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K&N Oil Filter Failure


lazyeye

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This weekend the K&N 204 filter on my Interceptor catastrophically failed and left me on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

XgCTBi2.jpg

It cracked right across the top.

My guess is using the nut to tighten it to Honda specified torque may have compromised the case, and when the oil pressure got up (during a pass) it failed.

I'm lucky that I didn't crashed as there was oil spewing all over my tires.

So lesson learned, don't use the nut to tighten it. Given that there's no space to work with on the US Interceptor that means I won't be using K&N ever again.

 

As always, your results may vary. This seems to be a common issue though of late.

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Holy Crap!!!! That looks serious. Glad you survived the ordeal.  Stuff the Honda specified torque!!! Have never torqued an oil filter on all my cars and motorbikes for over 40 years and never had a leakage or failure. Hand tightened nice and firm with a smear of oil on the seal has never let me down.

Hopefully nothing would have entered your engine and a new filter and oil will see you going again. Be interested if K&N have anything to say about this, of course they will probably say you over tightened it!!

Good Luck.

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Definitely share this experience with K&N. I certainly couldn't imagine my HiFloFiltro or Bosch filters coming apart like this so it must be the whole 'nut on the top' design.

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Same thing happened to a female rider over at VFRWorld. Failed in the same spot too!

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Why would anyone buy a K&N Oil filter ?   They have been independantly tested & proven to be very poor quality compared to OEM, or major brand manufacturers replacement filters.

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4 hours ago, Mohawk said:

Why would anyone buy a K&N Oil filter ?   They have been independantly tested & proven to be very poor quality compared to OEM, or major brand manufacturers replacement filters.

 

 I've had Oil analysis's done with K&N oil filters and they came back fine.

 

The Nut on the end is the problem.

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I had one fail last year on my girlfriend's bike while we were at TMAC. It was just leaking a little though, not an oil dump. I did not use the nut to tighten the filter either and will never use another K&N oil filter. I had 3 sitting on the shelf too and was going to throw them away but another member asked if he could have them for the cost of shipping. To me, a $10 filter is not worth risking my life.

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Not a new issue- I posted about this here years ago, had it happen on two separate bikes.  Do a little searching and you will find two things- it's common, and K&N apparently could not care less.

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1 hour ago, slowbird said:

 

 I've had Oil analysis's done with K&N oil filters and they came back fine.

 

The Nut on the end is the problem.

People who change their oil regularly & keep their engine tune in good order, don't really need a filter ! The problem is eveyone else that doesn't & they need a VERY good quality filter, which the K&N is NOT.

 

YMMV  as well as YOCMV (Your Oil Containment May Vary !)

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Again I never saw any proof that the K&N oil filters are "Poor Quality" oil filters.

 

Overpriced yeah, but poor quality? Nope.

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1 hour ago, slowbird said:

Again I never saw any proof that the K&N oil filters are "Poor Quality" oil filters.

 

Overpriced yeah, but poor quality? Nope.

 

No, multiple leaking filters IS proof of poor quality.  

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8 minutes ago, Shinigami said:

 

No, multiple leaking filters IS proof of poor quality.  

 

I was referring to when Mohawk said they were "independently proven to be of very poor quality compared to OEM" to mean in relation to the filters filtration properties. Because I have seen and read the opposite to that statement. They filter just fine.

 

The argument about them leaking can easily be said to be from over-tightening from the nut.

 

I remember that thread with the female rider that had the same leak. It too was from over tightening from the nut.

 

I have had multiple K&N oil filters and they never leaked.

 

Having said that I always use factory filters and wouldn't want to use any filter that even a fraction of the community said they had leaking issues with. Not worth your life.

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OK so the NUT should NEVER be used to tighten a spin-on oil filter they are called that for a reason spin on HAND tight ONLY !  The Nut is for taking them off if that damages the shell who cares its on its way to the bin !

 

As far as quality goes, this is notionally a cost-V-function equation, so if something costs twice as much the expectation of quality is that it wold be twice as good.

The K&N oil filter test results I have read over the years show its no better than a cheapo filter & not better than an OEM or a major brand like Champion etc. So you are payting twice the price of OEM/Major Brand, or 3-4x more than a cheap filter for NO gain other than a nut, when a filter strap will last your lifetime & undo any brand filter !

 

To me that's poor quality !

 

YMMV

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Yes, as mentioned, same thing happened to lady over at VFRWorld.  If you go to K&N's website or any other and look up that filter KN-204, every time in the description field it reads that the nut on end is for quick removal of old filter.  It should never be used to tighten as the filter is supposed to be hand tight when installed.

 

Agreed, Company needs to do something as this seems to be very common mistake and easy one to make at that whether they label product differently or something else.

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9 minutes ago, Mohawk said:

OK so the NUT should NEVER be used to tighten a spin-on oil filter they are called that for a reason spin on HAND tight ONLY !  The Nut is for taking them off if that damages the shell who cares its on its way to the bin !

 

 

 Yup! Agreed! 100%. Even K&N states the nut is for fast and easy wrench-off removal not installation.

 

9 minutes ago, Mohawk said:

As far as quality goes, this is notionally a cost-V-function equation, so if something costs twice as much the expectation of quality is that it wold be twice as good.

The K&N oil filter test results I have read over the years show its no better than a cheapo filter & not better than an OEM or a major brand like Champion etc. So you are payting twice the price of OEM/Major Brand, or 3-4x more than a cheap filter for NO gain other than a nut, when a filter strap will last your lifetime & undo any brand filter !

 

 

 Ahhh! So it's a "Are you paying for as much as you're getting?" equation.

 

I guess it could be argued that you are paying a little extra $$ for the ability to safety wire the filter, and the Nut to removed the filter and of course that fancy pants name. But none of that is really a big deal to me....and these are similar price to factory filters around where I live.

 

Well we can agree to disagree. :beer: I have had many Used Oil Analysis done on both factory and K&N filters and the K&N did well.

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23 minutes ago, GigemVFR said:

Yes, as mentioned, same thing happened to lady over at VFRWorld.  If you go to K&N's website or any other and look up that filter KN-204, every time in the description field it reads that the nut on end is for quick removal of old filter.  It should never be used to tighten as the filter is supposed to be hand tight when installed.

 

Agreed, Company needs to do something as this seems to be very common mistake and easy one to make at that whether they label product differently or something else.

 

 bah! You beat me to it. :wink:

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26 minutes ago, slowbird said:

 

 Yup! Agreed! 100%. Even K&N states the nut is for fast and easy wrench-off removal not installation.

 

 

As I was reading this thread I kept thinking "I can't be the only one who knows this right?"

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The problem is, I did not use the nut for installation, in either of my two cases, and i'm not the only one who had a problem when not using the nut, either.  The spot-weld tends to weaken the cap.  

 

Making matters worse, the problem doesn't occur until some time after installation.

 

In addition, circa 2008-2010, the website copy certainly did refer to "ease of installation" with the nut.  The "wrench off" language is more recent.

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Personally I stopped using the K&N oil filters due to several post regarding failure and a few that pointed out other shortcomings. Actually I would rather pay more for something I know has not experienced failure, from both proper or improper installation.

 

In the case of the VFRW member, she used a torque wrench and the recommended torque value in the Honda service manual, so over tightening might be considered a "grey area". Yes, I know the nut is not used for installation but if they were smart, they would add a sticker like they do for their air filters pointing out it's for the removal only purpose, of course this would only add to the cost of the filters! :wink:

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Ehh, for the cost of the K&N, think I will stick with some of the recommended others below.  Think they are over-priced and some of the others must work as good if not better.  Plus, with all the hoopla about problems with the K&N, obviously, something ain't right.  

 

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/FilterXRef.html

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I don't even understand the point of buying these 'nut on top' filters when a filter socket is, what, $6?

 

71zcusWNAbL._SY450_.jpg

 

I've got two and that's covered every bike I've owned so far. And many cars!

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Or alternately buy an OE oil filter with a key.

 

I too have read a test by someone on various oil filters , can't remember where but it was quite good info..

 

 

Strange how the K&N filters only appear to have that problem in the states. 

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I have only used a K&N oil filter once, it came free with the oil I bought. I had no problem with leaks but when it came time to remove it the nut simply rounded off duee to corrosion. This was surprising as it had only been fitted 4000 miles previously at the start of the summer. In 6 dryish months it had rotted away.

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6 hours ago, BrianF said:

 

As I was reading this thread I kept thinking "I can't be the only one who knows this right?"

I'll admit that I didn't know this! I've used K&N filters before (might be one on there right now, in fact). I don't explicitly buy them but that's what I've been given when I've gone to buy a filter at the local Honda dealer. From now on I'll be sure to only use the nut to remove the filter. And yes, I do have an oil filter socket.

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Some of my thoughts on the matter.

If the failure does come down to using the nut to tighten (in my case, to the Honda spec), then why doesn't K&N specify not to use the nut to tighten on the package?

If Honda is specifying a torque value, then they intend for us to use a torque wrench. Initially I hand tightened this filter, it leaked around the gasket while running, so I attached my wrench and tightened it to the manual spec.

There's not a lot of room, I can't attach a wrench to an oil filter cap, so the only way I'm mounting it to a torque spec is with a nut-end filter. The Fram I replaced it with I did hand tight plus one full rotation (per the box instructions) using a cap wrench.

 

YMMV as always, not looking to argue or be told I should have known.

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