Over tightening an oil filter?

If you are in doubt of the security of the filter with just a half turn,put a gear clamp around it and safety wire it.I've done this with most of my bikes.Goldwing included.
 
Owner's manuals and factory service manuals have been known to contain errors.
If you have a spare filter lying around, can you measure the thread pitch and gasket thickness and post them here? I bet that would reveal the craziness of 2 full turns.


I don't agree with everything in the owner's manuals, and know there often are mistakes. All I can say is that on the 266,000 km that I have put on my two V-Stroms I used the two turns method with no issues. That's about 45 oil changes I did and generally change the oil filter every other one (the manual says every third oil change.) The filters go on fine, and I never have issues removing them. Note that the stock OEM filters (which is all I ever use) have round O-rings as opposed to flat ones that are on most other filters. The O-Ring compresses more than a flat filter would.

I won't be checking the thread pitch or gasket thickness. I don't have the equipment to measure it accurately (micrometer and vernier guage I think is what I would need) and frankly don't care enough to bother as this works just fine for me and many other people I am aware of.

..Tom
 
I've been hand tightening every single filter on my bike and all the cars I've had except one that was a cartridge style. I've had no issues thus far.
 
Uh, careful with specifying a general number like two turns, no force stated.

If you want to be specific, give torque specification.

The torque specification for the V-Strom 650 oil filter is 14.5 lbf-ft or 20 N*m


By the way I just went thought the service manual for my 2006 V-Strom (I don't have one for my 2012 but doubt there are changes in this) and it does NOT give a torque rating for the Oil Filter. It says lube the O-Ring and then two turns as I said previously, It does say 21 nm or 14.5 ft/lbs for the drain plug.


Just read on Stromtropper that he thread pitch is 1 mm vs 1.5 mm on other motorcycle filters.

Here is some additional comments in the subject: from Stromtrooper:
There are two reasons for the "2 turn" spec for the Suzuki oil filter:

1. The o-ring makes initial contact as a line (round o-ring to a flat surface) and needs some extra compression to make a secure seal. Most other filters use a ring with a flat face that has much greater initial contact.

2. The Suzuki filter uses a fine thread (M20x1) that needs more turns to compress the o-ring the same amount as most other filters (that use a 3/4-16 thread). One turn of the Suzuki filter advances the filter .0394 inches while one turn of a common filter advances .0625 inches. So you must turn the Suzuki filter 1.6 turns to equal the single turn that is usually specified for the normal coarse threaded filter (with the flat faced sealing ring).


That was from this thread: http://www.stromtrooper.com/general-v-strom-discussion/78323-first-oil-filter-removal-wow.html

As I said previously: its good to read the Manual.

..Tom
 
Wow, you guys are way over-analyzing something simple. Hand tighten your filters, no need to get into such detail. Lubing the gasket is generally recommended as well. I have done thousands of oil changes, mostly on cars, due to nature of my work, and I have never had anyone come back.
 
Actually, one guy with a substantial mileage on his bike gave his honest experience, then a bunch of I-know-how-to doubt-you's flew in and wanted to know a pitch thread and I don't know what else ... typical GTAM cluster **** as far as technical advice is concerned here ...
 
Actually, one guy with a substantial mileage on his bike gave his honest experience, then a bunch of I-know-how-to doubt-you's flew in and wanted to know a pitch thread and I don't know what else ... typical GTAM cluster **** as far as technical advice is concerned here ...

Thread pitch and gasket thickness. Still waiting to find out the latter.

It's an interesting subject to me so I'm talking about it, and it's related to the topic. Do you have a problem with that?
 
Yeah. The PDF I have is the appendix or something of the service manual for the 2012. It is 21 N*m for the oil drain plug and says 20 for the filter.

Here is a copy of my document for you, might be useful for you to have on hand:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/syizeb0lzztlo4r/2012%20V-Strom%20650%20ABS.pdf

Thanks!


I checked the service manual for my wife's 2009 Gladius and it says to install with 2 turns as I mentioned previously and also says 20 ft/lbs in the general chart that has all torque values. From the point of view of oil filter and the way it mounts it is identical to my 2012 V-Strom.

..Tom
 
Thread pitch and gasket thickness. Still waiting to find out the latter.

It's an interesting subject to me so I'm talking about it, and it's related to the topic. Do you have a problem with that?
Well, since it's interesting to you, I'll chime in and side with V-Tom. Check the owners manual or tech manual and do what it tells you.

For the record, the 2006 SV650/S owners manual also indicates two full turns after the gasket initially makes contact. Not surprising since it's the same basic motor as V-Tom's Stroms. Over 70,000kms and a dozen+ oil changes (using OEM filters) following the manuals' instructions, and no issues so far.
 
Regarding 2 full turns versus "hand tight" or 1/2 - 3/4 turn after seal contact ...

Any one of these may be correct for the OEM oil filter on your particular bike. It may not necessarily be correct for an aftermarket filter that uses a different type of sealing element. It may not necessarily be correct for other bike models.

I gather that the Suzuki oil filters use an O-ring seal. I've never owned a Suzuki, so I wouldn't know. Every other spin-on filter that I've ever seen for anything else, uses a flat rectangular-section seal. I've never even seen a spin-on oil filter that uses anything but a flat rectangular-section seal, doesn't matter car (Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, VW) or bike (Kaw, Honda, Yamaha). The O-ring will compress a lot more than a flat seal does.

Hopefully the aftermarket filters for Suzuki keep the O-ring design so that the owner's-manual instructions remain valid. I know that 'Zook spin-on filters for many (perhaps all) of their bikes use a different thread than everyone else uses, you can't interchange them.

Suzuki owners - do the aftermarket oil filters for your bike use a round-section O-ring, or a flat seal?

The bottom line is that what Suzuki tells you to do should be taken as gospel for the Suzuki but not for anything else, and what a different manufacturer tells you to do should be taken as gospel for that brand but not for Suzuki. And if you switch to an aftermarket oil filter that uses a different seal type ... the instructions in the owner's book for the vehicle (which assume the use of OEM parts) could now be wrong for that particular filter. It should also say on the box for the filter, how to tighten it.

Read the manual for YOUR bike ... use OEM parts or aftermarket parts that match OEM specs including the seal type ... and don't make assumptions about whether the manual for YOUR bike applies to everyone else!

To this Kawasaki/Yamaha (and Mitsubishi/VW) owner, tightening an oil filter 2 turns after seal contact is crazy talk ... but they use rectangular-section seals, not O-rings!
 
Hah ... Let me guess. 2 turns of tightening is out of the question and would take an excessive amount of torque to achieve.
 
No idea. I only hand tighten filters. Plus I don't use suzuki filters anymore. I bought an adaptor that screws in where the old suzuki threaded shaft used to be. I use purolator pureone filters meant for hondas now.
 
Well, since it's interesting to you, I'll chime in and side with V-Tom. Check the owners manual or tech manual and do what it tells you.

For the record, the 2006 SV650/S owners manual also indicates two full turns after the gasket initially makes contact. Not surprising since it's the same basic motor as V-Tom's Stroms. Over 70,000kms and a dozen+ oil changes (using OEM filters) following the manuals' instructions, and no issues so far.

I understand that. That's not what's interesting to me. Anyways, I'll have a close look at a Suzuki oil filter when I get a chance.
 
Regarding 2 full turns versus "hand tight" or 1/2 - 3/4 turn after seal contact ...

Any one of these may be correct for the OEM oil filter on your particular bike. It may not necessarily be correct for an aftermarket filter that uses a different type of sealing element. It may not necessarily be correct for other bike models.


Suzuki owners - do the aftermarket oil filters for your bike use a round-section O-ring, or a flat seal?

The bottom line is that what Suzuki tells you to do should be taken as gospel for the Suzuki but not for anything else, and what a different manufacturer tells you to do should be taken as gospel for that brand but not for Suzuki.

Yes, which is basically what I have been saying since the beginning of this thread:




It's important to read what your owner's manual says about filters.


On the Suzuki V-Strom (and I suspect many of Suzuki's other bikes) the correct way to tighten the filter is to first moisten the o-ring with oil. Then gently turn it until the O-Ring on the filter touches. Then turn it two full turns.


..Tom


...
Anyway, my point for the OP was to read what the Owner's Manual says for his bike, and even then it will only be completly meaningful when using OEM parts.


..Tom

I know what works on my and my wife's bike and have both solid experience and information gathered the owner's manaul, from lots of experience, and from reputable sources that this is good. And I have said this is only specific to my bike and bikes from Suzuki using the same basic engine.

Regarding aftermarket filters: I have ever used them and don't plan on ever using them so can't talk from experience. What I have read suggests that aftermarket filters don't use the same o-ring setup the factory does and also require and adapter to change the thread pitch to make them work. It would, be a bad idea to use the Owner's Manual's instructions on non-OEM filters.

..Tom
 
Actually, one guy with a substantial mileage on his bike gave his honest experience, then a bunch of I-know-how-to doubt-you's flew in and wanted to know a pitch thread and I don't know what else ... typical GTAM cluster **** as far as technical advice is concerned here ...

You gotta recognize a troll when you see one.

I've done countless oil changes on my suzukis, Tom is right. Its easy to spin that filter 2x, even by hand
 
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