Filters are an important part of your car’s well-being, but they’re easy to forget. Miller Auto Care has some information that you need in order to understand just how important filters are to your entire car.
Oil Filter
The oil filter has an important job. As your car’s engine oil circulates, it picks up dirt, debris, and things that don’t need to be in your car’s engine and carries it out of the engine. Once the circulated oil gets back to the oil filter, that filter removes as much of that junk as possible before sending the oil to recirculate through the engine. Your oil filter needs to be changed every time that you have an oil change, so roughly every 3,000 to 5,000 miles.
Fuel Filter
The fuel filter has a similar job, but it works in between the gas tank and the rest of the car’s fuel system. There are impurities and sediment that get into your gas tank, so the fuel filter keeps those from ending up in the engine, where they would just burn up and leave debris. Fuel filters can usually last about 30,000 miles, but you should also pay attention to timeframes specified in your car’s owner’s manual.
Air Filter
Your car pulls in air from around it to use in the combustion process. That’s not a big deal until you remember that there’s a lot of stuff in the air besides just oxygen. There are leaves, pollen, dirt, and even road debris. Your air filter catches all of that so that it can keep it out of your car’s engine. Changing your air filter every 12,000 miles or so can ensure that your car’s engine is a lot cleaner.
Cabin Air Filter
Not all cars have a cabin air filter, but if you do have one it’s important to keep up with it. Cabin air filters usually need to be changed annually. They filter gunk out of the air that goes straight to the passenger compartment to help you to have a more pleasant experience while driving around. If you ignore this filter, it can become contaminated and clogged, which you definitely don’t want.
Not sure when any of your filters were last changed? Contact us at Miller Auto Care in Medford, OR and we’ll visually inspect them all for you. If any of your filters are overdue for a change, we’ll handle that for you and help you to remember when it’s time for them to be changed again.