How often should I check my air filter?


There are many
routine car maintenance tasks that
are easy to overlook, and it's fair to say that some are more important than others.
Although most of us would be pretty well-aware of how important it is to check
our tires, oil and screen wash there probably aren’t too many people who would lose
sleep over the condition of their vehicle's air filter. However, a dirty air filter can have a negative effect
on the performance of vehicle.
What
are air filters?
If you have a
relatively modern car, the chances are your vehicle will have two different air
filters; one for the cabin and one car engine
air filter. Although the air filter for the cabin does need changing on a
regular basis, the schedule for changing it is different to the schedule for
changing the air filter in the engine. The filter for your cabin is to prevent
unwanted contaminants from getting inside the vehicle for you to breathe in or
dirty the interior. But engine air
filters are a little more important as they stop dust, dirt and other
environmental nasties getting into your engine and affecting the performance.
As time goes by, these filters get dirty and clogged up with contaminants,
which is why they then need to be replaced.
Replacement
schedules
There’s a great
number of factors that determine how often you need to change your air filters.
Each manufacturer makes its own recommendations for its own vehicles, so you
should be able to find out when you are supposed to change them for your
particular model by checking the owner's manual or by consulting an expert.
Although the schedules are likely to vary considerably from one manufacturer to
another, they will also vary depending on where and how you drive. Under normal
circumstances, engine air filters can need to be changed anywhere between
30,000 to 45,000 miles, but this can drop to as regular as every 15,000 miles
or less in "severe" driving conditions. This can refer to regular
driving in heavy traffic, in extremely hot weather, or on unpaved roads or
dusty tracks. If you drive in any of these conditions on a regular basis you
will have to change your air filter on a much more regular basis than if you do
most of your driving on uncongested highways.
How to
tell if a filter needs replacing
A visual
inspection of an air filter should give you a pretty good idea of whether it
needs changing or not. If there are a lot of blackened areas on the side where
the air comes in, it's probably time for a change. There is some real good news
here though, and that's because on most engines the air filters are easy to
locate and access and they're not especially expensive to buy in most cases.
Once again, you owner's manual should point you in the right direction for
locating and removing your filter.
A clogged air
filter won’t have a hugely adverse effect on fuel economy, but it could reduce
your vehicle's acceleration by as much as eleven percent if it isn’t clean
enough. For more information and expert help and advice about air filters,
don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here at South
Bay Lincoln today.