When your experienced ABC Auto Works & Tire Center service advisor technician changes your oil, he will also inspect your air filter. You shouldn’t need a new filter at every oil change, but you will need to change it regularly. Heed your tech’s auto advice if they tell you to change your filter. It’s not pricey, and it makes a big difference to your SUV.

An air filter does what its name implies: it filters stuff out of the air. Air is drawn into your engine through the filter because your engine needs air to burn fuel. If the filter weren’t there, a lot of dust and debris would come into the SUV engine with the air. That dust and debris would get hot, burn, and produce all kinds of ash and gumminess that would eventually clog up your engine.

Drop in an air filter and voilá! Problem solved.

But air filters themselves get clogged up with all the junk they clean out of the Novi air. This doesn’t allow the junk into the SUV engine, but it does block up the airflow. A blocked airflow will reduce engine efficiency.

An engine needs about 12,000 gallons of air to burn just one gallon of gasoline. Think of a runner. If he is breathing well, he can run well. But if he has a lung condition, he won’t be able to generate the oxygen necessary to keep his cells powered up. He won’t be able to run at peak efficiency.

Or consider a vacuum cleaner. Even without the light, you can tell when the vacuum bag is full because the machine just doesn’t clean anymore. Change the bag and its efficiency immediately improves.

So keep your SUV breathing well by keeping its air filter clean. That’s good car care.

Walled Lake drivers who get a charge out of the feeling of power in their engine might consider upgrading their air filter. Talk to your friendly ABC Auto Works & Tire Center service professional. Premium air filters have been proven to increase horsepower and torque. So with the cost of a premium air filter, you can increase the horsepower in your engine — there’s no cheaper way to do that!

It’s also one of the least pricey and simplest elements of essential routine preventive maintenance – and protects against damage to expensive SUV electronic systems. No Walled Lake resident should have an excuse to drive around Novi roads and highways with a dirty air filter.