SE AC Bad???

[Ollie]

I'm sure this topic is getting to be a dead horse but I seem to see a lot of bad comments about the SE AC. Just exactly what is wrong with these?
For I am concidering getting SE setup this summer(pipes and ac kit) but I don't want to waste my money if is no good.

[barry1967]

The filter is no longer made by K&N. It's a paper filter element not much better than stock. The backing seems to have warped on a few owners bikes here on the forum. It seems that the only way to improve on this at this point is to use the NHRS filter setup, VERY good item although a little steep, or get an older style 1340 SE kit or an older 03 earlier kit with a K&N filter.

[misterwizard1]

Holes in them after 3000 miles.
misterwizard

[xena]

Mine was holi-er than the Pope and I only had approx. 2400 miles on it.

[scooter]

I bought mine because there weren't too many options at the time. It has a plastic back plate and crappy filter and is overpriced for what you get. Wish I would have waited and gone with a set up like Turbota's or the Ness part that is coming out...

[xl1200r]

Mine didn't have any holes in it after over 5000 miles., but I thought the perforamnce was not so good. When I compared dyno runs with a pro-series hypercharger, there was very little difference.

[gronk62]

I'm sure this topic is getting to be a dead horse but I seem to see a lot of bad comments about the SE AC. Just exactly what is wrong with these?
For I am concidering getting SE setup this summer(pipes and ac kit) but I don't want to waste my money if is no good.
If I had my time over again I would NOT have bought the 2004 SE aircleaner kit!

Mine is full of holes and the backplate is warping.

The blue rubber stuff that is used to mold the whole filter element together has been affected by fuel and is swelling up and looks like it will self destruct in the not too distant future.

The backplate is molded from kinda flexi plastic stuff and looks cheesy and cheap and is now warping round the edges where the filter element mates with it.

It was grossly overpriced for what it is and my advice to anyone considering buyin' one is to not bother and go and get somethin' from an aftermarket company.

Turbota and Barry have posted some intructions on how to peice together a great aircleaner in this thread Air Cleaner stats. (http://www.xlforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3136)

And NRHS, who is an XL Forum Supporting vendor, has this great product HurricaneFlow Air Cleaners (http://www.xlforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1875)

There is also a "Ness Stage 1 and 2 Big Sucker" line of air cleaners for Sporties. I'm waiting on mine to arrive from here... Dennis Kirk (http://www.denniskirk.com/jsp/product_catalog/Product.jsp?skuId=182533&store=Main&productId=p182533&catId=209&leafCatId=20902)

And there's prolly others that I'm not aware of :)

[Mechano]

I'm sure this topic is getting to be a dead horse but I seem to see a lot of bad comments about the SE AC. Just exactly what is wrong with these?
For I am concidering getting SE setup this summer(pipes and ac kit) but I don't want to waste my money if is no good.

I've spent $40 for a teardrop S&S style for CV carb AC complete system.

$12 for an Unifilter foam filter because the stock one was very good flowing but really cheap and light, it was near transparent, I was afraid it didn't a good filtering job.

$35 for a U (horseshoe) chrome head breather kit.

A total of $85 for a very good AC and performance gain.

Add near $7 and you'll have a fuel line rubber tube and a small crankcase breather filter for cranckcase oil fumes hose relocation.
With 1.20meters you can go up under the tank and down following the choke cable, putting the small filter near and under the left footpeg (if you have an XL1200C).
It will drop down, away from any wheel, and will not make dirty any engine, frame part.

I'll post some photos.

[missyd]

Seems that the SE-ACs made for pre '04 Sporties are of much better quality.
I washed out the filter inset a few time and it is like new .... same for the backing plate .... as new. ;)
Maybe SE had this filters made cheapo by a chinese/nippon company ... :D

[Mechano]

Seems that the SE-ACs made for pre '04 Sporties are of much better quality.
I washed out the filter inset a few time and it is like new .... same for the backing plate .... as new. ;)
Maybe SE had this filters made cheapo by a chinese/nippon company ... :D

I'm a little OT,
but just want to say, since into my company we buy and produce lot of things on the east, commonly nippon quality is prime or near prime quality.
Taiwan/Singapore is from middle to near good quality.

China is a lot variable, and depends on the price and quality required by the company who commit the production.

Normally the crap quality is only from China.

My cheap teardrop S&S style for CV carb AC system is a made in China product, the backplate has a ugly chrome finish but it's made of good tickness cast aluminium. Don't mind if it's ugly because when covered by the ham can noone see it.
The ham can has good chrome finish.
The foam filter is cheap and too light, so I preferred to change it because I was not sure if it did a good filtering job.

[SC_Compact]

I just pulled my SE A/C and it appears I too have some small pinholes in the filter after about 5000 miles.

This is totally unacceptable and I will be contacting HD Customer Service first thing tomorrow morning. While the round SE AC is a possible solution I feel ttaht after soending close to $100 for the SE A/C HD should either fix the problem or refund me my money.

:clap Any one else having problems with the SE AC please contact HD Customer service and make sure they know how dissatisified you are.

[SC_Compact]

:laugh I am verey impressed by how responsive HD is to the SE AC problem.

I called HD Customer Service today and let them know the problem I was having with the SE A/C. I was told that they will be looking into the problem and I needed to bring the AC in to a dealer to have it looked at.

I brought the AC into a dealer by work (without a receipt), the dealer called the HD Tech Services 800 number and I walked out with a new SE AC.

One of thr theories is that the carb farting is actually blowing holes in the paper element.

If you have a SE AC with holes in it make sure you call HD Customer service to let them know otherwise nothing will be done to improve the AC.

Hopefully they will find a new supplier for the SE AC's (K&N).