send photos to Ducati.

They offered to replace my tank on the provision that my bike had a FULL service history undertaken my authorised Ducati dealerships only... luckily it did so I got a new tank.

ok many thanks for your advice will try to dry out tank .

[Flip]

When I first bought my race bike it had a composite tank fitted and despite it being coated with some type of sealant on the inside it still suffered bubbling and expansion.

At the time I didn't even think to drain the tank between races and since then I have had an ally one made so the problem has gone away for me there but the composite one didn't regain it's former shape after draining and leaving it and I don't really see how the plastic ones fitted to many newer bikes would either.

I honestly cannot believe the manufactures are letting this go with the fuel companies or that it wasn't researched more thoroughly in order to have prevented this as it is only set to get worse as the percentage of Ethanol in fuels is set to increase over the coming years.

In addition to this there is also the problem of it affecting the mixture of carburated engines which I presume the ECU of fuel injected motors can compensate for at least.

If it were me (and especially if I had bought the bike brand new like you) I would be pestering Ducati constantly in the hope that they eventually get fed up and give you a new tank to shut you up- a full service history etc. is a load of boll*cks excuse not to help although of course long term even if they did replace the tank it will likely happen again unless Ethanol is no longer added to fuels.

[jerry]

I USA Ducati were taken to court and agreed to change tanks for 6 years , some people have had 4 replacements that all warped , after 6 year they are all buggered there will be a lot of scrap bikes , Ducati dont care ,, but of course all recent new Ducatis have metal tanks again,,

[Gerry]

I dry mine out over winter with the pump and the cap removed. It shrinks back a bit. It would be a good idea to get the later pump flange rubber o ring fitted too. I made a new tank bracket which allowed me to slide the tank back a few mm. My bike lives in the kitchen over winter so nice and warm.

Be careful when removing the quick release fuel connectors, don't break the plastic springy bits on them.

I don't think there is any pump petrol out there without 5% ethanol in it, whether its V max ... turbo nutter or Esso god knows what.

Same issue on my RSVR and Aprilia dont care either.
Use Esso Super or BP Premium as it is currently 0% Ethanol around here.
Drying tank out over winter helps but only a touch over leaving it nearly empty with good fuel in it.

Additives hardly help and it also an issue as the Ethanol causes water to separate out.
The ethanol can also rot some plastics and rubbers in carbs - an issue if you have classic cars and bikes.

Some of the RSv guys using this: http://www.caswelleurope.co.uk/ethan...ealer-gts1750/

[Flip]

Originally Posted by DrD

The ethanol can also rot some plastics and rubbers in carbs - an issue if you have classic cars and bikes.

Can concur with that as the rubber inlet/carb mount for the Amal on my little racer did need replacing once a season due to the Ethanol in Shell V-Power that I was running it on. B.P's Super did the same last year and I now use Esso so will see how it goes in the future.

Amal have also started using Viton tipped float needles and O-rings in their refurb kits to help combat the effects.

[jerry]

ALL UK Fuels have 5% ethanol evenV Power , Esso and BP 97 ultimate as do all the cheap supemarket
petrol , its not legal to sell zero ethanol fuel in UK ,, USA , has 10% ethanol even worse as does Thailand but lucky in Thailand one can still buy full non ethanol benzine 95 in most areas

if the rules for 10% ethanol go through in UK it willbe a disaster for owners of older vehicle not to mention that fuel consumption rises by 3% for every 5% of ethano; and power is down by 4% per 5$ of ethanol so its loose loose

[Luddite]

⚠ Warning! This post may cause drowsiness; do not read if you are about to drive or operate heavy machinery.

Originally Posted by jerry

ALL UK Fuels have 5% ethanol evenV Power , Esso and BP 97 ultimate as do all the cheap supemarket
petrol , its not legal to sell zero ethanol fuel in UK

This is not in fact the case. There is no legislation in place forbidding the sale of ethanol free petrol; quite the contrary in fact.

The laws governing the sale of fuel are contained in The Motor Fuels (Composition and Content) Regulations 1999 (as amended http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...ulation/4/made and http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...ulation/3/made).

UK fuel has to meet BS EN228 and the BSI approved the sale of petrol with up to 10% ethanol content in March 2013.

At that time, the government recognised that there were still a large number of vehicles on the road that were not compatible with fuel with a 10% ethanol content.

Consequently, they made it a legal requirement for fuel suppliers to provide a low ethanol alternative in the form of super unleaded. By law, the ethanol content of this "protection grade" fuel must not be greater than 5% by volume.

Note that only the upper limit is subject to legislation, there is no lower limit. So, if the supplier wants to offer completely ethanol-free super unleaded, there is no legal reason why they cannot do so.

This legal requirement to provide protection grade fuel was originally to run until 31 December 2013 but was subsequently extended to the end of 2016. This extension was announced in November 2013 so, as it's due to expire shortly, you would hope that an update would be forthcoming soon.

I've always used Esso super unleaded as I understood that it was ethanol free. But that was based on information from a couple of years back so may have changed. Next time I fill up, I'll test a sample and see how much, if any, ethanol it actually contains.

Watch this space...