12 Dec Understanding the Importance of Engine Filters in Your Truck
Owning a truck makes life easier as you can use it to go to the groceries, carry heavy loads, go to work, and get around town without using public means. However, all this comes at a cost as you need to regularly keep your truck properly maintained. One of the most important service and maintenance practices of your truck is the filters.
Although it seems like a pretty straightforward question, not many people are sure how often one is supposed to change the oil filters. To make it easy for you and ensure that your truck doesn’t surprise you by having faulty filters, let’s look at the role of filters and how often you should change them.
Types of Car Filters
There are usually two types of filters, air and oil filter, both of which are used to ensure your truck engine is in the running smoothly. The air filter protects the engine by trapping all types of crud you can think of including dust, any bugs that might fly into the engine, and any other form of dirt that might cause obstruction and corrosion the engine. As a further protection measure, the air filter is sealed with a plastic box, which further help protect the engine. Considering all the dirt it captures, the air filter needs to be changed regularly. Leaving it dirty for a long time can do harm to your truck engine and you will no longer enjoy riding in it as usual.
The oil engine, on the other hand, is small in size but plays a major role in removing impurities from the oil. Any presence of impurities such as metal shaving can get into the engine and cause abrasion into the engine bearings, consequently resulting in serious engine damage. Over time, the oil filter gets clogged by impurities hence interfering with its performance. You, therefore, need to change often to ensure your engine stays safe.
How often should you Change your Truck Engine?
The answer to this question highly depends on how you normally use your truck. However, the manufacturer might give different guidelines when it comes to changing your engine filters. To avoid confusion as to when is the right to do so, consider the following mechanic’s tips.
- After changing engine- it is only wise to change your filters after having an oil change. How often you change the oil depends on your car but your mechanic should be in a position to advise you accordingly.
- When the service engine light turns on- if you note the service engine on, then it means there is something that has triggered. There are many things that can do this and clogged engine filter is one of them. You can use the diagnostic tool to determine the exact cause of the engine light alarm.
- Your driving condition- if you usually drive your truck on extreme conditions such as towing heavy loads or driving during extremely hot weather, then you should consider changing the filters more regularly than when driving under normal condition.