09-02-2020, 09:03 AM
Oil filters and lubricants seem to be almost more polarizing than religion, politics, and sports teams. That being said, regardless of which brand/manufacturer of oil filter (including OEM), all of them are mass-produced by machines by the thousands. Due to the law of averages and variability in manufacturing materials and machine tolerances, there will always be the potential for one or more "bad" ones from every manufacturer, even the Honda OEM produced ones. Any filter can have a weak spot in the metal case, a poor crimp, a bad weld (like in this post) or a weak (poorly formed) gasket, among other things. A rhetorical thought: how many of us really take time to carefully SCRUTINIZE an oil filter (e.g., inspect the crimp/seam, gasket, etc.) before installing it new? Maybe we should? I am not defending HiFlo nor am I excusing any other brands. Vigilance is key. Kudos to the OP of this thread for being an observant rider, catching the problem early so as to minimize the potential for damage.