Stihl should be ashamed of themselves.

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Try putting Vaseline on the sealing parts of the gasket on the filter and around the top where the hole for the center stud is. It might be leaking through there.

Dolmar makes a larger air filter for their 7900, and it has a cloth oversleeve on it. Works great!!
The vasoline and gun greace were the first couple things I tried after the first time I noticed. I think it makes it worse. I donno why, I’ve done that for years on various engines. Seems mine is getting worse as the half turn plastic thing is wearing.
 
Friend makes one you can run under your stock cover. Jason from ID. Here is his website. https://eganperformancesaws.com/products/air-filter-kit
Uni filters on his designed filter basket.

Back when it was torture tested. Tester said no fines got through. Think they suggest using Bel-ray filter oil.


View attachment 959572
I saw that one on the thread mentioned above. I think they are still on back order. I’ll buy one when I can, if it doesn’t loose compression first.
 

The big issue is it looks like dust is coming under the filter. The small amount through the center hole is just frustrating not the big issue. Adding that washer would make it more likely to come in under the filter. Right now it has a rubber washer sandwiched between the filter and the lock now. Trying to put more force on the base.
 
The big issue is it looks like dust is coming under the filter. The small amount through the center hole is just frustrating not the big issue. Adding that washer would make it more likely to come in under the filter. Right now it has a rubber washer sandwiched between the filter and the lock now. Trying to put more force on the base.

I took mine apart to see what the problem was. My filter fits very tightly around the outer circular part of the intake. I suppose it could loosen up, but a bit of hi-temp grease would solve that problem.

Looking at your first picture again, the actual amount of fine wood that is in the intake is minimal. It look bad because of all the debris against the face of the mount, but that is not filtered material and has no effects on the engine.

Basically, this is all much ado about nothing.
 
If I had that problem with any of my "tiny" saws, I would have some car paste wax roughly with a brush on to the surrounding areas and use a silicone or other substance that turns in to a firm rubber when hardened - when mounting the filter - at all gaps. The wax makes it not stick to the surface so basically you make a custum rubber gasket. If you want it permanent, you only apply the wax to one side of the two surfaces, and clean the other surface with some bourbon.
If you need to make it nice, I use cotton pins to remove any excess.
 
I took mine apart to see what the problem was. My filter fits very tightly around the outer circular part of the intake. I suppose it could loosen up, but a bit of hi-temp grease would solve that problem.

Looking at your first picture again, the actual amount of fine wood that is in the intake is minimal. It look bad because of all the debris against the face of the mount, but that is not filtered material and has no effects on the engine.

Basically, this is all much ado about nothing.
I blew everything off before removing that filter. All that junk came in under the base seal. Fines getting through the filter is no problem at all. The filter isn’t sealing up.
 
I blew everything off before removing that filter. All that junk came in under the base seal. Fines getting through the filter is no problem at all. The filter isn’t sealing up.
Email Stihl with this problem and also give them a link to this here and see what they have to say about it.

https://support.stihl.com/en-US/write-email/
 
Face it Stihl air filters literally suck and will probably always suck.

They are greatly improved though. The filter on the ms290 was slightly better then what I use to drain spaghetti. The filter on the ms461 I cleaned regularly, but was going great after 5 years of use. The ms500i looks the same. How well it seals at the edges is what is in discussion, and from the picture it seems to be doing an okay job. Yeah, there is a whole lot of fine material around where the filter goes, but that is of no effect.
 

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