It used to be easy for a mechanic to explain to someone why keeping a car’s engine intake air filter clean and fresh was necessary. They just had to mention that you’re wasting money at the pump while putting the dirty filter in your face.
That’s old school, people who work on cars and trucks aren’t called mechanics anymore, and technically the dirty filter/lousy fuel economy argument isn’t as easy as all that with modern engines.
The tech’s here at Ford Lincoln of Franklin service know modern engines and why you need to keep your air filters clean. The answers they have may surprise you, and If you want to know how to call out an old school mechanic on the dirty air filter/low fuel economy argument, if that’s how they’re selling the job, read on.
A Brief Lesson in Internal Combustion
Gasoline internal combustion engines have always utilized a mixture of fuel and air to create an explosive force in the engine cylinders creating mechanical movement.
In days of yore, there were things called carburetors that inhaled air, sucked gas through a rubber hose, and shoved the whole mix into a cylinder to be compressed by a piston after which a spark ignited the whole thing to make a tidy, and powerful, little explosion. Long story short, this process went round and round to make the wheels on the car go round and round.
Yesterday and today, it has always been the job of the engine intake air filter to make sure the air that gets into the engine is free of debris and dirt so only clean air mixes with the fuel. All foreign contaminants are captured in the air filter keeping the combustion chambers, and the internals of the engine, clean and free of debris.
The rub is that as the filter cleans the air, it gets clogged up. With an old carburetor that meant that less air got to the combustion cylinder and your engine sucked more fuel to compensate. This affected both economy and performance.
Enter Fuel Injection, The Computer Chip, and The Mass Air Flow Sensor
To this day, as the engine intake air filter does its job, it gets clogged and as a consequence less air makes it to the combustion chamber. The difference in modern engines though, is that there’s a sensor near the entry of the filter passage, called the mass air flow sensor that actually measures how much air the engine is taking in. If the sensor detects that there isn’t as much air coming in as the engine design requires, this information is tabulated by a computer chip which then recalculates how much fuel the fuel injectors put into the cylinder for the aforementioned explosion.
Less air flow sensed means less fuel dispensed. So economy doesn’t suffer. Performance however, still takes a hit.
Now, theoretically, your filter may be so clogged that no air flows, at which time your mass air flow sensor tells the chip that there is no air, thus, no fuel gets injected, and then, no explosion. Chances are though, this is more likely a sensor failure than a filter failure. None the less, it’s possible.
Overall Performance Effects of Dirty Air Filters
Seeing as the amount of energy your engine produces is directly related to the amount of fuel in the cylinders during the power stroke (the explosion), less fuel would make for less power. As a result your engine performance suffers with a dirty air intake filter.
Surprisingly, there’s another oft neglected filter that can cause you more headache. The cabin air filter.
The cabin intake filter filters the air coming into your vehicle’s cabin before it is processed by the heating or cooling systems. Just like the engine intake filter, the cabin filter becomes clogged too. If this blockage becomes chronic your heating and cooling systems may seem to not be working well. Unfortunately, if you don’t have the cabin air filter, about fifty bucks, checked first then you can be spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars on heating and cooling system maintenance and repair when all you need is a fresh cabin air filter. So be aware. There are two air filters you need to know about.
Save Money, Time, and Hassle with the Qualified Service Center at Ford Lincoln of Franklin
Everyone is interested in getting the best performance from their car, and one of the easiest ways to do that is getting routine maintenance from qualified technicians.
At Ford Lincoln of Franklin we take great pride in helping our customers keep their cars and trucks on the road and running great. The service team here at the dealership uses state of the art technology with the latest and most up to date factory information making sure each and every scheduled maintenance and repair is up to speed.
Our guys and gals are some of the best trained in the area and are always ready with courteous assistance. Come on by today, or give us a call at 888-433-0436 to schedule an appointment. Regularly scheduled maintenance at our dealership is a great way to get peace of mind when driving.
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