Air and Your Engine

In some ways, your car is like a living thing. Just like how your car needs the right fluids, it also needs air to operate. Without the proper air intake, the engine cannot combust fuel. Just like starting a campfire, the combustion that happens in your engine requires fuel and oxygen to occur.

However, just like people, cars engines need clean air to function properly. If dirty or contaminated air reaches the combustion chamber, they can have an abrasive effect on the moving parts in the engine. It’s thanks to an air filter that your engines receives the right amount of clean air to keep humming along.

As you drive you car, the filter will gradually get loaded with more and more contaminates. If the filter gets too dirty, its performance lowers and the engine cannot suck in enough air to work properly. When this happens, it ruins the fuel/oxygen balance in the combustion chamber. Mechanics call this “running rich” because the engine is running with too much fuel and not enough air.

“Running rich” sounds like a good thing, but you won’t like the sounds your engine will be making. Without the right amount of oxygen in the combustion chamber, the engine will lose power and run roughly. It may also cause your “check engine” light to come on.

Fortunately, maintaining the air filter is very simple. When you bring your car to The Tire Choice for an oil change and 17-point inspection, we’ll check the filter and offer to change it out if necessary.