Fuel System Maintenance
You may not know it, but over year’s cars will accumulate significant dirt and rust in their gas tanks. This grime can build up and eventually find its way into the fuel lines connecting your gas tank to your engine. When this happens, in the best case, you’ll experience a clog, blockage, or accumulation of dirt on fuel injectors that will prevent fuel from making its way to your cylinders. In the worst case, this accumulation of gunk won’t block your fuel lines and will make its way into the cylinders itself.
Fuel Filters: The only thing standing in the way of these build-ups of gas sediment, rust, and dirt, is your fuel filter. Out of sight, and out of mind, vehicle owners can sometimes neglect to change these out. When they become too full, they will prevent fuel from efficiently making its way to your engine. Usually, this results in sputtering and poor acceleration on the highway, but in severe cases can cause an engine to suddenly shut off as though it has run out of gas!
Replacing your car fuel filters regularly is the best way to prevent dirty gas from damaging your engine. Clean filters ensure the steady and efficient flow of clean gasoline or diesel to your combustion chambers, allowing your vehicle to run smoother, cooler, more efficiently, while reducing operating costs and protecting vehicle longevity. Generally, these filters only need to be changed approximately once every 30 000 kilometers, but this value can vary depending on the specifics of your vehicle. Diesel and gasoline engines will have vastly different requirements with respect to fuel filter schedules, but even regular-gas engines and high-octane gas engines can have surprisingly different needs. The best way to ensure you’re changing the filter on the right schedule is to refer to your vehicle’s manual.