Spectre Air Filter SPT 8138 Potentially Catastrophic Failure

I purchased a Spectre SPT 8138 filter on Thursday, November 16, 2017 and installed it the same day in my GMC LS V8 equipped 2010 Jeep Rubicon. Three days later, on Sunday, November 19, 2017, in Death Valley, the chrome end cap came loose and was sucked into the throttle body assembly, causing the engine’s ECM to immediately shut down the engine. This occurred while I was driving.

Several members of the caravan I was a part of stopped to assist me. One of the other drivers, based upon the DTC codes displayed by my ODB II scanner, suggested removing the air intake tube that sits between the filter and the throttle body. Upon removing the air inlet tube, exposing the throttle body assembly, we discovered the loose cap sitting in front of the butterfly valve, preventing its normal operation.

Had this chrome cap been sucked past the butterfly valve into the engine, it could have caused a lot of damage. Even if it didn't cause damage, it would have been a lot of effort to retrieve it.

This is the worst conceivable design. There is nothing holding that cap to the inside of the filter. There is no evidence of the cap ever being crimped, glued or otherwise permanently attached to the inside of the filter. This cap should have been designed to fit on the outside of the filter, so that it could never be sucked into a running engine.

Scary shit. Glad you caught it before it was fully ingested.

That’s scary glad you got it why use anything other than other than the paper filter


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Shit! Glad it didn’t get sucked in! Did you take any pics?

I bought this filter to replace a similar Spectre filter. I need a non-stock air filter because I swapped in a 5.3L Chevy V8.

Here's what the filter looks like:



You can see the top of the chrome piece protruding a bit from the inside. The chrome piece closes the hole in the filter. The top of the chrome piece appears deeper in the filter than it actually is; it sits about 2 inches below the end of the filter (the camera makes it look deeper). This filter was installed on a Thursday and it failed the following Sunday, so it worked correctly for only 3 days.



Here's the chrome piece as it appears on the inside of the filter.



If you position the filter with the narrow end pointing up and the end that connects to the air inlet pointing down and then just tap the top of the filter, the chrome piece falls out. I cannot see anything that keeps this chrome end piece inside the filter; there's no glue and there's no crimping. No wonder it just fell into the engine. Who would manufacture an air filter with a cap mounted on the inside of the filter and connected poorly (actually, I really can't see how it was connected).



Leaving a hole in the end of the filter and the chrome piece leaning against the butterfly valve in the throttle body assembly (if you're lucky, as I was, otherwise it's somewhere in the engine).

Wow. That's a really poor design. I would assume the cap is meant to be fixed on there somehow, but to have that single point of failure (and a potentially catastrophic one at that!) doesnt really inspire confidence.