Oil Filter Fail

I've never seen anything like this.
My daughter's boyfriend has a 2014 Triumph Scrambler 900 which lives on the gentrified streets of Wicker Park, a north Chicago neighborhood. Andres contacted me a few weeks back to tell me of what first appeared to be a rear brake fluid leak, but when I came by with the trailer, I could see that it was, in fact, an oil leak, and it was bad enough to have coated the swingarm, rear brake and even the tire. 

​This past weekend Andres joined me in the shop to see what's what. I had by then traced the source to the oil filter, so a complete oil change was ordered, but when I fired the engine to warm the oil a bit, this is what I was surprised with:

Whoa. That's an epic oil leak. Long story short, the oil and filter change did the trick — no more oil leak. Upon a closer visual inspection, we couldn't find any physical damage to the filter, though it was torqued on pretty tightly. In the photo below, you can plainly see that the paint surrounding the tacked-on hex fitting is peeled and surface rusted all round. That's not normal for a filter installed a few months ago, and that flange is the source of this leak. So, either this is a huge manufacturing defect or this filter was tightened with a wrench, which is never recommended — the hex is for ease of removal, not installation. FWIW, the filter was installed by Motoworks, a Chicago Triumph dealer, and was leak free for three or four months.

The filter is a HiFloFiltro, a brand which I've used and trusted for years. I've never used the hex design, which HiFloFiltro designates with an "RC" suffix in the part number, simply because I've never seen the need, I suppose. And I definitely won't use an "RC" in the future. One more reason to do your own maintenance.