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What happens if you don’t change oil filter? It’s simple, you’d most likely notice a significant drop in your engine’s performance, and overheating may constantly occur, too.
Many drivers ignore this – changing the oil filter in their vehicles – and you shouldn’t be among such drivers. Although always neglected by many drivers, even mechanics, oil filters play an important role in the performance and lifespan of your engine.
A bad, clogged, or damaged oil filter can lead to pretty many unusual signs as you drive. It could even, gradually, lead to serious engine damage that may burn a hole in your pocket in repair fees.
That said, it is important you change your oil filter at specified intervals!
What Is The Function Of Oil Filters?
Oil filters are installed to trap sediments and debris that the oil must have carried while flowing through the lines to get into the engine.
As the name implies, oil filters are there to “filter” out dirt and allow only clean oil to penetrate the engine.
Apparently, your engine needs constant, clean oil, free of debris and dirt.
This is because, when the oil gets into the engine, it tries to clean out the deposits inside the engine; thus, if the oil itself is dirty, it won’t be able to properly clean the engine, and that could affect your car’s performance.
Why You Need To Change Your Oil Filter
Just as with every other part of a vehicle, the oil filter can get weak over time and may not be able to trap containment particles efficiently as it used to. It could also get clogged, broken, or physically damaged due to excessive wear – caused by aging.
So, it is important you change your oil filter at every oil change, which should happen at 4,000 miles to 10,000-mile intervals based on many factors.
However, if you can’t change it at every oil change, you can decide on an interval that suits you best.
What Happens If You Don’t Change Oil Filter?
When you don’t change your filter, what happens is that sediments and particles would find their way into your core engine components when the old filter becomes unable to trap that containment.
This will cause buildups inside the engine, which would, in turn, affect the performance of your engine. Most likely, you’d notice a drop in the performance of your car – a significant one at that – followed by poor fuel efficiency.
Furthermore, the check engine light – or oil pressure light – may illuminate and never go off again until you change the filter.
A clogged filter can prevent oil from flowing into the engine, which can lead to overheating when friction increases between the engine’s moving parts.
It doesn’t stop here, a clogged or bad oil filter would cause you to go for oil changes sooner than you defined internals.
There are just pretty many scenarios that may occur when that (ordinary) oil filter goes bad due to excessive wear or aging.
To know that oil filters don’t cost much makes it kind of compulsory for drivers to regularly change theirs.
If you drive in extreme conditions – stop and go traffic – you really shouldn’t use one oil filter over 10,000 miles if you want your engine to last longer, and still function at its best while it lasts.
So, basically, not changing your oil filter will fill your car’s engine with sludge, dirt, and many other particles, which would derail the performance.
If you keep driving with a bad/weak/clogged filter, you’re risking fatal damages that may even wreck your engine, and send you to the market looking for a new, complete engine.
What More?
Talking about what happens if you don’t change the oil filter, the answer is clear; first, your car won’t deliver its best performance; secondly, when sludge, deposits, and debris fill the engine, overheating is sure to occur, and certain components would start to fail.
When the engine components start to fail, the engine gradually starts dying off. At this point, it’d cost you more to fix the engine, and even worse, the engine might be irreparable, so you’d need to buy a new one. Oil filters are a perfect example of “small but mighty.”
>>Read Also: How Many Miles Can Oil Filter Last?