Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Network Chart” redirects here: for the 1980s and early 1990s British radio show of that name, see The Network Chart Show.A project network is a graph (flow chart) depicting the sequence in which a project’s terminal elements are to be completed by showing terminal elements and their dependencies.

The work breakdown structure or the product breakdown structure show the “part-whole” relations. In contrast, the project network shows the “before-after” relations.

The most popular form of project network is activity on node, the other one is activity on arrow.

The condition for a valid project network is that it doesn’t contain any circular references.

Project dependencies can also be depicted by a predecessor table. Although such a form is very inconvenient for human analysis, project management software often offers such a view for data entry.

An alternative way of showing and analyzing the sequence of project work is the design structure matrix.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ishikawa diagram, in fishbone shape, showing factors of men, machines, milieu (workplace), materiel, methods, measurement, all affecting the overall problem. Smaller arrows connect the sub-causes to major causes.

The Ishikawa diagram (or fishbone diagram or also cause-and-effect diagram) is the brainchild of Kaoru Ishikawa, who pioneered quality management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards, and in the process became one of the founding fathers of modern management. It is simply a diagram that shows the causes of a certain event. It was first used in the 1960s, and is considered one of the seven basic tools of quality management, along with the histogram, Pareto chart, check sheet, control chart, flowchart, and scatter diagram. See Quality Management Glossary. It is known as a fishbone diagram because of its shape, similar to the side view of a fish skeleton.
Causes in the diagram are often based around a certain category or set of causes, such as the 6 M’s, 8 P’s or 4 S’s described below. Cause-and-effect diagrams can reveal key relationships among various variables, and the possible causes provide additional insight into process behaviour.
Causes in a typical diagram are normally arranged into categories, the main ones of which are:
The 6 M’s
Machine, Method, Materials, Maintenance, Man and Mother Nature (Environment) (recommended for manufacturing industry).
Note: a more modern selection of categories used in manufacturing includes Equipment, Process, People, Materials, Environment, and Management.
The 8 P’s
Price, Promotion, People, Processes, Place / Plant, Policies, Procedures & Product (or Service) (recommended for administration and service industry).
The 4 S’s
Surroundings, Suppliers, Systems, Skills (recommended for service industry).
It can also be used in connection with the Neuro-linguistic programming model of the Neurological Levels created by Robert Dilts: with Identity, Beliefs and Values, Capability, Behaviour, Environment.
A common use of the Ishikawa diagram is in product design, to identify desirable factors leading to an overall effect. Mazda Motors famously used an Ishikawa diagram in the development of the Miata sports car, where the required result was “Jinba Ittai” or “Horse and Rider as One”. The main causes included such aspects as “touch” and “braking” with the lesser causes including highly granular factors such as “50/50 weight distribution” and “able to rest elbow on top of driver’s door”. Every factor identified in the diagram was included in the final design.

Appearance

A generic Ishikawa diagram showing general and more refined causes for an event.
Most Ishikawa diagrams have a box at the right hand side in which is written the effect that is to be examined. The main body of the diagram is a horizontal line from which stem the general causes, represented as “bones”. These are drawn towards the left-hand side of the paper and are each labeled with the causes to be investigated, often brainstormed beforehand and based on the major causes listed above. Off each of the large bones there may be smaller bones highlighting more specific aspects of a certain cause, and sometimes there may be a third level of bones or more. These can be found using the ‘5 Whys‘ technique. When the most probable causes have been identified, they are written in the box along with the original effect. The more populated bones generally outline more influential factors, with the opposite applying to bones with fewer “branches”. Further analysis of the diagram can be achieved with a Pareto chart.

Computer Software
XMIND is a commercial cross-platform fishbone/brainstorming software.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Ishikawa diagrams
Fishbone Diagram – Flash Template
Article on Ishikawa diagrams
Ishikawa diagrams at Tech Republic
Ishikawa diagrams at ASQ
Fishbone Root Cause Analysis
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishikawa_diagram“
Categories: Knowledge representation Diagrams Quality control tools
Hidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements since June 2008
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Affinia Group, a motor industry company, was formed on December 1, 2004, to design, manufacture and supply replacement parts for on- and off-road vehicles and offer various aftersales services. The company currently has locations in nineteen countries, with approximately ten thousand employees. Its headquarters are in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The company is particularly concerned with filtration, braking systems and chassis components. Affinia brought together some of the aftermarket’s oldest and most respected brands, including WIX® filters, Raybestos® brand brakes,Brake Pro®, Spicer® chassis components, AIMCO®, McQuay-Norris®, Nakata®, Quinton Hazell®, AquaChek and Filtron®.[1]

References
Affinia website

External links
Fortune 500 ranking
Datamonitor Company news
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinia_Group“

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

STP is a brand name and trade name for the automotive additives and performance division of the Clorox Corporation. STP was Founded in 1953, the name, STP, was derived from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”. The company entered the marketplace with STP Oil Treatment. In 1961 the company was acquired by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Studebaker briefly tied STP into its advertising as an abbreviation for “Studebaker Tested Products”. However Studebaker-Packard felt that STP could one day out-pace its parent company and recruited a CEO of STP to help raise the product’s image. At the same time, Granatelli racing became the public face of STP, often wearing a white suit emblazoned with the red oval “STP” logo to races, distributing thousands of all-weather STP stickers. Granatelli ran two Novi specials at the 64 Indy 500. Jim Hurtubise and Bobby Unser were the drivers. There was a film made of the race centering on the Novis. While Studebaker abandoned auto manufacturing in 1966 to become a closed investment company, STP sales continued to climb. For a long time STP was the sponsor of stock-car drivers Richard Petty, John Andretti, and Mario Andretti. That ended shortly after its buyout by Clorox. STP offers alot of different products for example: stp fuel injector cleaner,stp oil filters,stp oil treatment,stp filter,stp oil filter,stp products,stp air filter,stp fuel injector,stp gas,stp gas treatment,stp son of a gun,stp oil and more.

references from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An air filters remove solid particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from air. Air filters are used in applications where air quality is important, such as in internal combustion engines, gas compressors, diving air compressors, gas turbines and others. The air intakes of internal combustion engines and compressors tend to use either paper, foam, or cotton media.
Automotive cabin air filters
The cabin filters are a pleated-paper filter that is located in the outside-air intake for the vehicle’s passenger compartment. Some filters are rectangular. Others are shaped to fit the available space of the vehicles’ outside-air intake. This filter is often overlooked by owners. Clogged or dirty cabin air filters can reduce airflow from the cabin vents, as well as introduce allergens into the cabin air.
Internal combustion air filters
The air filter prevents abrasive like dirt from entering the engine’s cylinders that would cause engine wear and oil contamination. Most fuel injected cars use a pleated paper filter that looks like a flat panel. This filter is placed inside a plastic box connected to the throttle body between the intake tube. Older vehicles use carburetors or throttle body fuel injection sometimes use a round air filter, usually a few inches high and between 6 and 16 inches round. It is usually located directly over the carburetor or throttle body and secured with a metal or plastic lid.
Paper
Pleated paper filters are the preferred choice for automobile engine air filters, because they are efficient, easy to service, and inexpensive. The “paper” , as the filter media are considerably different from other papers.
FoamOil-wetted
foam filters are used in some replacement air filters. Foam was used in air cleaners on small engines and other power equipment, but cars paper filter media has since replaced oil-wetted foam filters. An oil-wetted foam filter can offer minimal airflow restriction or high dirt capture, which makes this type the choice in off-road vehicles and other motorsport that encounter high dust levels.
Cotton
Oiled cotton gauze is employed in a small number of aftermarket automotive air filters marketed as high-performance items. In the past, cotton gauze saw limited use in original-equipment automotive air filters.
Oil Bath
An oil bath air cleaner is a round base bowl containing a pool of oil, and a round insert which is filled with fibre, mesh, foam, or another coarse filter media. When the cleaner is assembled, the media-containing body of the insert sits a short distance above the surface of the oil pool. The rim of the insert overlaps the rim of the base bowl. This arrangement forms a labyrinthine path through which the air must travel in a series of U-turns: up through the gap between the rims of the insert and the base bowl, down through the gap between the outer wall of the insert and the inner wall of the base bowl, and up through the filter media in the body of the insert. This U-turn takes the air at high velocity across the surface of the oil pool. Larger and heavier dust and dirt particles in the air cannot make the turn due to their inertia, so they fall into the oil and settle to the bottom of the base bowl. Lighter and smaller particles are trapped by the filtration barrier in the insert, which is wetted by oil drops aspirated by normal airflow.Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small-engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Such cleaners are still used in off-road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered, for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their overall size, without loss of filtration efficacy or airflow. However, the liquid oil makes cleaning and servicing such air cleaners messy and inconvenient, they must be relatively large to avoid excessive restriction at high airflow rates, and they tend to increase exhaust emissions of unburned hydrocarbons due to oil aspiration when used on spark-ignition engines. For more information try using the following labels when surfing the web: purolator filters,purolator oil filter,purolator,purolator canada,purolator oil,purolator pure one,purolator products,purolator fuel filter,purolator pureone,purolator fuel pump,purolator auto,purolator automotive,purolator cabin air filter,purolator cabin filter,purolator auto air filters,purolator auto air filter,purolator auto parts,purolator automotive air filter,purolator pure one oil filter,purolator com,purolator filter,purolator air,purolator air filter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An oil filter is a device used to decontaminate oil that contains suspended impurities. A major application is in forming part of the lubrication system of engines in which filters are typically detachable units due to the need for regular service or replacement. The filtration of oil in engines is essential for enhancing longevity and performance.

History in automobiles
Early automobile engines did not use any form of oil filtration. For this reason, along with the generally low standard of lubricating-oil refinement in the era, very frequent oil changes, of the order of every 500–1000 miles (800–1600 km) were often specified. The first oil filters were simple, generally consisting of a screen placed at the oil pump intake.
In 1923, Ernest Sweetland invented the original Purolator which is considered to be the first modern oil filter,[1] featuring a more elaborate design as well as placement between the pump and the lubrication galleries of the engine. Although oil filter technology progressed over the years, as much as 90% of the oil bypassed the filter. The first ‘full-flow’ oil filter, introduced in 1943, was able to filter all of the oil emerging from the pump.
In 1954, WIX created the easily detachable ‘spin-on’ filter design which subsequently became a standard design.[2] This type of filter is now used almost exclusively in modern passenger cars and in recent years, has gained use in heavy-duty vehicles. Oil quality and filtering capabilities have now advanced so far that some manufacturers such as Mobil sell engine oils and filters that claim to have up to a 15,000 mile change interval.

Types of oil filter

Mechanical
Mechanical designs employ a filtration element made up of layers of media, such as paper, to arrest various types of suspended contaminants. As material builds up on the filtration media, the efficiency of the filter is reduced and oil-flow is restricted. This requires the periodic replacement, or cleaning, of the filter or its media.
Bypass filters only act upon a portion of the engine oil flow, typically less than 10%, whereas those that filter the whole stream are known as full-flow filters. In some engine designs, a primary full-flow filter is accompanied by a secondary bypass filter, with the latter filtering particles too small for the primary. This dual-filter design can increase the time between subsequent servicing of the lubrication system.[3]
Many full-flow mechanical filters incorporate an integrated pressure relief valve to allow a bypass mode. If the filtration element becomes completely clogged, this valve allows oil to bypass the filter, protecting the engine from oil starvation. The valve may also open in very cold conditions if a high viscosity oil is used.
There are two main designs for road-vehicle engines:
Cartridge filters have a housing that is bolted to the engine and a removable cartridge contains the filtration element. The advantage of only having to remove the filtration element is that the seal between the engine block and filter is not disturbed.
Spin-on filters attach directly to the side of the engine block by a threaded fitting. The main advantage is that used filters are easily removed and the whole filter is usually disposed of, but care must be taken not to over-tighten the new filter.
Cartridge filters are seen in several European and Asian car designs, whereas North American engine manufacturers generally favor the spin-on filter. Current examples of engine manufacturers that use cartridge filters include Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volvo, Toyota (V6), Volkswagen, and Hyundai (V6). Ford’s North American-market diesel V8 uses cartridge filters also. GM switched to using spin-on filters exclusively in 1960 for the North American market. However, GM has moved some of its engine designs such as the Ecotec family of 4 cylinder engines back to the cartridge type. Ease of recycling, minimization of waste, [4]and reduction in trapped motor oil inside a disposed filter are often given as the reason for companies reverting to cartridge designs instead of spin-on filters.
Many vehicle manufacturers recommend replacing the filter each and every time the oil is changed while others such as Honda generally recommend changing the oil filter every other oil change.

Magnetic
These use a permanent magnet, or an electromagnet, to capture particles, however only ferromagnetic contaminants can be filtered by this method. An advantage of magnetic filtration is that maintaining the filter simply requires one to wipe the magnet clean.[5] High-performance engines and jet engines often have one or many ‘mag plugs’ which insert into the oil lines, however these are not specifically filters, but are inspected to test the wear of the engine.

Sedimentation
A sedimentation, or gravity bed, filter allows the heavier-than-oil contaminants to sink to the bottom of a container under the influence of gravity, filtering the oil in the process.

Centrifugal Oil Filter
The operation of this filter is a simple process that uses the oil pressure from the main oil pump. Pressurized oil enters the centre of the filter housing and passes into a “drum rotor”. The drum rotor is free to turn about, as it rests on a bearing and seal assembly. The rotor also has two jet nozzles that are arranged to direct a stream of the pressurised oil at the inner housing in a manner that will make the drum rotate. The stream of oil will then slide to the bottom of the housing wall and in the process leave small particles struck to the inner walls. This particle build-up will eventually need to be cleaned. If left too long the particle thickness will be enough to stop the rotation of the drum thus forcing un-filtered oil to be re-circulated. Under usual circumstances, the clean oil will collect in the base of the filter lubricating the bearing, before draining to a convenient location for general lubrication of the engine. When maintaining this filter the engine must be switched off and a period of time allowed (see manufacturer’s instructions) to make sure that the rotor is stationary before dismantling. After disassembly, the particles are cleaned off and the whole unit reassembled using a little clean engine oil to pre-lubricate the unit if necessary.

Sidestream/kidney loop/offline filters
Sidestream/kidney loop/offline filters, works with maintenance of the oil/fluid with an oil filter with pressure either from an external pump or from the system pressure and return to the oil reservoir. Side stream filter are available in particle removal range from 0.1 to 25 microns. Inline / fullflow oilfilters can not filtrate this fine due to the high flow though the oilfilter. Full flow filter are desigend to guard system components from emidiate or catastrophic failure while a side stream filter works like a kidney on a machine, cleaning up leftovers in the machines “blood”, the oil or hydraulic fluid. It is wise to have both full- and side stream oilfilters installed to maintain maximum protection of the macine and lubricant properties. “Sidestream filter” may also be called “offline filter”, “Kidney loop filter”, “Bypass filtration”. The “offline filter” term describes a situation where the filter is driven by the existing system pressure creating a differential pressure over the filter media, with a return to a lower pressure or to the oil tank or reservoir. The “Sidestream filter” or “Kidney loop filtration” term or description is a totally independent filter unit with its own pump, filtrating from the oilreservoir, with return to the oilreservoir. The Sidestream/kidney loop/offline filters can and are made of many different materials depending of the tasks to perform. The Sidestream/kidney loop/offline may still be divided into 2 main categories that acctually describe the fluid direction through the filter. The main categories are Radial- or Axial- filtration. In general about all filtration, high filtration speed yields poor filtration and vice vercus, low filtration speed yields at least better filtration. To maintain t.e.x. a lubricant property during use it is nesseceary to remove the catalytic material in the lubricant such as water, metals, oil resedue, varnish. This is possible with some few filter- and electrostatic cleaners systems in the market.

Uses

A chief use of the oil filter is in the reciprocating engine, typically found in automobiles and light aircraft and various naval vessels. Vehicles may have automatic transmission or demanding gearboxes that benefit from an oil filter. Additionally turbine engines, such as those on jet aircraft, require the use of oil filters. A multitude of industrial applications, such as mining equipment, generators, metalworking machinery, make use of oil filtration in some form. Of course the oil-production, oil-transmission and oil-recycling industries themselves employ filters.
Power generating stations use upwards of 40,000 gallons of turbine lube oil to lubricate large bearings. Hydraulic lines are used in industry for many purposes. All of this oil needs to be filtered and the level of filtration is much more stringent than that of standard automobile filtration. Industrial applications do not “change their oil” frequently as changing tens of thousands of gallons of oil at $10 a gallon quickly adds up. This is why much higher quality filters are usually used. Subsequently the cost for an industrial grade oil filter can be anywhere from $50 to $1000 (depending on size). You can not purchase an industrial grade filter and expect it to fit on your car, as these filters are sometimes 6″ in diameter and upwards of 60″ long. Nor would you want to, as in automobile filtration problems often result from the additives package breaking down, more so than particle contamination. Major players in industrial oil filtration are Pall, Donaldson, Parker, Kaydon, HYDAC and Vickers. The industrial oil filtration market is full of retrofitted or will-fit filter elements. Every major manufacturer has a filter element that will fit in another manufacturers housing. Some manufacturers specialize in only retro-fitting other manufacturers filters elements, usually for 1/4 to 1/2 the cost.

Manufacturers
Major brands of automotive oil filters available in the U.S. include FRAM (a Honeywell brand), WIX (an Affinia Group brand), Purolator (a joint venture of MANN+HUMMEL and Bosch), AC Delco (a General Motors brand) and Motorcraft (a Ford Motor Company brand). Some brands, such as Ford’s Motorcraft and GM’s AC-Delco, are manufactured by other companies (i.e. Purolator for Motorcraft) but are generally designed and quality tested by the brand selling them. Many of the brands manufacture filters for a wide variety of makes and models of vehicles. For instance, Motorcraft sells oil filters that fit GM, Chrysler, Honda, and Toyota vehicles, in addition to Fords. The manufacturer usually provides a list of what makes and models they supply filters for.
Denso is also a major global manufacturer of oil filters as are UFI FILTERS, MANN+HUMMEL, Mahle, Millard Filters and HYDAC who are well known for their industrial grade filters.

Comparisons
Some have argued that there is a major difference in quality of various oil filter brands, and some studies have proven it [1]. Generally speaking, those branded by automotive manufacturers (such as Motorcraft and AC Delco as listed above) usually meet higher standards without costing significantly more than cheaper-made (and poorer performing) brands such as FRAM or Pennzoil brand.
Many major auto parts stores (such as AutoZone, which sells the Valucraft brand and NAPA, which sells NAPA Select and NAPA Gold) offer their own brands of oil filters, but these are also made by other major oil filter makers.
Perhaps the largest original design manufacturer of filters in the U.S. is Champion Laboratories, which manufactures at least some of the SuperTech, AC Delco, Valucraft, and many other filters. STP (licensed from Clorox) and Champ are their own brands. Champion was also a major supplier to Bosch USA until Bosch bought an interest in the Purolator company.

See also
Air filter
Oil-filter wrench

References
^ AMSOIL – The History of Oil Filtration
^ WIX Filters : Oil Filters
^ Coming Clean with Filters
^ Oil filter retrofit kits introduced – Filtration – by Racor – Brief Article Diesel Progress North American Edition Find Articles at BNET.com

references from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An air filters remove solid particulates such as dust, pollen, mold, and bacteria from air. Air filters are used in applications where air quality is important, such as in internal combustion engines, gas compressors, diving air compressors, gas turbines and others. The air intakes of internal combustion engines and compressors tend to use either paper, foam, or cotton media.

• Automotive cabin air filters
  The cabin filters are a pleated-paper filter that is located in the outside-air intake for the vehicle’s passenger compartment. Some filters are rectangular. Others are shaped to fit the available space of the vehicles’ outside-air intake. This filter is often overlooked by owners. Clogged or dirty cabin air filters can reduce airflow from the cabin vents, as well as introduce allergens into the cabin air.
• Internal combustion air filters
  The air filter prevents abrasive like dirt from entering the engine’s cylinders that would cause engine wear and oil contamination. Most fuel injected cars use a pleated paper filter that looks like a flat panel. This filter is placed inside a plastic box connected to the throttle body between the intake tube. Older vehicles use carburetors or throttle body fuel injection sometimes use a round air filter, usually a few inches high and between 6 and 16 inches round. It is usually located directly over the carburetor or throttle body and secured with a metal or plastic lid.
• Paper
  Pleated paper filters are the preferred choice for automobile engine air filters, because they are efficient, easy to service, and inexpensive. The “paper” , as the filter media are considerably different from other papers.
• Foam
  Oil-wetted foam filters are used in some replacement air filters. Foam was used in air cleaners on small engines and other power equipment, but cars paper filter media has since replaced oil-wetted foam filters. An oil-wetted foam filter can offer minimal airflow restriction or high dirt capture, which makes this type the choice in off-road vehicles and other motorsport that encounter high dust levels.
• Cotton
  Oiled cotton gauze is employed in a small number of aftermarket automotive air filters marketed as high-performance items. In the past, cotton gauze saw limited use in original-equipment automotive air filters.
• Oil Bath
  An oil bath air cleaner is a round base bowl containing a pool of oil, and a round insert which is filled with fibre, mesh, foam, or another coarse filter media. When the cleaner is assembled, the media-containing body of the insert sits a short distance above the surface of the oil pool. The rim of the insert overlaps the rim of the base bowl. This arrangement forms a labyrinthine path through which the air must travel in a series of U-turns: up through the gap between the rims of the insert and the base bowl, down through the gap between the outer wall of the insert and the inner wall of the base bowl, and up through the filter media in the body of the insert. This U-turn takes the air at high velocity across the surface of the oil pool. Larger and heavier dust and dirt particles in the air cannot make the turn due to their inertia, so they fall into the oil and settle to the bottom of the base bowl. Lighter and smaller particles are trapped by the filtration barrier in the insert, which is wetted by oil drops aspirated by normal airflow.
  Oil bath air cleaners were very widely used in automotive and small-engine applications until the widespread industry adoption of the paper filter in the early 1960s. Such cleaners are still used in off-road equipment where very high levels of dust are encountered, for oil bath air cleaners can sequester a great deal of dirt relative to their overall size, without loss of filtration efficacy or airflow. However, the liquid oil makes cleaning and servicing such air cleaners messy and inconvenient, they must be relatively large to avoid excessive restriction at high airflow rates, and they tend to increase exhaust emissions of unburned hydrocarbons due to oil aspiration when used on spark-ignition engines. For more information try using the following labels when surfing the web: buy wix filters wix wix air filter wix cabin air filter wix filters online wix fuel filter wix fuel filters wix oil filters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Affinia Group, a motor industry company, was formed on December 1, 2004, to design, manufacture and supply replacement parts for on- and off-road vehicles and offer various aftersales services. The company currently has locations in nineteen countries, with approximately ten thousand employees. Its headquarters are in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The company is particularly concerned with filtration, braking systems and chassis components. Affinia brought together some of the aftermarket’s oldest and most respected brands, including WIX® filters, Raybestos® brand brakes,Brake Pro®, Spicer® chassis components, AIMCO®, McQuay-Norris®, Nakata®, Quinton Hazell®, AquaChek and Filtron®.[1]

References
Affinia website

External links
Fortune 500 ranking
Datamonitor Company news
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinia_Group“

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A fuel filter is a filter in the fuel line that screens out dirt and rust particles from the fuel. They are found in most internal combustion engines.

Fuel filters serve a vital function in today’s modern, tight-tolerance engine fuel systems. Unfiltered fuel may contain several kinds of contamination, for example paint chips and dirt that has been knocked into the tank while filling, or rust caused by moisture in a steel tank. If these substances are not removed before the fuel enters the system, they will cause rapid wear and failure of the fuel pump and injectors, due to the abrasive action of the particles on the high-precision components used in modern injection systems. Fuel filters also improve performance, as the fewer contaminants present in the fuel, the more efficiently it can be burnt.

Fuel filters need to be maintained at regular intervals. This is usually a case of simply disconnecting the filter from the fuel line and replacing it with a new one, although some specially designed filters can be cleaned and reused many times. If a filter is not replaced regularly it may become clogged with contaminants and cause a restriction in the fuel flow, causing an appreciable drop in engine performance as the engine struggles to draw enough fuel to continue running normally.

Some filters, especially found on diesel engines, are of a bowl-like design which collect water in the bottom (as water is more dense than diesel). The water can then be drained off by opening a valve in the bottom of the bowl and letting it run out, until the bowl contains only diesel. It is especially undesirable for water to be drawn into a diesel engine fuel system, as the system relies on the diesel for lubrication of the moving parts, and if water gets into a moving part which requires constant lubrication (for example an injector valve), it will quickly cause overheating and unnecessary wear. Also, because diesel engines require large amounts of compression to operate, water in the fuel system can be very dangerous as water cannot be compressed and may cause considerable engine damage. This type of filter may also include a sensor, which will alert the operator when the filter needs to be drained. In automobiles this usually causes an “idiot light” (customarily orange, and with the image of a fuel filter) on the dashboard to illuminate.

External links

• Replacing a fuel filter – Free video content from CDX eTextbook
• Detailed fuel filter replacement instructions