If you are driving a
modern turbocharged vehicle there is a lot that is going on under that hood that
needs checking hence the reason for regular interval services. Now here we are
only going to talk about the air induction system.
Whilst we all feel our vehicles are running fine, by this I mean you get up in the morning and you put the key in, and she starts. You pop it into gear and off you go to work, or the shops all seem’s to be good right. So depending on the location and season, air will contain numerous contaminants, such as insects, leaves, soot, pollen, and dust, and as you are driving along you don’t see any of this being ingested, but guess where it ends up? Trapped in the air filter of course.
So to make it a bit easier to understand, whilst you
are trundling along and your engine
revs, are say at around 3000 rpm, a turbo chargers’ turbine can reach
rotational speeds of more than 280,000 rpm drawing in roughly 13500 liters plus
of air every minute. This air is being sucked through the air cleaner and into
the engine, contaminants, and all. Most of the contaminants will be stopped by
the air cleaner but the more it sucks the more it gets damaged eventually leading
to failure.
So the question is when was the last time you had or had someone look under the hood to make sure all is as well as it should be? I take it you have not given it a second thought.
