Your Car’s Filters: The Basics

Let in the Good, Let Out the Bad

We’ve all been in the kitchen before, cooking some spaghetti. The noodles have been boiling for a while and are finally soft enough to eat and so you need to quickly get them out of the hot water. You can’t put your hand in there and take out the noodles one-by-one, nor is it practical to grab the serving spoon and ladle the noodles out of the pot, trying to drain the water after every dip. Instead, you do the smart thing and grab yourself a colander; that way, the noodles can be sifted from the water all at once, saving you a lot of time and energy, and ultimately doing a better job than you would have been able to do otherwise.

Your car’s filters are just like this, only instead of separating the dirt and waste because they’re the main ingredients for your vehicle’s operation, we want to make sure that they don’t end up being ground into any of the car’s delicate parts.

The Four Filters

Your vehicle utilizes four different types of filter in different places throughout. They are used to strain particulates from either air or fluids as needed. Let’s take a look at what they accomplish and how long they should work before you need to drop by our Provo car repair center and have them exchanged.

The Cabin Filter 

This is the filter that ensures that the air coming into the driving compartment is clean. This cabin filter is separate from the car’s HVAC unit, so you can still benefit from using it without having to commit to being hot or cold. This filter strains things like:

• Dust
• Dirt
• Exhaust fumes
• Pollen
• Leaves
• Bugs

This filter should be replaced every 30,000 miles so that our Master Muffler technicians can ensure that you’re not breathing in anything you don’t want to be.

The Air Filter

Another filter meant to keep the air passing through the car clean. This differs from the cabin filter, however, because the air being cleaned by this particular filter is not meant to be breathed in by the driver, but it will rather be “breathed in” by the car; that is to say, the outside air that passes through the grill of the car will be cleaned before it mixes with the fuel vapors in the engine.

Because the air comes in through the grill, the filter typically pulls out:

• Bugs
• Water
• Rocks
• Pollen

If you are wondering whether it’s time to change out your air filter or not, our car repair technicians suggest swapping it out every 12,000 – 15,000 miles.

The Oil Filter

Thanks to the constant moving of many parts in the engine, the chance for damage caused by friction is high. Your motor oil is meant to help with this by keeping everything lubricated. Just like the air filter keeps particles from entering the engine’s interior, the oil filter keeps the oil on the engine safe from various harmful debris. The oil filter is meant to:

• Extend the life of the engine
• Improve the fuel efficiency
• Keep the oil in working condition longer

It is wise to have your oil and oil filter changed every 30,000 miles or so by one of our professional car repair service technicians in our Provo Master Muffler.

The Fuel Filter

So far, we’ve spoken about how these filters keep the integrity of the air and fluids pure so that the internal workings of the car can continue their jobs without being scored or otherwise damaged. This final filter is no different, though it does work in tandem with the air filter to ensure that the fuel that mixes with the air is likewise clean.

If you have any questions about whether or not your car is running optimally, please don’t hesitate to call us and set up an appointment for your car to be serviced by experienced professionals. We’re ready to help you.