K&N Oil Filter Failure

[Lincsman]

I'm on another forum and this bloke has had a major oil filter failure, and the bikes engine is 75% damaged. K&N aren't interested by all accounts. To add insult to injury it seems that K&N have known about this problem for years. You might want to give it some thought about buying these for your bike in the future.

[greywolf]

I was hard pressed to find any critical reviews of the KN-138 K&N filter for V-Stroms. What I have found is a problem with counterfeiting oil filters. Another cause of difficulty is using the nut to installed the filter which can cause problems if too much force is used. It should be put on by hand with the nut used only for removal. For sure do not use the two turns after gasket contact as specified in the Suzuki manual. That's only for Suzuki filters. The K&N should go on hand tight.

See reviews at https://www.amazon.com/KN-138-Powersports-High-Performance-Filter/dp/B000E2CVDI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495118341&sr=8-1&keywords=kn+138#customerReviews

[Rich:-)]

I use Hiflo oil filters on all of my bikes, past & present.
Never had an issue.

The weld on nut is an issue for many filter types. Bosch filters for some vehicles had a similar issue once where the welding had perforated the filter case and they leaked from new.

Definitely good advice there greywolf - don't use the nut (if you can avoid it) until you are ready to bin the filter. Better still, buy filters that don't have the nut, hand tighten and use a filter wrench to remove it.
That way you avoid having the weak point in the first place.

[greywolf]

The K&N KN-138 filter is a HiFlo HF-138, recommended by John Weldon, with a nut welded on.

[Rich:-)]

Oh bugger.... so I need to change oil filter brands then...

[superteso]

But the original filters make you crap? 

[Rich:-)]

Oh, I get what you're saying. The HF138 doesn't have the nut so is better/OK to use. 

Yeh, looks like the filter material might be different too as it seems to be a different colour.

[Flanners]

Not withstanding fakes. I can see this problem more as operator error, I agree with above posts only use the nut on removal, have had them on my Ducati and like all other filters I have had they have been fit and forget until the next year, choose K&N when access is an issue this is no problem on the VStrom so I use Hi-Flo.

[Sasquatch]

Hole in the nut is too small to get paint trough it, and welding is done on bare steel => can under the nut is uncoated and corrodes in no time. Faulty by design, counterfeit filters without hole in the nut would probably last longer.

[Robotstar5]

I've been using K&N oil and air filters for 30 odd years without any problems.

[Lincsman]

This chap on another forum who had the problem with the K&N filter, had the bike fixed at a cost to K&N of £2500, nice to see a company admitting that it got it wrong.