All Night Auto Repair : Why Replace Your Engine Air Filter?
September 14, 2020
Just as our bodies need clean air to function properly, your SUV engine needs clean air to operate efficiently. Let’s go egghead for a minute. For every gallon of gas we burn driving on Michigan expressways, twenty pounds of carbon dioxide comes out the tailpipe. Question: how can a gallon of gas that weighs a little over six pounds produce twenty pounds of carbon dioxide?
The answer is that the carbon comes from the gasoline, but the oxygen comes from the air. You see, it takes about twelve thousand gallons of air to burn a gallon of gas in your engine. Clearly, your SUV needs a lot of air to keep going in Redford. A lot of clean air is best.
You’ve seen the pictures of people in Japan wearing face masks. They want some kind of filter to keep unwanted pollution and germs out of their lungs. Well, your SUV also works better when its internals are clean. When your SUV air filter’s dirty, it simply can’t trap any more dirt, so the pollutants just pass through into your air intake system. From there it can clog your fuel injectors and even get into the motor itself. Not surprisingly, burning dust and pollen in your SUV engine does you no good.
So, we’re talking potential damage for Detroit drivers. But another big thing is wasted fuel. Your SUV engine management computer tries to mix the correct amount of air in with the fuel. If the filter’s clogged, there isn’t enough air for the optimal fuel to air mix and that really messes with fuel efficiency.
In fact, replacing a dirty air filter at All Night Auto Repair in Livonia can improve your fuel economy by up to ten percent. At today’s Redford fuel prices, you should be able to pay for a new air filter before your next oil change.
The verdict: When your SUV engine air filter needs to be replaced; it needs to be replaced. How often depends entirely on the level of air pollution where you drive in Michigan . A simple visual inspection at All Night Auto Repair will tell you when you need a new engine air filter.
When you look at the air filter on your furnace at home and see it’s all clogged up with dust and dirt, you don’t hesitate to replace it. When your All Night Auto Repair service advisor shows you your nasty engine air filter, you now know why you should go ahead and replace it.
Need Service?
More articles from Elite Tire & Auto Care

A Bright Spark (Ignition Coil Replacement)
March 30, 2025
Ever wonder how your vehicles engine is able to take the 12-volts from its battery and ramp that up to as high as the tens of thousands of volts it takes to fire its spark plugs? The secret is something called an ignition coil. Most newer vehicles have an ignition coil at each cylinder, but olde... More

Losing Your Cool (Why is My Air Conditioning System Not Working?)
March 23, 2025
When you turn on the air conditioning in your vehicle, you expect cool air to come out of the vents. You depend on it, especially in hot weather, but it can also be important in humid weather when you need it to help defrost your windows and windshield. The air conditioning system has a lot of p... More

The Part You've Never Seen (Flat Tires and Solutions)
March 16, 2025
They say your vehicle has one, but you've never seen it. And you might not even know it if you stumbled on it accidentally. We're talking about the jack, that tool that allows you to lift one corner of the vehicle up so someone can change a flat tire. So you say you'd never try to change a flat ... More