Collapsing oil filters

[barndeadr80]

It was clean enough to eat in there until all the dust and dirt from the starter area and the front cover shook loose as the timing cover came off. Didn't get around to unscrewing that PRV today but there's plenty of time while waiting for parts. The thing looks pretty sad sitting back in the barn with the t-shirt I was wearing covering up the front of the open cavity that was an engine uncracked for 25 years.

[SteveD]

The straight filters are known to collapse...it's not unheard of, and will be a cause for concern if seen of course.

What about changing to a hinged filter? They don't seem to attract talk of collapse...or do they?

[barndeadr80]

There's a link to some pics somewhere early in this. In it there's a pic of the filters. The first to fail was a hinged genuine BMW filter. It folded inward at the seam in the aluminum inner tube and the paper portion was on the verge of going through the hole. I wouldn't have cared if a filter was deformed a little. Total failure that causes a filter to end up in pieces inside the engine...that bothers me.
You are right, though. From everything I read the hinged originals are supposed to be the strongest paper filters.

[Duane Ausherman]

IN the early days we found the filters deformed, but alarmingly so. I have never seen one that threatened the oil system. This was before the hinged filter came out.

[barndeadr80]

The suspect is loose. The only thing keeping it in there is that it hits one of the timing cover studs one thread before it falls out. Smart fellows, doing that to keep it from falling out if the timing cover fell off in the road and the Pressure Relief Valve was not screwed in good.
The stud...are they just screwed in there or do they have threadlocker that needs heat to release?
I need that stud out so I can see that there never was anything wrong and that this was an exercise in futility, but for easing the pressure on my brain from worrying about it. I can see through the holes in the "hollow bolt" that the thing is closed. It could only be stuck shut and likely is not. Still, I want to see and the new spring will be here Friday. I'll be wanting to button this thing up ASAP.
So, what do I do to get that stud out of the way without damage?

[ME 109]

The suspect is loose. The only thing keeping it in there is that it hits one of the timing cover studs one thread before it falls out. Smart fellows, doing that to keep it from falling out if the timing cover fell off in the road and the Pressure Relief Valve was not screwed in good.
The stud...are they just screwed in there or do they have threadlocker that needs heat to release?
I need that stud out so I can see that there never was anything wrong and that this was an exercise in futility, but for easing the pressure on my brain from worrying about it. I can see through the holes in the "hollow bolt" that the thing is closed. It could only be stuck shut and likely is not. Still, I want to see and the new spring will be here Friday. I'll be wanting to button this thing up ASAP.
So, what do I do to get that stud out of the way without damage?

To pull a stud use two nuts on the stud and lock them together, then undo the bottom nut.

I would not like to ride with a filter as crushed as yours. The filter flow has to be seriously compromised when the sides are nearly touching each other. Which may also mean the oil filter bypass is open when the engine is running.
With no real knowledge coming forward as to the cause, digging is inevitable.


How long have you had the R80? and how many filter changes have you done?
If the collapsing filters are a new phenomenon, then something has occurred to cause it.

[barndeadr80]

Yeah ME 109, what you said. Pretty much what I said to start this thing off.
Bought the bike in '86. Along the way it took a 16 year nap. Woke it up summer of '08 and been riding the devil out of it. Something changed for sure. The only thing odd other than the hammered filters was a pressure sensor leaking. That seemed "normal" and was replaced and forgotten.
I didn't count filters. I could look at reciepts or do math, but the intervals between changes was something else that did not change. When they suddenly start crushing in 90-100F temps with the same oil as got through winters fine, it is not the oil. After the first filter, it is not likely a defective filter. The bypass/detent ball not being stuck means it probably is not the problem, though I should have checked it with compressed air to make sure the path behind it was open.
So, the extended pipe inside the filter to keep them open and together and then the digging.
I tried two nuts on the stud. It was stubborn and I was tired to the point of making a mistake so I quit. Didn't want to find out there was threadlocker in there that needed torch-time to make let go. That stud is the last part of this trip. It is coming out today.

[barndeadr80]

Hope y'all enjoyed this pointless journey into the heart of madness. I had to know. Now I do. It was not the pressure relief valve. The spring is fine and the piston moves freely. Air blows through the passage behind it freely.
I have a new timing cover gasket. The new spring will go in simply because I have it. I ate my M&M's. Thank you Max BMW!
Time to put it all back and hope it runs again. Fun.
Thanks for hopeful advice along the way and helpful advice, too.

[mattcfish]

Hope y'all enjoyed this pointless journey into the heart of madness. I had to know. Now I do. It was not the pressure relief valve. The spring is fine and the piston moves freely. Air blows through the passage behind it freely.
I have a new timing cover gasket. The new spring will go in simply because I have it. I ate my M&M's. Thank you Max BMW!
Time to put it all back and hope it runs again. Fun.
Thanks for hopeful advice along the way and helpful advice, too.

But the mystery remains.

[barndeadr80]

Still a mystery, yeah, but it was interesting to dig in there. Cheap, too.
Saved trouble later due to an electrical nightmare about to occur. The red and green wires from the alternator to the diode board had been rubbing on the cover and were close to taking up welding.
I did find that electric heat gun worked fine to get the timing cover happy enough to go back on.
And that marking the location of the bean can with an ice pick does the trick.
And fear...that moment of pure fear as the smoke came out the mufflers, having never done that before. Of course it was just the anti-seize I slathered on the exhaust parts burning off, but that sinking feeling was there for a minute.
Totally warmed up it was sitting on 25psi at 1000rpm or so.
And it was damn fun to ride it again!