Car filters are a set of parts that are responsible for, as their name suggests, preventing certain particles from entering different parts of your car.
Car filters are an active safety element in the car, since they not only make it work much more efficiently, but also reduce the risk of accidents since a car with filters in good condition always goes to have less risk of accident than another with filters in poor condition.
If the filters are not changed when they should be changed, many misfortunes can occur. For example, if the air filter is not changed, combustion problems in gasoline or noise problems could occur that lead to fines.
There are also other things that happen in other filters, such as the oil filter, which can favor engine corrosion if it is not in good condition. As for the fuel filter, it could cause incomplete combustion, with long-term engine problems and drowning of your car.
The cabin filter or the ventilation system must also be in good condition, because if it is not, it could happen that there is damage to the heating system, also damaging the engine in the process and causing us to have to spend more money in repairing our car than it has cost us.
Luckily, it is not difficult to change the filters, in addition to the fact that it is quite cheap to carry out this repair in the mechanical workshop, in addition to the fact that the workshop will also change the filters very quickly, your car being available to circulate in a short period of time.
The bad thing is that it is a bit difficult to detect when the car filters should be changed, whatever they are. Many times the things that happen are silent and we are not aware of them, until one day it is too late and we have a broken car in the workshop.
Instructions
- When to change an oil filter: The first filter to check is the oil filter, one of the most important filters in our vehicle. This filter is a filter that is responsible for filtering all unwanted particles that may be in our lubricating oil, preventing them from entering the engine and therefore always being in good condition. These particles are usually dust particles that get into when we put oil in our car, since it has been trapped in the oil when we put it in the passenger compartment. Most mechanics recommend changing the vehicle’s oil every year if it is old and every two years if it is new, however, if we notice that the engine is flooded, we must first check this filter in case there are any problems.
- When to change the air filter: The air filter is another filter that should be checked, since it is in charge of preventing air from entering the combustion process in gasoline. When the exhaust pipe works, it spits out smoke as combustion has taken place. However, when air enters, the combustion is incomplete and the car does not run well. The air filter prevents air from entering the exhaust pipe, making combustion always complete. When this filter is damaged, the car could suffer incomplete combustion, which we will notice when a lot of smoke comes out of the exhaust pipe, when the car is drowned and when the exhaust pipe fires. This filter is recommended to be changed once a year, but remember that this amount of time could be less in cases of failure.
- When to change fuel filter: The fuel filter is a filter similar to the oil filter, however, it does it with gasoline. It filters the undesirable particles that enter together with the gasoline, which should not enter the engine to avoid some kind of greater evil. The particles are trapped in the filter, preventing them from entering the engine and therefore never getting damaged. When this filter does not work properly, either because it is blocked or because it is broken. This is the filter that should be maintained the most, since gasoline is the element of the car that suffers the most inputs and outputs and, therefore, the one that causes the most particles to be in the car. Check the filter every time you take the car for review, that is, every 6 months at least. If you notice something strange, such as that the car is drowning, check the filter before those 6 months.
- When to change ventilation filter: All cars have a heating and ventilation system inside it, which does double duty. First of all, they allow the engine to release some air and that the car is ventilated (without ventilation it would be very hot due to combustion) and secondly, they allow the car to have a heating or air conditioning function, depending on the season and the customer’s need. This filter is responsible for filtering dust particles from the air, to prevent them from entering the engine or another part of the car that could be susceptible to being damaged. The filter should be checked at least once a year, since if the dust reaches to the engine, you can imagine what could happen. If you drive in the mountains or in the desert, you should check these filters much more frequently, at least between 3 and 6 months between each check at most.
- Pull the manufacturer’s manual in case of doubt: Each vehicle is different, since not all cars are the same and not all cars have been manufactured for the same purpose. This means that in some cases, these filter change rules will vary from car to car, as some need more maintenance and others less. Luckily we have the manufacturer’s manual for our car, a manual included in the purchase of our vehicle, which tells us how we can change some parts of our car and how often we should change them to ensure that the car is in perfect condition. They will also indicate the manufacturers of filters recommended by the manufacturer and how the change should be made, to save us the mechanical workshop.
- Filter cleaning: Filter cleaning is also an important thing, since in some cases, the filters do not suffer any type of damage, but are simply dirty. Since the filter is so dirty, the dirt prevents the normal circulation of air, causing the car to suffer some performance problems. Again consult the manufacturer’s manual to see how to clean the filter or failing that, go to the mechanical workshop to have it cleaned. The filters must be cleaned every 1/2 of the time they need to be changed, that is, if you need to change a filter every 6 months, you must clean it every 3 months at least to extend the useful life of the vehicle.
