A Dirty Air Filter Costs You Money
Advertisement
Gas and fuel for your vehicle are expensive enough without throwing your hard earned cash after tax out the windows.
A dirty air filter wastes a fair of gas and fuel unnecessarily. Yet an air filter is something few drivers and automobile owners think of. Yet an air filter draws a tremendous amount of air ? up to 10,000 gallons of air for each gallon of gasoline that your car uses for you to drive around ? whether it be in town, the freeway or on long automobile trip on your vacation. A dirty air filter is like a choked air filter in a vacuum cleaner ? it obstructs air flow. Hence less air can get through. More fuel than need be is pulled into your engine resulting in excessive gasoline use and much lower miles per gallon (m.p.g.) for each expensive galloon (or liter) of gasoline fuels that you buy when you fill up your tank.
Not only that but your air filter ?filters? and cleans that vast amount of air that enters into your automotive engine. Less dust and grit in the cleaner air flow will result in not only less gasoline fuel fcsts for you but also smooth running, fewer repairs and ultimately a longer life span for your vehicle, as opposed to running with dirty ? not clean air filters.
Just like any home furnace filter, the air filter of our vehicle ? be it truck, SUV, car or van ? must be replaced with a new clean one when it?s dirty. Preventive maintenance ? that is replacing the air filter before it even gets to that point is even better,
The air filter may have a cost to it but overall you will be far ahead of the game with saving in fuel and vehicle running and maintenance as well as potential replacement costs. Some motorists even replace expendable routine items on a planned basis ? just like is done in maintaining aircraft. They use their owner?s manual as a general guide as when its time to replace automotive parts figuring that its better to do it this way and after all they are going to have to replace those auto and car parts at some point anyways.
Generally most cars need a new air filter once a year or every 15, 00 miles (24,000 km). It?s always best to refer to your vehicle?s owner?s manual as your best reference. Of course if you are driving in very dusty areas or areas with a lot of grime, chemicals or grit in the air you should change the air filter more often. Ditto that for certain seasons if you are involved in a given industry where more dust may be seasonal. For example during fall harvest time those in the farming communities may encounter more dust in the air than the rest of the year. The recommendations listed in the owner?s manual have been derived with a great amount of expertise and experience by technical staff that is most qualified to know the vehicle and recommend with great experience. It may be said that the manufacturer of the vehicle is there to sell parts to their motorists and err on the side of caution. That is true. Yet it never hurts to be conservative and play it safe. In the case of replacing an air filter or an oil change these are generally not costly repair costs.
All in all it can be said that a dirty air filter costs you money in fuel costs and maintenance costs for your vehicle. Make it a point to change your air filter of your vehicle early and often.