A car has several filters that are important to the life of the car. Neglect to replace these filters when they need changing, and you wili pay for your negligence in higher operating costs and higher repair bills. Among the filters are the oil filter, the air cleaner, the automatic transmission filter or screen, and the gasoline filter.
- OIL FILTER
I suggest you change the oil filter every time the oil is changed. Some Owner’s Manuals recommend changing the oil filter every other oil change, but I do not agree. Suppose your engine requires six quarts of oil; if you do not change the filter, it will only take five quarts, since one remains in the filter. When you drain the dirty oil from the engine and put in five quarts of clean oil, the one quart of dirty oil in the filter will mix with the clean oil, giving you six quarts of dirty oil and a dirty filter. This is poor economy. You should change the oil filter each time the oil is changed. You can save money by buying oil filters and oil from a discount house.
You can usually get oil filters for foreign cars from a regular auto parts dealer, but if the filters are not available see the foreign car dealer. An air-cooled VW has an oil strainer in place of an oil filter, which may be washed in gasoline or kerosene; the gaskets then have to be replaced.
- CLEANER FILTER
The air cleaner filter element is made of paper and cannot be cleaned; a dirty element must be replaced. When new, the filter element U perfectly white inside and out. The appearance gets darker as the filler gets clogged with dust, sand, and other foreign matter. Hold Hie element in front of a bright light to see its condition.
An engine draws air through the air cleaner and gas from the fuel line, and the two are mixed in the carbufetor. If the flow of either one It impeded, the engine will draw more of the other, which explains why it dirty air cleaner causes the engine to burn more gas. Changing a illrly air cleaner saves gas and that saves money. You can also NIIVI” money by buying a replacement air cleaner element and installing II yourself Some foreign cars, such as the VW Beetle and bus prior to 1975, have oil-bath air filters. Refer to your Owner’s Manual for the recom-mended frequency of checking the oil level and servicing the filter.
- AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION FILTER
One filter that many car owners never see is the automatic transmis-sion filter (sometimes called a screen). Many car owners neglect to have the automatic transmission serviced, and the resulting transmission trouble usually means expensive repair bills. The two most common causes of transmission repairs result from driving the car with insuf¬ficient fluid at high speeds or for long distances, and failing to have the transmission serviced at regular intervals. The Owner’s Manual of my car, for instance, states that under normal driving conditions the transmission should be serviced every 24,000 miles.
Servicing the transmission involves making adjustments and check-ing various components, besides changing the fluid and changing or cleaning the filter. Paper filters must be changed, while metal filters need cleaning or changing. Take your car to a transmission repair shop for transmission service and for any repairs that are needed; these are not jobs for the do-it-yourselfer or the average service station.
If your automatic transmission is sluggish in shifting, or will not shift from low gear to a higher gear, the problem may be that the transmission fluid is low. Another symptom is if the engine races dur¬ing the shifting operation. Have the fluid level checked at once, be¬cause continued driving may damage the transmission. Watch for oil spots where you have been parking your car; this kind of leak may indicate trouble with your automatic transmission
- GASOLINE FILTER
The gasoline filter is standard equipment on most cars manufac-tured since about 1970. Located either in the carburetor, on the fuel pump, or somewhere along the gas line to the carburetor, its purpose is to remove or trap water, trash, and sediments that may be in the gasoline. Water can come from condensation in the gas tank or from the service station pump.
There is nothing that you should do about the gasoline filter. If the filter needs cleaning or replacing, a good mechanic will do that when the car is tuned; if he finds foreign matter in the carburetor, he may sug¬gest that you need a supplemental gas filter. Usually this is installed in the line to the carburetor. A warning sign that the gas filter needs replacing is when the engine performs erratically, lunging forward and then holding back.
- FUELS
Many American cars made since 1975 require or perform best with unleaded fuel, as do some of the late-model foreign cars. On such cars I he opening to the gas tank is smaller than on earlier cars, and the hose nozzle on the unleaded pump at the service station is smaller than the nozzle on the pump with leaded fuel. It is difficult to put leaded gas in a car that requires unleaded gas, and you should not do it. One reason for the unleaded gas requirement is the use of a catalytic con-verter on the engine, the purpose of which is to decrease the amount of pollutants put into the air by the burning of the fuel in the engine.
Using leaded gasoline would soon ruin this catalytic converter, and a replacement would be expensive. Some states with high air pollution levels have special requirements. If your American car is a 1974 model or older, it probably uses regular leaded gas, as do most foreign cars.
Some large American and foreign cars are designed to use only premium gas. You should use the fuel recommended by your Owner’s Manual. An engine that burns regular gas constantly, especially with stop-and-go driving, will accumulate carbon. Fill the tank once with premium gas after four or five tanks of regular gas; then take your car on the highway and drive it at the legal limit for ten miles or so.
Many knowledgeable mechanics believe-and there is evidence to support this-that an occasional tank of premium gas will help to clean the engine of excess carbon deposits, resulting in better performance.
- LUBRICANTS
Your car has several different kinds of lubricants: engine oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, wheel bearing grease, and greases used in a lube job. Engine oil is so important that I will tell you about it in the next chapter. Transmission fluid and power steering fluid are checked each time the car is serviced, though you can check the level of these fluids yourself.
Repacking front wheel bearings involves putting a special kind of grease on the bearings. Greasing the car, having it lubricated, or having a lube job are terms that mean the same thing. A lube job refers to placing a special grease in the moving parts of the front suspension and steering mechanism.
These parts move when the front wheels are steered from side to side and when they move up and down over bumps. A lube job also includes greasing certain joints on the drive shaft and checking the level of the lubricant in the differential.
The drive shaft transmits power from the transmission to the rear wheels through the differential, which is composed of sets of gears in the rear axle. The differential enables the drive shaft to turn the rear axle shafts and also permits one axle shaft to go faster than the other when the car turns a curve. To repack the front wheels and grease your car.
If you neglect to have the proper lubricants used or replaced in your car at the correct intervals, you can expect costly repairs. Whether you do the lubricating tasks yourself or have the work done at a service station, it is your responsibility to keep records and see that a preventive maintenance program involving lubricants is carried out on your car.
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