The entire purpose of a car’s engine is to convert fuel into energy, and that energy moves your car. This process requires a lot of moving pieces, all of which are lubricated by motor oil. This increases efficiency and reduces wear, giving you a more productive engine with a longer lifespan. To help out this lubrication process, your engine needs an oil filter. A car’s Engine Oil Filter therefore does two important things; its many parts work together to clean the oil and keep it in the right place at the right time. As the oil circulates in the engine it picks up rust, metal shavings, dirt and other combustion contaminants like carbon deposits prior to passing through the filter and traps them inside the filter so they don’t find their way into the engine.

Your engine requires a tremendous volume of clean oil to operate properly. If the oil filter is not changed periodically, the filter can become severely clogged, reducing the volume of oil passing through the filter and into your engine. Without this oil, your engine can suffer severe damage.

How Engine Oil Filters work

The outside of the filter is a metal can with a sealing gasket that allows it to be tightly held against the engine’s mating surface. The base plate of the can holds the gasket and is perforated with holes around the area just inside the gasket. A central hole is threaded to mate with the oil filter assembly on the engine block. Inside the can is the filter material, most frequently made from synthetic fiber. The engine’s oil pump moves the oil directly to the filter, where it enters from the holes in the perimeter of the base plate. The dirty oil is passed (pushed under pressure) through the filter media and back through the central hole, where it re-enters the engine.

Reasons to change your Engine Oil Filter on time:

1.  Prevent Clogging – Changing your oil filter avoids the risk of the filter becoming so clogged that oil can’t pass into the engine. Oil needs to flow into the engine to lubricate vital car parts, preventing overheating and serious engine damage. 

2. Remove Oil Contaminants – When you change your oil filter, you’ll improve your car’s oil filtration system, removing contaminants and particles that could damage the engine.

3. Improve pressure, function and mileage – Old oil will reduce engine performance, lower its horsepower, reduce its mileage and eventually shorten its life. Changing your oil filter will normalise the oil pressure, maximise oil pump function and improve your fuel mileage.

4. Reducing maintenance costs – By synchronising your oil change and oil filter replacement frequency, you reduce your overall maintenance costs by only needing a single maintenance. A new oil filter isn’t expensive, especially when compared to the cost of the potential damage contaminants in your engine can cause.

Some possible telltale signs to your Engine Oil Filter needs to be replaced: 

1. Uncommon Dirty Exhaust Fumes
2. Poor engine performance
3. When you start hearing metallic noises in your car – A lack of oil in the engine will cause metal to grind against metal as the engine works.
4. Vehicles equipped with an oil pressure gauge will highlight that the pressure is low
5. The check engine light will come on

You should replace your oil filter every time you carry out an oil change. On average that should be replaced at every 10,000km for a petrol car, or every 15,000km for a diesel.  However, we recommend that you check your manufacturer’s manual  to confirm the specific service interval for your vehicle. It should be noted that if you regularly drive in severe conditions (stop-and-go-traffic, towing heavy loads, extreme temperatures or weather conditions, etc.), you will probably need to replace your oil filter more often. Severe conditions make your engine work harder, which results in more frequent maintenance of its components, including the oil filter. Get to know more about other filters in your car by clicking here.