Winterize a Car - Engine & Fuel System

Ed Kriston: Hi! I am Ed Kriston from AAA Mid-Atlantic's approved auto repair department. While talking about winterizing your car, one of the things we should look at, of course, is your fuel system. The major part of your fuel system is going to start at the fuel tank which is here just above my head. Inside most of the common cars today, you are going to have an internal fuel pump inside the fuel tank which, of course, we can't see from out here. Also, somewhere in the system you are going to have a fuel filter. Some of them are inside the fuel tank which is little hard for replacement by yourself. Some are external where they are relatively easy to get to. Of course, one of the things that you should also check underneath the car while you are looking at the fuel tank, just to make sure everything is good with it, is all over the lines and hoses that run back here to the tank from the engine. Underneath the hood here is, where there are a lot of hoses and tubes which you just want to take a look at, make sure that you don't have any leaks, or anything that is going to be a problem for you going into winter. This is the fuel supply line that comes from the fuel pump inside the fuel tank. And it supplies fuel to this rail which is called the fuel rail. Now this being of the engine, you have a fuel rail on this side and then this tube goes in front of the engine to another one just like it on the other side of the engine. Underneath that fuel rail is where you will find your injectors, here is one, here is another one underneath. But your the biggest most important part is just to make sure that you don't have leaks. Leaks should be pretty easy to see because if it is even a really small leak, you will start to see some deposits left from the additives in the fuel that will start to show up around the fuel rail, specially right here where the fuel rail and the injector themselves meet. There is a lot of rings in there that are supposed to stop them from leaking. Other than natters, really not a whole lot more that you can do the fuel side of it at that point. Then we can talk about the air filter and get a little bit of idea what you need to look at with that.

Always located up in the engine compartment somewhere, some are easy to get to, some are not. The one in this vehicle is located right here. By taking off three clips and removing the housing cover, we can get to the air filter. This, of course, is the engine side of the air filter which does not look too bad. But this is the business end. This is the one where the air comes in from outside the vehicle through this air filter before it goes into the engine. As you can see, this one is obviously dirty in a large area and I would say that this one from what I see should be replaced. And it is always a good idea to make sure that the air filter is in good condition. This is a new air filter. I will give you an example of what a new one should look like. During the winter time, when the engine is going to be running a colder temperatures outside, it is going to run a little wretched. So if I have got a dirty air filter and it is going to restrict the amount of air that is going into the engine, that can cause a number of problems; Check engine lights, running performance problems, just driveability problems, by themselves. So it is always a good idea to have a good clean air filter in the car.

The next segment is going to be on Exhaust Systems.