Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – Yamaha YZF-R15 (2008–2017) PM116S

Two different motorcycles have worn the YZF-R15 badge, and they do not share an air filter. This page is written for the first of them, the 150 built between 2008 and 2017; the 155 that followed is a separate machine with a separate Sprint Filter element. Here the year of manufacture, rather than the name on the fairing, is what decides the order. For the earlier R15 the part is the Sprint Filter P08 PM116S, a dry woven polyester element that goes into the standard airbox where the paper cartridge was.

Key Features

• Specified for the 2008 to 2017 R15 airbox — the later generation uses a different element
• Dry woven polyester, single layer, threads from 22 microns in diameter upwards
• 80 micron filtration with a flow of 5,050 litres per square metre per second
• Around twice the filtering area of other performance filters
• Direct exchange in the series housing: nothing cut, nothing relocated, no remap
• Washable and reusable, two years of warranty from purchase

When the model name is the least reliable detail

Names outlive the machines that first carried them, and a search which begins with a name alone can end with a part built for a different motorcycle. Two things do not move: the build years and the element code. Both are printed on this page — 2008 to 2017, and PM116S. It is worth writing that code into the papers that live with the bike, because it survives owners, market names and catalogue reshuffles, and it is the shortest possible conversation with a parts counter that has never seen this model.

What changes between services

Not the power. A standard R15 with a clean paper cartridge and the same bike with this element fitted will read the same on the same day, and there is no honest way to claim otherwise for a part that drops into an unmodified airbox. What changes is the behaviour in between. Paper is at its freest on the morning it is fitted and tightens from then on, in increments too small to feel, so nothing ever prompts the owner to act. Polyester begins lower, stays there until it is cleaned, then returns to where it started — which over a decade of ownership turns a repeating purchase into a component that is simply part of the bike.

Care and cleaning

Compressed air from the clean side outwards, with the dust leaving by its entry path, is the routine that covers most of the year. A wash is for the rest: lukewarm water, mild detergent, rinsing until the water is clear, then patient drying in open air until no moisture is left anywhere in the fabric. Never with heat, never near a flame, and never with oil of any kind. The Sprint Filter maintenance sheet is in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Made for the Yamaha YZF-R15, 2008 to 2017. Three further machines of that generation were built around the same airbox and take the same element; they are named in the Fitment tab.