The car's oil filter cleans irregularities from the engine oil. Clean motor oil ensures optimum lubrication. Clean engine oil is very important, which makes a good performing oil filter also important. A good performing oil filter filters dirt from the engine oil caused by wear. Next to dirt from wear, it filters combustion residues, soot particles and/or metal particles. The oil filter removes dirt from the oil circulation. However, over time, the filter gets saturated and needs to be replaced. If the filter breaks, it immediately needs to be replaced.
Failing oil filter
The oil filter might break with time passing on. Causes for a failing oil filter are that the filter can get clogged or break because of mechanical damage. Additionally, the bypass valve can break or get stuck (because of dirt). Failing occurs because the service life of the filter has been exceeded. Lastly, a failing oil filter can also be caused by poor quality engine oil or a bad oil filter.
A failing oil filter can be recognized by the following:
- Oil leakage underneath your car;
- The oil filter housing is swollen up;
- Engine overheating;
- Increased oil usage;
- Warning light on the dashboard lights up;
- Dirty exhaust fumes;
- Low oil pressure.
If the filter breaks, it needs to be replaced immediately. If an oil filter is clogged or got damaged, it prevents the engine oil to sufficiently flow through the engine. The desired lubrication rate goes down and the engine may overheat or even gets jammed. Having your engine replaced is often very (!) expensive. It?s strongly recommended to change your oil filter in time.
Change oil filter
The service life of an oil filter is somewhere around 20,000 to 30,000 kilometers (approximately 12,500 ? 17,500 miles). If you don't drive your car as much, another benchmark is to change it each year. It is often recommended to change the oil filter at the same time as when you change the engine oil. You can easily replace the filter yourself. Using the right tools such as an oil filter wrench it´s done fast. When replacing though, make sure the car is parked on a flat and water level place. But, before you start and change the oil filter, first drain the engine oil. You can do this using an oil pump, oil sump or oil drain pan. You can then remove the oil filter by hand or with the use of an oil filter wrench. Now you can unscrew the old and re-screw the new oil filter in. After this, top off your car with new engine oil.
Buy new oil filter
Buying a new oil filter is quick and easy at Winparts. Simply enter your number plate on our website and the correct filters for your car will be displayed. Of course, you can also get all other supplies such as engine oil, a drip tray and an oil filter wrench at Winparts. Additionally, you can also buy other filters for your car such as air filters, fuel filters, pollen filters and sport filters.