Potentially Cheated Death Today

"cmill189 - sans Volvo" (cmill189)
06/10/2018 at 17:45 • Filed to: None

I was about 40 miles into a planned 200 mile ride today when I saw clouds of blue smoke in my mirrors and my oil pressure light flickered. Shut it down, pulled over, and had oil pouring out of the fairings. Rear tire completely soaked. I had just finished hauling ass up and down a 10,000 foot mountain with lots of switchbacks and huge drop offs. I was about 20 miles out from another very long and curvy road.

Still had cell service so I called for help and trailered the bike home. Pulled the filter and found it was one of the POS recalled K&N ones that cracks. I hadn’t changed the oil since getting this bike last year since it was changed just before I bought it.

There was maybe 1/2 quart in the pan. So I lost about 3 in a very short period of time. New oil and filter installed. Seems to be fine. Just smelly. I’m just glad to have not wrecked.

DISCUSSION (19)

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 18:05

Lucky! Glad you and the bike are OK!

shop-teacher > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 18:16

Yikes! Glad you (and the bike) are OK!

WilliamsSW > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 18:55

Scary! Glad it ended up ok - could have been a LOT worse!

Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 18:57

Glad it worked out. That bike is gorgeous. Interceptor?

cmill189 - sans Volvo > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!!
06/10/2018 at 19:18

Yep - 2006

cmill189 - sans Volvo > shop-teacher
06/10/2018 at 19:19

Thanks. Literally the next turn could have been bad. I was really lucky to be on a straight stretch and off throttle

wafflesnfalafel > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 19:54

d@mn.. that could have been really bad... and what a POS oil filter... I might write K&N a letter just to share your displeasure.

cmill189 - sans Volvo > wafflesnfalafel
06/10/2018 at 20:49

It’s actually a well-known failure. To the extent that K&N issued a recall. Google KN-204 failure and you’ll get a mile long list of motorcycle forums discussing it. I just didn’t even know this bike had it. Otherwise it would have been removed a while ago. The filter it buried behind the front headers and the fairings.

jimz > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 21:06

f*** me I have a pile of KN-204s. off to google to see if mine are suspect.

cmill189 - sans Volvo > jimz
06/10/2018 at 21:19

It was all the filters from March to I believe July of 2016. I wouldn’t trust any, honestly. Having a nut to ease installation/removal that happens so infrequently isn’t worth the potential problems.

jimz > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 21:22

well, I’ve been tangentially involved in recall actions before, and if they’ve narrowed it down to a specific date range then it’s reasonable to believe they found and corrected the root cause of the failure.

FWIW I’ve been using KN-171s on my other bike with no issues.

cmill189 - sans Volvo > jimz
06/10/2018 at 21:38

Oh I totally agree with you on the recall aspect. It’s more of a risk mitigation thing for me. If this was on a dirt bike or the recall was on some headlight bulbs I wouldn’t care.

shop-teacher > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/10/2018 at 23:09

Sometimes it pays to be lucky!

Manny05x > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/11/2018 at 13:32

I had a similar situation after a oil change i forgot to tighten the oil drain plug lucky for me my buddy was behind me and we were communicating the Senas and he warned me. Ride safe.

BobintheMtns > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/11/2018 at 14:56

Congrats on getting off easy...

One of my biggest fears is an oil leak that coats the rear tire without you knowing it... until......................... SLIP!

cmill189 - sans Volvo > BobintheMtns
06/11/2018 at 15:40

This is unfortunately a fear I now share with you.

BobintheMtns > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/11/2018 at 17:27

Haha.. didn’t mean to spook you... and riding a honda, very, very slim chance that would happen (now that you’ve swapped out the recalled filter)

jimz > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/18/2018 at 20:19

mine are all date coded “5J” and “2K”, which I believe translates to May 2017 and Feb. 2018.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > cmill189 - sans Volvo
06/29/2018 at 14:24

Shit. I just put a K&N filter on my Alfa and am not 100% in fear of it crapping out for no reason.

Also glad you and the bike survived .