The best way to find out what filters you have in your car is to check your owner manual’s service section. Accurate Auto Center advises that your car, truck, or utility vehicle definitely has an air, fuel, and oil filter. It might also be equipped with a cabin air filter and/or a transmission filter. Your owner’s manual has this information. Let’s talk about all five of these filters below. It’s a good idea to know what they do and when they need to be changed generally.
Air
You will find the air filter encased in a special housing in your engine. This filter removes contaminants and dirt from the outside air that flows into the engine. Once the air is purified, it is routed to the combustion chamber for use in engine combustion. A dirty air filter can affect your engine’s performance and reduce your gas mileage. As such, it’s important to change the filter every 12,000 miles. You can also change it once a year if you don’t do a lot of driving.
Cabin Air
Not every automobile has a cabin air filter. Some vehicles have netting that purifies the air. This netting never needs to be changed. The cabin air filter does need to be changed, however, in order to keep the air inside the passenger cabin clean and free of contaminants. Generally, the cabin air filter needs to be changed every 30,000 miles, but this duration changes between filter brands and vehicles.
Fuel
Your automobile’s engine also needs fuel to generate combustion. As with the air, the fuel needs to be purified before it is routed into the combustion chamber. The fuel filter cleans the fuel twice to make sure it is free of contaminants before it is used. Drivers who don’t put a lot of miles on their automobiles can change the fuel filter every two years. It should be changed every 30,000 miles, otherwise.
Oil
Your engine needs clean oil circulating through it to protect it. The oil filter removes whatever dirt the oil picks up after it has circulated through the engine. The oil filter gets changed with an oil change. Therefore, it’s changed every 3,000 miles.
Transmission
Finally, the transmission filter gets changed every 30,000 miles. Check your owner’s manual to see if your automobile is equipped with a transmission filter. As we mentioned above, it might not be.
Accurate Auto Center in Tomball, TX, would be happy to inspect all of the filters in your automobile to see if any of them need to be changed. We will change them if they do.