I see this question pop up once in a while, and wanted everyones input, especially people with experience on the matter. I have a K&N filter, and was curious. If your motor goes, can they say it was the filters fault, and void your warranty?

 

take it off before you take it in,not worth taking a chance.

 

Oh, not to worry, if i take it in for ANYTHING, my stock filter, and stock CDI go back in. Im just curious if there was a debate on this subject, and if anyone had actual experience[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

i have no experienc with this but it wouldnt surprise me if they used that for a excuse to void the warranty.

 

If they can see dirt entry around the filter and can tell that stock filter was not leaking it won't be hard to figure out. Straight forward yes it voids the warrenty but in reality I doubt it is a problem or there wouldn't be very many filters sold. Briggs and Stratton had a problem with dirt entry around their filters in a couple of their engines and I have had experiance with warrenty issuses on them. First thing they want to know is if air filter is original equipment. If is not that is the end of their liability.

 

The fine dust particles that a K&N can pass would usually not lead to a major engine failure but would instead just cause cylinder/piston/ring wear at a faster pace than with good foam filter and could also lead to increased oil consumption and drop in compression. My opinion is that dealer or factory could consider this all as normal wear combined with poor maintenance and could void warranty claims.
They know from experience how fast a top end should be wearing out and I believe they can determine if factory procedures were followed just by looking at a dissassembled motor. Also they will see the intake track downstream of filter and I don't think you can get all that evidence cleaned up.

 

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If you are concerned that the lack of filtration and accellerated wear caused by a K&N may be a problem, why would you use one? Sure, there are a lot of people who use K&Ns, but that's mostly because the company spends boucou bucks on advertising. If you read enough of the posts on these ATV websites, you'll find that many people have found their foam filters, or even stock paper filters, have been more satisfactory.

True, the K&Ns will probably flow more air, but at what trade-off? If you decide to go with the K&N, then be standup enough to live with the consequences--if there are any.

GJRonK

 

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This may answer some of your questions V2rider.
Some reading
And if you don't have anything else to do........here is some more reading for you.
More reading
Have fun reading.

 

v2rider,
It really depends on your dealer. If their service dept is real ****, and thinks their job is to be a support staff for the manufacturer you may have a problem, although I don't know why anyone would take an ATV in for repair of a blown engine with an aftermarket air filter on it. If your dealer trys to be an advocate for their customers, and is willing to go to bat for you in regard to warranty repairs you will not have any problems.

As an example, I had a 2005 Prairie 700 that I had our local Kawasaki dealer install a Four Stroke Tech 800cc big bore kit in. The cam chain broke right after engine break-in was completed. I took the quad back to the dealer for repairs, and they replaced the cam chain free of charge. The warranty had actually expired one week before the quad broke, but since they were still able to submit the clain to Kawasaki within the calender month that the warranty expired in, they were reimbursed by Kawasaki. So if a broken cam chain is covered under warranty after a big bore high compression engine with new cams (and a K&N air filter [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]), it should certainly be covered under warranty with just the K&N air filter.

That is one reason having a good dealer is crucial to having a good ownership experience with your ATV. Everyone is always asking "Which ATV is best?", when they should be asking "Which dealer is best?" There is a reason you see so many Yamaha's in my signature, our best local dealer is the Yamaha/Kawasaki dealer.

We use an oiled foam Uni filer in our desert racing quad and desert racing bikes by the way. K&N's let the ultra fine silt get through.

DV