[Keepeneron2]

Hello people, I'm new to this site, but has any of you experienced a K&N oil filter leaking from the installation nut welded to the bottom. I was riding home the other day and my thruxtons back end started to get a little squirrel on me. When I pulled over I had no reaction from the rear brake. Looking up under the bike I noticed oil coming out of the bottom of the can and shooting all over my tire and brake assembly. Thank god I stop to check it out before I arrived at the twisted part of the road. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with K&N oil filters before.

 

[mollycbr123]

I use K&N oil filters and have never had it happen personally, but I have read maybe a handful of similar posts over the years. You have to figure it's either a production flaw, or someone used the nut to install the filter and torqued it, or something got kicked up from the road and dinged it. You sure it's leaking from the nut and not the seal?

Glad you are ok. Time to buy a lottery ticket.

 

[jsobell]

Yes, this is a known issue on the K&N filters. I doubt it's a significant number of them, but enough to have been posted about many times in the past.
It may simply be that people over-tighten via the welded nut, causing cracks, but personally I think it's a stupid idea.
I know there was a post a while ago from someone who lost the back end after the filter failed the same way as yours, and he was in the process of trying to claim from K&N, but I have no idea what happened in the end.

My suggestion would be to avoid the K&N oil filters, or if you do use one, never use the welded bolt to attach it. We know that welding to thin sheet metal causes issues and thin spots, so why the h#ll would you weld a nut to the bottom of a stretch-moulded oil filter?
At the end of the day, it might only be 1 in 1000 that have this issue, but I'd rather not be in that statistic at all.

Edit: First few Google search results. Amazing!

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/forums/topic/83828-kn-oil-filter-failure/
http://www.r6-forum.com/forums/105-oil-lubrication/414474-k-n-oil-filter-failure.html

 

[JohnnyR88]

There are several posts here about the problem. I had a K&N on my Sprint GT, and as soon as possible after reading that, I replaced it with a Purelator. Maybe one in a thousand, but I don't like the odds.

 

[looseparts]

Faaaaaaaaaaaaawk !! I just ordered one to do my oil change before my 10,000 mile service coming up on the 19th. After hearing what you all have to say, I'll very likely never use it.

Luckily Keepeneron2 is okay, and luckily for me there's bound to be a Triumph dealer along the way during my trip to Santa Rosa where I can pick up a Genuine Triumph* one. I'll be home with the OEM filter on the 16th with plenty of time to get that part of the maintenance done to save what the dealer would have to charge me.

*not interested in hearing that the Triumph filters are made in China/Pakistan/Yourmomsbasement or whatever. I am however glad to have the heads-up on the possible danger of the K&Ns.

[Edit] There's actually not a dealer between Portland and San Francisco - Okay, San Rafael is north or S.F. but it's another 20 miles beyond Sonoma Raceway <sigh>

 

[NN65]

So far as I can see, there is no "Faaaawk" moment here. As long as you hand-tighten your filter and don't use the nut, there is near to no risk. The nut is there solely to take the filter off at the end of its service.

At worst, you are in for a $10-15 filter. No big deal. Cheer up and enjoy the ride.

NN

 

[Keepeneron2]

It's definitely not the seal, and I do not torque my oil filters on. From what I seen on the videos, when they weld the nut section to the can, the weld penetrates to deeply and causes failure over time.
No big deal. I made it home safely. Just not going to purchase another K&N oil filter. The juice is not worth the squeeze if you know what I mean. Ill just buy a cheaper one and not worry about my rear tire being covered in oil.

 

[weedie]

Remove that k&n oil filter now

Hello people, I'm new to this site, but has any of you experienced a K&N oil filter leaking from the installation nut welded to the bottom. I was riding home the other day and my thruxtons back end started to get a little squirrel on me. When I pulled over I had no reaction from the rear brake. Looking up under the bike I noticed oil coming out of the bottom of the can and shooting all over my tire and brake assembly. Thank god I stop to check it out before I arrived at the twisted part of the road. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with K&N oil filters before.

Hello and welcome in.
Your K&N filter failure testimonial is about the 20th that has appeared on this forum in the last few months. Can you imagine what would have happened to you if this filter started blowing hot oil while you were swooping thru a nice long left hander? Yeah, you're probably DEAD.

We're all glad that you were not injured, and we all collectively and individually have to avoid this K&N product at all costs. K&N apparently is IN DENIAL about the total 100 percent certainty that his product is not only DEFECTIVE in its design and manufacture, but is a potential bike crasher! See the video in this segment where the fellow sent in the two defective filters, and they sent him two more! OH THANKS! Please shoot me!

The reason I'm writing in this thread again is to convince those of you that have these filters installed, and you have have no trouble with them, GET THEM THE HELL OFF YOUR BIKE NOW. K&N has been around for decades, and they should know better than to keep selling us these filters, so even if you've never had any trouble with these nutted filters, let's not find out WHEN YOUR FILTER is going to burst! this kind of consumer screw-job really sets me off!

Hope I got my message through guys! Triumph OEM filters are only $15 VS potential disaster. There's your choice.

Weedie:faceplant:faceplant:faceplant

 

[Mike.Gayner]

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of reports of failure in these filters across the internet. It's only a matter of tie until someone is killed, and K&N are definitely aware of the issue (I emailed both their service line and their CEO directly and got no response from either). There are probably a reasonable number of cases in which the user has tightened the filter using the welded nut - however there are also dozens upon dozens of cases in which the filter was hand tightened (NOT using the nut) and the filter failed where the nut is welded on.

It's baffling to me that some people are in denial about this issue consider his common it is. These filters are DANGEROUS, and nobody should be using them.

 

[looseparts]

Just going to buy 2 Triumph OEM filters and have them 2nd-day shipped here for $10 - They'll be here waiting for me when I get back from the races along with my 4L of MOTUL 7100 4T 10W40 FULL SYNTHETIC ESTER MOTOR OIL* (in case anyone wants to talk about which is the best oil?

*Smells like bananas and looks like vampire blood.

 

[weedie]

MOTUL?

Just going to buy 2 Triumph OEM filters and have them 2nd-day shipped here for $10 - They'll be here waiting for me when I get back from the races along with my 4L of MOTUL 7100 4T 10W40 FULL SYNTHETIC ESTER MOTOR OIL* (in case anyone wants to talk about which is the best oil?

*Smells like bananas and looks like vampire blood.

Loose,

Man I like the sound of that name,,,,MOTUL It has GP racing written all over it.
You saved your own bacon by not using the K&N, good move.

Travel safely, and let us know where you get the MOTUL (buuuruum buuuruum)

Weedie:surprise:

 

[gunny_hiway]

So, help us out, 'LP'. . . Where did you get 2 OEM filters shipped for $10??

 

[looseparts]

So, help us out, 'LP'. . . Where did you get 2 OEM filters shipped for $10??

Sorry. That's not what I meant. I bought 2 of them from Triumph's website for $15 each and the 2-day shipping was $10 - Good luck finding the browser that works with their site - changes all the time. Seldom Chrome, mostly I.E. and last night Firefox did the trick.

I got this jug of Motul from this ebay seller

There's lots of good oil out there - Red Line, Mobil 1, Yamalube, Castrol <fake> Synthetic, and many more. My choice is Motul 7100. It's an Ester-based full synthetic. They support racing at the highest level and that't important to me, so I support them. Plus what I said above. Ask Lambroving - for the science, he's very knowledgeable and picks another brand than me, but none of the above are going to void your warranty.

 

[NN65]

No denial on my part, if it is me you were referring to. I used to use a K&N 204 for lack of a local alternative, and changed for OEM as soon after I learned of the defect as I reasonably could. Just, having a $10 one in hand and realizing you don't like to put it on your bike only qualifies as a faaaaaaaaaawk moment in middle school. I understand we all would like K&N to acknowledge the matter, let's direct our fire power their way.

Simply bypass K&N and inform the biking crowd. Done.

Cheers, and keep the rubber side down.
But cheers

NN

 

[looseparts]

... only qualifies as a faaaaaaaaaawk moment in middle school.

Was that a compliment? If not, then I withdraw my comment and will say - 'Darn. It looks like I bought a useless door stop." Happy?

 

[sonicboom]

I use FRAM oil filters and never have had an issue with FRAM since 1969. Everything copy the FRAM anyway. All that crap about FRAM is not true at all. Take any filter apart and they are all a copy of a FRAM for cripes sakes.

 

[mollycbr123]

Although I have been a member of quite a few bike forums, I've never seen an entire thread devoted to K&N failures. I've used their oil filters for about as long as I can remember and have never had a leak or other type of failure from one. But this thread got me curious enough to start looking, and yes there is a lot of reported failures out on the web. Most of them seem to be fairly recent.

I've got K&Ns on two of the bikes now, and 3 or 4 unopened filters out on the garage shelf. Is this scary enough to make me quit using their filters? Probably not quite yet. But it is enough for me to keep a close eye on their filters I'm using now.

 

[Tornado99]

So far as I can see, there is no "Faaaawk" moment here. As long as you hand-tighten your filter and don't use the nut, there is near to no risk. The nut is there solely to take the filter off at the end of its service.

At worst, you are in for a $10-15 filter. No big deal. Cheer up and enjoy the ride.

NN

Sorry Mate, but no, there is still a significant risk even when not using the welded nut during install of the filter. We've had a recent report of the weld just failing without ever being torqued during install. This fail lead to oil depletion and engine seizing....K&N cover the replacement of the engine.

THESE FILTERS SHOULD NEVER BE USED!!!!
K&N needs to pull them off the market or at least re-design them before someone gets hurt/dies.

 

[Tornado99]

I just do not understand the point of having a welded nut on the filter in the first place. Why put a nice convenient nut right there and expect folks never to use it for install torquing the filter? Show me any nut/bolt on any bike/car/whatever that should only be used in one direction and not the other!!!

There are all kinds of filter wrenches out there for removing these filters. The welded nut is just a solution in search of a problem!

 

[NN65]

... only qualifies as a faaaaaaaaaawk moment in middle school.

Was that a compliment? If not, then I withdraw my comment and will say - 'Darn. It looks like I bought a useless door stop." Happy?

Sorry, looseparts, I sounded like a brat.

Not so useless as a door stop, though, so you got that going for you.

One more loose part, then, I guess.

NN