Just as your engine is the heart of your vehicle, oil is the lifeblood, it lubricates and protects your engine from wear and damage. Ensuring that your oil is changed on a regular basis, and using the best grade for your vehicle, is crucial to keep your vehicle running properly. Oil flows into the engine from other areas accumulating dust, dirt, and other particles, then through the oil filter which helps trap these contaminant particles.

However, over time the filter can become clogged, reducing the amount of filtration the oil receives, the oil over time also loses its viscosity. Meaning it gets harder to get to where it needs. Oil also helps draw heat from parts of the engine, if these parts are covered in a build-up, these parts stay hotter longer. Eventually your engine will become less efficient, impacting performance of both MPG and BHP, and in certain cases internal engine damage.

As the oil filter is a permanently sealed unit, you are unable to visually check performance and there is no warning light or gauge to remind you to check, you may not notice your oil filter needing replaced. Which is why we advise regularly changing your filter as well as your oil.

If oil is your vehicles life blood, air filters are the lungs, and often neglected in a vehicle, which they shouldn’t be! Air filters are essential for maintaining performance; by increasing fuel efficiency and in some vehicles improving acceleration.

Air filters are especially important in performance and commercial vehicles; where we ask more than standard use from our engine, and in some uprated vehicles an increase from standard air flow consumption.

A dirty or damaged air filter can limit the amount of air flowing into your engine, most regular cars need approx. 10,000 litres of oxygen to burn each litre of fuel! So, if that air flow is restricted, it makes your engine work harder, burning through more fuel. By reducing the air-fuel balance it can result in the engine to miss or rough idle, increasing engine deposits and impact on exhaust emissions. Your air filter also prevents small particles from entering the engine and potentially causing expensive damage. A particle as small as a grain of salt can get through a damaged air filter!

By replacing your air filter on a regular basis, you’re giving your vehicle the fresh air it needs to give you her very best performance and reducing the risk of expensive repairs.

What does a fuel filter do? In a nutshell your fuel filter traps impurities and debris as your car runs, ensuring that the fuel that enters your engine is clean. It also prevents moisture from passing through into the engine.

So as time passes, as you run your vehicle the filter will begin to accumulate particles and become clogged. A clogged filter can force the fuel pump to work harder and also create a reduction in fuel reaching the engine. These can result in blockages preventing an engine working at all, contaminated fuel, or a damaged fuel injector, all of these resulting in your vehicle off the road!

As well as ensuring your fuel filter is changed on a regular basis, we also recommend using the best quality fuel in your day-to-day driving. Good quality fuel can reduce the demand on your fuel filter, as well as increasing your MPG and overall performance and longevity of your vehicle.

Spark plugs on a petrol are basically the get up and go for your car; think of them as a teeny bolt of lightning, that spark of electricity the plug emits across a small gap creates the explosion for the combustion to power up your car. As well as starting your car they also keep your car going and create an efficient burn of the compressed fuel-air blend.

Some manufacturers advise spark plugs to be changed every 20k miles. However, this all depends on the type of spark plug used, driving conditions and mileage. Which is why we say as best practice to change once a year for optimum performance.

As a spark plug ages deposits can form on them from the fuel-air interaction, leading to a pre-ignition of the fuel, creating an unreliable and erratic supply of energy for your car. The gap that the spark must travel when it ignites also widens as it ages due to wear and tear and exposure to extreme temperatures, if the gap is too far apart the combustion can be ineffective or irregular.

By replacing your spark plugs on a regular basis you are providing the best environment for an optimum combustion system, reducing the risk of performance issues. It can also maximise fuel economy in the long run as well as smoother and enhanced performance of your vehicle.

Unlike petrol engines, diesel fuelled vehicles the quick compression of the fuel is enough to create combustion. For this to occur the engine must reach a specific operational temperature, which is why the compression in a diesel engine is very high.  Diesel engines thus need starting assistance which is the job of the glow plugs.

The injection system sprays the fuel-air mix into the combustion chamber causing an ignition, even at a low temperature, the process lasts around 5-30 seconds. Once the engine is running, the engine enters self-ignition mode and doesn’t require assistance. The glow plug extinguishes and stops operating during driving.

As glow plugs actual usage time per drive time is minimal, they last substantially longer than Spark Plugs. However, lots of stop- start or short journeys can impact the life of a glow plug, causing a shorter lifespan than those on a vehicle used for longer driving distances. Which is why we don’t offer them as part of the standard engine service, but as an additional if required, each vehicle and their use (domestic or commercial) taken into account.

Indicators that glow plugs need replacing:

• Hard starting- in colder conditions the combustion chamber may not reach the specific temperature to ignite the fuel to start the engine.
• Engine misfiring- can be due to issues with fuel quality, compression, and fuel injection.
• Rough idling- if one or more of the glow plugs are carbon fouled/damaged or burned out it will be increasingly more difficult to start and can idle roughly resulting in white smoke from the exhaust for a few minutes once it finally starts.