Though your vehicle’s filters are made to strain dirt and, well, get dirty, it doesn’t mean they will do their job efficiently forever. Like the rest of your car’s components, your filters also have limitations in performance: you would have to replace them sooner or later to maintain your vehicle’s overall optimum performance.

Well, if you have no idea when “sooner” or “later” is, below are the recommended filter servicing intervals, from AutoUpkeep.com.

AIR FILTER

change after every 12,000 miles. Or as recommended by manufacturer. Some claim that their filters can last up to 50,000 miles.

CCV FILTER

every 2 years or 24,000 miles

FUEL FILTER

every 2 years or 24,000 miles

PCV VALVE (Yes, this isn’t a filter, but it’s connected to one.)

every 2 years or 24,000 miles

If you’ve read our previous posts on custom painting underhood components, you now probably want to get some of your underhood components designed as well. But if you think that painting engine components is something only vain car owners and auto enthusiasts would do, well you’re missing some point on that part.

Painting or coating, which not necessarily means custom designing, underhood components does not only make your engine compartment look cleaner. It also protects your engine components from rust, dirt, and other harmful elements that might damage or wear out your components faster. Some of the components you can paint are the pipes, fuse box, intake manifold, valve cover, engine cover, timing chain cover, and brackets.

Here are more underhood artworks (just click on the image to view in full resolution):

Engine cover with bloody red flames

An engine cover probably inspired by King Arthur's shield

And just when you probably thought you can paint only the engine cover and the fuse box…

A Stitch-in-Elvis-Presley-outfit underhood design

"Glossed over" underhood

An air filter cover set on fire

Get additional "horsepower" with these black coated valve covers with fiery blue stallion design

Your engine definitely won't overheat with these flaming valve covers

After soaking the grime with the degreaser, rinse the under-hood components. It’s best to use pressurized water sprayer to remove the dirt more easily. But if you don’t have a water sprayer, you can use an ordinary nozzle-free garden hose. Just be sure that you thoroughly rinse off all the chemical and loosened grime.

If you’re still not satisfied and you think there’s still some muck left, you can go for a second round of degreasing, concentrating just on those parts that are still grimy. If you think you’ve already cleaned the components enough, you can remove the plastic covers and rubber bands and proceed to drying your engine.

For quicker drying, start your engine and let it idle for about five minutes. This would make the water evaporate more quickly while you wipe your engine dry with a cloth.

To make your engine detailing complete, you can apply a protectant, especially on metal and rubber components that are more prone to corrosion and degradation.

Under your car’s hood may be a complicated mess of wires and sensitive components, but don’t be intimidated by the thought of cleaning them. Cleaning the engine as well as other under-the-hood components is easy.

Just get some rubber bands, plastic bags, a parts brush or an old toothbrush, and your engine degreaser.

First, use the plastic bags and rubber bands to cover the sensitive components under the hood. These include the sensors, spark plug openings, distributor, air filter, and the electrical devices that could short circuit if exposed to water.

After you got everything water-sensitive protected, start applying the engine cleaner or degreaser. Just be extra careful because some cleaners have a strong, petroleum-based formula that can cut through grime so fast that it can also thin out wax coating and weaken rubber and plastic parts.

Engine cleaners and degreasers cut through grease and grime build up on your engine’s components. Some cleaners are strong enough to cut through paint and varnish, while some are safer to use because they are based on natural chemicals like those from citrus fruits.

So to be sure that the degreaser won’t eat through your components, let the degreaser sit for a while, but don’t let it dry out. For a more thorough cleaning, you can use a parts brush or an old toothbrush to scrub the areas where there’s heavy grime build up.

Has your oil gauge constantly read near empty that you had to add engine oil more than once these past few weeks? If the problem is not with the oil gauge, then you probably have to check for the following:

Broken piston rings

The piston’s oil control rings rid the cylinder wall of excess oil that would otherwise get burned along with the fuel in the combustion chamber. If the piston rings are broken or are already thinned out too much, a thick film of oil will be left on the cylinder wall and get burned.

Worn valve guides or seals

To lessen friction as they open and close, the valves also get coated by oil on their stems. And because the stems also go down below the cylinder head and into the combustion chamber, they are equipped with valve guides and seals to scrape excess oil on them. If the valve guides and seals are already loosened or worn past the specified limit, oil could go down into the combustion chamber.

Oil viscosity too low

Your engine oil should have a viscosity rating that matches your engine’s specification. If your oil’s viscosity is lower than your engine’s recommended rating, it means the oil is too thin and could easily get past the piston rings and get burned with the fuel.

Defective PCV valve

You only check for this if your vehicle has a positive crankcase ventilation or PCV valve. This valve channels the blow-by gases from the crankcase into the intake manifold to be mixed in the air-fuel mixture. It may get stuck open due to the build up of oil, which may in turn build up the pressure in the crankcase and cause the oil vapors to go into the air cleaner system.

Not knowing anything about engine oil specifications, you changed your engine oil with the first motor oil you got your hands on at the local auto store. The next thing you know, your engine is overheating.

To find out why, you better know about viscosity first. Viscosity is the thickness of the lubricant. In cold climate, low viscosity oils are preferred. That’s because the thinner the oil, the easier it flows in a cold engine. On the other hand, thicker oils are preferred in warm climate because the engine quickly heats up to a high temperature, which can thin out the oil.

So if you use engine oil that has a viscosity lower than what your engine’s manufacturer recommends, you really might end up overheating your engine because the thin oil can’t sufficiently cushion the engine parts that always slide past each other. Likewise, if you use engine oil that is thicker than what your engine requires, you also might end up overheating your engine because the oil won’t easily flow to lubricate and absorb heat from your engine.

coolant reservoir

9. Not enough coolant.

The coolant is the lifeblood of your vehicle’s cooling system. So if you’re low on it, you can expect your engine to overheat anytime soon. You can check on the coolant level through the coolant reservoir tank.

A low coolant condition, however, shouldn’t be taken lightly. The coolant is supposed to stay inside the system for two years at the very least. So if it starts disappearing, you better start checking up your coolant’s route; chances are there’s a leak somewhere.

10. Loose driving belt.

The coolant pump has a pulley that is driven by a drive belt that’s connected to the crankshaft. If the drive belt is loose, it would not effectively transmit the mechanical power from the crankshaft to the coolant pump pulley. It might even slip, which would halt the pump’s operation altogether. Thus, it can cause overheating.

11. Leaky radiator hose.

radiator hose with clamp

Made from rubber and held in place only with clamps, the radiator hose is the most leak-prone of all the cooling system components. It seldom leaks coolant through holes or scratches along its body.

The common problem encountered with the radiator hose is the setting or permanent compression of the hose by the hose clamp. As the coolant heats up, the neck to which the hose is connected expands. And because the hose is made of rubber, it expands along with the neck. But because there’s the clamp tightened around the hose, the hose gets heavily compressed that after the temperature goes down, it is already loose. However, there are some hoses that, instead of becoming loose, get glued to the neck after being heated up.

6. Water pump on the blink.

The water pump makes the coolant circulate throughout the cooling system. Located in front of the engine, it pumps the heated coolant from the water jackets inside the engine block to the radiator to cool.

You can inspect the pump for a worn-out gasket and corroded parts. Also make sure that the drive belt is properly positioned on the water pump pulley.

thermostat

7. Stuck thermostat.

Installed in its housing sometimes below the water pump and sometimes above the engine, the thermostat is responsible for letting the coolant flow from the water jackets or passageways in the engine to the radiator. It serves like a stopper that allows coolant from the engine to flow if the engine has reached its ideal operating temperature. Below that temperature, coolant will only circulate around the engine block until it heats up enough.

If you’ve got a thermostat stuck closed, your engine will definitely overheat as the coolant couldn’t cool it anymore.

upper radiator hose

8. Restricted radiator hose.

Your vehicle basically has two radiator hoses: the upper hose, which delivers coolant from the engine to the radiator, and the lower hose, which takes the coolant from the radiator to the engine. Radiator hoses may shrink up and get restricted if you got a radiator cap with a conked-out pressure valve. As coolant cools down after a long drive, a vacuum is created in the cooling system. If the radiator cap’s pressure valve fails to let in air, the radiator hose, being soft, gets sucked up and deformed.

damaged radiator fins

3. Restricted radiator fins.

If you know your radiator well, you’d know that by radiator fins we mean the tubes or passages in the radiator through which coolant flows. These passages are as wide as possible so that more surface area would be exposed to the cool air, and thus, coolant passing through these fins would cool faster as well.

So just imagine if these fins get restricted—probably by small road debris that got blown to the radiator—air wouldn’t be able to pass through the radiator properly, thus increasing your engine’s tendency to overheat.

4. Coolant combination isn’t right.

Even if the rest of the cooling system’s components are working, the system wouldn’t do its job effectively if the coolant circulating through it isn’t of the right mix. Coolant is a combination of water and anti-freeze or ethylene glycol. It cannot be pure water because water freezes at 0oC and boils at 100oC. It would damage the engine if it freezes in winter and it would be useless as a coolant if it’s already boiling when the engine hasn’t even reached its ideal operating temperature.

The ideal combination is 50% anti-freeze and 50% water. In really cold climate, you can increase the anti-freeze proportion up to a maximum of 70%.

5. Defective radiator fan.

The radiator fan, located behind the radiator, draws cool air from outside to take away heat from the radiator fins. The fan may not be really need if the vehicle is running fast, that’s why in some systems it automatically turns off

if the vehicle is running fast enough. It’s most needed when the vehicle is idling or running so slow there’s insufficient cool air passing through the grille and radiator.

Check your radiator fan’s blades and motor to see if they’re still drawing in enough air for your radiator.