Although easily forgotten and often overlooked, replacing a car's air filter is an important part of any preventative vehicle maintenance routine. Just like changing spark plugs or fuel filters, clean air filters help keep a car running at peak performance. Old, dirty filters reduce the available air in the engine, affecting combustion, power, performance, and fuel economy. Learn more about the reasons to replace a car's air filter, as well as when and how to change the filter, by reading on. To understand the importance of the air filter, it is important to understand what it does for the car's engine. All internal combustion engines, whether gas, diesel, or propane, produce power by burning fuel. For fuel to burn, it needs two other components: oxygen and heat. The air provides the oxygen for the fuel to burn, and the heat is provided by spark plugs, or in the case of diesel engines, by the glow plug. While the outside of a car's engine may look rough and dirty, the inside of it must be finely machined.

The gaps between adjoining metal parts have to be machined to exacting tolerances. For bearings and metal components that slide alongside of each other, this tolerance may be as small as the thickness of a human hair. One place where components rub up alongside one another is where the pistons slide up and down in the cylinders. There are rings around the piston that make contact with the cylinder walls, forming a moving seal. philips air purifier online indiaThose rings keep the burning fuel above the piston and the oil below the piston.whirlpool air cleaner reviews If dirt gets into the cylinders, it begins to scratch the sides of the cylinder, damaging the piston rings and walls of the piston. bird air purifier reviews

This results in reduced compression, reduced engine power, and increased oil burning. The air filter exists to ensure that the air used in the combustion process is clean and does not contain any dirt or other contaminants which could damage the cylinder walls and piston rings. The actual life expectancy of an air filter is variable. There are many things that can affect it, such as the climate the vehicle is driven in, whether it is driven on city streets, open highways, or dirt roads, and how clean the driver keeps the engine compartment. General Motors recommends in their vehicle owner's manuals that air filters be changed every 60,000 miles or whenever they are dirty. However, most vehicle owners who carefully maintain their vehicles replace them much more frequently than that. A good rule of thumb is to change it every time the spark plugs are changed, which should be done every 24,000 to 30,000 miles (every 2 to 2.5 years for the average driver). The true key to knowing when to change an air filter is to inspect it and replace it when it is dirty.

A good habit for anyone to get into is that of checking their air filter every time they change the oil. If the car is taken in for an oil change, the shop will usually do this; if the owner changes it, they should check the air filter themselves. Any air filter that has been in the car for more than a few months is going to be somewhat dirty. The key is knowing when it is dirty enough that it needs to be replaced. If the air filter has lots of dirt and gunk built up on it, then it is obvious. But in most cases, the dirt is not that obvious. Holding the filter up to the light is a good way to see how dirty it is. If light will not pass through it, then air probably will not pass either. If the light is clearly visible through the filter, then air will probably pass through it as well. This is a judgment call more than anything else. A dirty filter will not allow enough air to pass through it and enter into the car's combustion process. Most newer cars built since 1980 are fuel injected.

These cars all have computerized controls, with an airflow sensor in the air intake. Older cars use carburetors and do not have the sophisticated electronic sensors that newer ones do. In a car with a carbureted motor, the loss of sufficient airflow means that the mixture of air and fuel will be too rich (too much fuel). This will result in inefficient burning, with not all of the fuel being burned. Vehicle gas mileage will suffer, and the unburnt fuel will plug up the catalytic converter. Fuel-injected cars will not have the same inefficiency of burning, as the car's computer will reduce the amount of fuel injected into the cylinder to keep it in balance with the amount of air available. This will result in a reduction in total power available from the engine, however. The driver, compensating for this, will push on the accelerator pedal harder, increasing fuel consumption. Whether a car has a carbureted engine or a fuel-injected engine, a dirty air filter will affect gas mileage.

The severity of this effect will depend in part on the amount of blockage caused by the dirt and in part on the habits of the driver. Leaving a dirty filter on an engine can also make the engine harder to start. If allowed to get dirty enough, the filter can block off enough air that the engine may not start at all. Changing an air filter is the easiest vehicle maintenance task to do; it is even easier than washing the car. It consists of removing the old filter and installing the new one. No other parts are needed or need to be removed in order to gain access to the air filter. For a fuel-injected vehicle, the air filter will normally be attached to the side of the engine compartment. It can be located by following the air hose from the top of the engine to the air filter housing. This hose is about 3 inches in diameter and can be hard plastic, convoluted plastic, or rubber. The cover is usually held on by spring clips, which can be opened by hand. A few cars require the use of a Phillips-head screwdriver to remove the cover.

The filter is rectangular in shape and has a soft rubber gasket molded onto it, which provides a seal around the edges. This may need to be pried loose, as it will conform to the shape of the housing. The new filter is placed in the housing, taking care to have the ribs of the filter pointing the same direction as the old one (usually down), and the cover is reinstalled. For an older vehicle that uses a carburetor or throttle body, the air filter will sit on top of the engine, covering the carburetor or throttle body. It will be round in shape, inside a rather large round housing, with an air inlet horn extending toward the front of the vehicle. The top of this type of air filter housing is held in place by a single wing nut in the center. Loosening this wing nut allows the cover to be removed, providing access to the air filter. Do not try removing the cover with the wing nut sitting loose on top of it, as this is an excellent way to lose the wing nut. Remove the old filter, place the new one in its place (there is no "up" or "down" side on the filter), and replace the cover.

The wing nut only needs to be finger-tight, as the rubber seal of the air filter acts as a spring to provide tension to hold it in place. eBay is an excellent source for all types of automotive parts, including air filters. There is a category for them within eBay Motors, but it is much easier to find them by doing a search for the air filter needed. If a search for "air filters" is done, it will return all types of air filters, including home air filters. Trying to find the right air filter from the list would be daunting. However, if you conduct a search for a specific vehicle year and model, using keywords such as "2004 Taurus air filter" or "1999 Corvette air filter," only the applicable air filters will appear. Do this by entering these keywords into the search bar that can be found on any page of the eBay website, and clicking on the "Search" button. Please note that by searching in this manner, you will not only receive direct replacement filters, but you will also receive high-performance aftermarket filters in the listing.

There is nothing wrong with replacing an air filter with an aftermarket one, but more than just the filter is required to do so. If opting for an aftermarket air filter, be sure to buy the necessary connectors and housing to go with the filter. (This is considerably more expensive than just replacing the filter.) Changing an air filter is a very simple operation; it is probably the easiest car maintenance task there is. Many people have their air filter replaced when their oil is changed, paying a mechanic $30.00 to do a job that they can do themselves in under two minutes, for a third of that cost. Air filter replacement is one of the regular preventative maintenance items car manufacturers recommend. While it does not need to be done frequently, the air filter should be checked every time the oil is changed. In this manner, the possibility of having an air filter that is dirty enough to cause problems with the vehicle's operation is virtually eliminated. Dirty air filters can reduce the vehicle's gas mileage by reducing the burn efficiency or by reducing the amount of power that the engine is able to produce.