Poll: Knowing it might void your engine warranty, would you run an aftermarket air filter?

After the whole "55k engine failure" fiasco, I thought I would create a poll to figure out where people stand on this issue of aftermarket air filters for newer trucks. Maybe some good can come of the unfortunate situation for our friend by increasing awareness of warranty limitations for all. The findings of that case are unknown to me, but the questions it raises are interesting, I believe, to all Tacoma owners.

The basic question is what might happen after a defective air filter damages your engine (while still under Toyota warranty).

So that I am not playing favorites, here are the statements from a few leading aftermarket filter manufacturers:


aFe:

https://afepower.com/contact#warranty

"Warranty
All warranty is limited only to the repair and/or replacement of the aFe product. Under no circumstances will the obligation or liability of aFe exceed the purchase price of the product as indicated on the original bill of sale. aFe excludes and disclaims any liability or obligation for incidental or consequential damages and cost related to such damages including but not limited to installation, removal or repair labor, rental vehicles, tow or any other inconvenience costs. Such costs will be the responsibility of the vehicle owner.
aFe does not warranty any open box, used or items purchased from third party eBay sellers."

K&N:

https://www.knfilters.ca/warranty.aspx

Engine Protection Limited Warranty

Unlike many companies, our warranty for O/E replacement air filters and intake systems does extend beyond the replacement of a defective K&N part. For the original purchaser of the product, our warranty covers any engine damage or related costs incurred as a direct result of the use of a properly installed and maintained K&N O/E automotive replacement air filter or intake system on the specific vehicle for which the product was designed to be used by K&N. This includes reasonable vehicle repair costs directly related to an engine problem caused by the failure of a K&N product. Furthermore, we warrant that using our product will not result in a vehicle warranty denial. K&N will not be responsible for any indirect, consequential, special, contingent, or other damages not listed above

What Is Not Covered By Our Warranty

Any K&N product used for 1: any type of racing or competition; 2: any off-road use, custom or modified applications; 3: any off-road or dual sport motorcycle/ ATV use; or 4: any illegal highway use, marine, or industrial applications. All K&N Air Filters not covered by our million mile warranty are warranted against defective materials or workmanship for one year from date of purchase with no mileage limitation. This includes K&N Air Filters sold for ATV's and off-highway or dual-purpose motorcycles."


FRAM:

http://www.fram.com/media/62425/2015_FramWarranty_EN.pdf

Any Covered Product which is determined by FRAM Group Operations LLC to be defective will be replaced at
no charge. In the event of an engine or equipment failure directly caused by a Covered Product, FRAM Group
Operations LLC will provide the lesser of the: i) restoration of the engine or equipment to a condition equivalent
to that existing just prior to the failure or ii) cash payment of the fair market value of the vehicle.
TO THE
FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, FRAM GROUP OPERATIONS LLC DISCLAIMS
ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS AND ANY AND ALL CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL AND
SPECIAL DAMAGES.
Some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion of such warranties or damages, so this
disclaimer may not apply to you.

VEHICLE MANUFACTURERS’ WARRANTIES
In the United States:
Use of
FRAM
®
products will not void your Original Equipment warranty. A
manufacturer may not require the use of any brand of filter unless either the
manufacturer provides the filter for free-of-charge under terms of the warranty or
the manufacturer successfully demonstrates to the Federal Trade Commission that
its product will not work properly without a specified item or service. To date, the
FTC has not made any such determination for filtration products. If a manufacturer
makes a claim that using a
FRAM
®
product will void or has voided your warranty,
ask the manufacturer to provide this statement in writing.

And....Toyota's statement of limitations:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/toyota.sit...18_owners_supplement_en.pdf?ck=12302017040931

This warranty does not cover damage or failures resulting directly or
indirectly from any of the following:

• Modification, alteration or tampering, disconnection, including
installation of non-Toyota Accessories.

• Installation of non-Toyota Parts

 

This is simply my experience but I had issues running K&N in my truck. Didn't see any improvements and in fact it caused my truck to develop a rough start condition. Toyota diagnosed the problem as the oil getting on the mass airflow sensor. Once I cleaned the sensor myself, the issue was gone. I tossed the filter and replaced it with a Toyota filter. Perhaps I put too much oil on it but to me, it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

It's good to know what everyones experiences with different brands of air filters and oil filters have been. We should keep this going because it freaks me out when I think about this guys engine at 55k.

 

For sure. I agree. I am genuinely interested in what peoples opinion are here about performance filters etc.

 

I should stress this poll deals with newer engines, still under warranty (hence it's in the 3rd gen forum). After the warranty is gone, for sure, run whatever you like. This poll is specific to engines still under Toyota's engine warranty.

 

This warranty stuff is like having legal problems, you don't want to get into a situation where you have to rely on anything a corporation or judge comes up with as a solution. The end result most likely will not be favorable.

 

Subbed

 

I don't think there is anything to gain at all by those aftermarket Filters other than some Intake Noise, not worth it in my humble opinion.

 

I just leave it stock under the hood....

 

Well each situation, each truck setup is different, I have over 500,000 miles supercharged the whole time with 10 pounds of boost a KN Airfilter, filter was replaced on warranty once 50,000 miles ago. No I don't race it in the dirt or sand. Never had an issue with my mass air flow sensor either but if you over oil the filter yes the mass air sensor will act up, So I have never had to buy an airfilter in 20 years 540,000 some miles

 

Not worth it in any way shape or form.

-There is no significant performance increase in just running a different filter.

-The cost savings of a reusable filter will take several OEM filter replacement intervals to realize.

-Reusable filters require maintenance to clean and re-oil.

-The possibility of having to deal with litigation to address a warranty issue outweighs the benefits of an insignicant performance increase or small cost savings.

But hey, I guess some people like having a K&N sticker on their rear window.

 

And some have over 500,000 miles on them and are happy too, each to their own.

 

Valid point, but the warranty would have run out long before that. This poll/question is specifically about an engine still under warranty.

 

Well agree I would not take the chance too

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1421703077...3:g:SaoAAOSwXeJYHJaz&vxp=mtr&autorefresh=true

 

I'll play. I have a 2012 tacoma with 47k miles. I have an AFE intake system. After 3 off road runs, I decided to open up the system to clean the filter, which I suspected was dirty. This thing was covered in dirt. When I removed it, dirt was falling everywhere, but there was no dirt or dirt residue in the intake tube, MAF, and throttle body.
So I'm neutral, but considering going back to stock.

 

Just my 2 cents, it was very very unlikely that the filter was actually the cause of that particular engine failure, or if it was, it was due to a chronic lack of maintenance.

That said, it is concerning to see suspect failures passed off on a filter. When you are in warranty this should absolutely be on the radar.
A move back to (or to keep) paper filters shouldn't necessarily be motivated by any concern that the filter will cause a failure, but rather that you may potentially be placed in the unfortunate situation where a dealership says it did cause an otherwise unrelated failure.

I'm probably going to go back to paper anyways considering RockAuto sells Wix filters for 9 bucks, and I'm unimpressed with my Dryflow so far in terms of cleaning it. It really looks no better than an oiled filter, it's just not getting oil all over my MAF. On top of that, dust doesn't accumulate as fast as I thought it would offroad with the 4 banger's giant fender snorkel.

 

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/kn-vs-oem-filter.html

 

Absolutely not, waste of money.

 

I voted NO. There are NO benefits.

G.