Summer is the time for holidays and long journeys. To avoid any nasty surprises, it is essential that your car is in perfect working order, starting with the oil, fuel, and air filters for the engine and passenger compartment, which must be changed before departure.
Summer is the season of long journeys and queues that often form on motorways. To cope with them with peace of mind, it is essential that the car is in perfect working order. High temperatures, coupled with cooling difficulties when driving at low speeds or during prolonged stops in queues, put a strain on mechanical components. This is why it is important to carry out a check-up of the car before departure, starting with changing the filters.
The engine oil filter
The role of the engine oil filter is crucial, because it removes impurities and dirt particles from the lubricant, which can cause damage to the engine. The lubricant also plays an important role in managing the engine’s operating temperature to prevent overheating. If the oil does not perform its functions properly, in the most serious cases, this can lead to engine seizure.
It is, therefore, essential to hit the holiday roads with an oil filter in perfect working order. Its replacement is recommended by manufacturers every 15,000 kilometres for petrol engines and every 25,000 to 30,000 for diesel engines, but these intervals can be reduced in view of the extreme conditions of the warm months. Alarm bells about the condition of the filter can include the presence of oil stains under the car, rising engine temperatures, and excessive oil consumption.
SOFIMA Filters have an extensive aftermarket catalogue of engine oil filtration solutions made from synthetic fibres or cellulose and resin. These innovations make it possible to deal in the best possible way with the problems arising from the use of new ‘long life’ oils, the presence of additives in the oil, and the degradation of lubricants.
The SOFIMA catalogue includes 471 engine oil filters.
The fuel filter
When embarking on a long journey, it is inevitable to fill up with fuel wherever one happens to be, far from one’s trusted petrol station. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to come across petrol stations where the quality of the product is impaired. Water seeping into the tanks of petrol stations and the presence of sludge or other pollutants in petrol and diesel can cause serious damage to engines. Therefore, it is necessary that the fuel filter is always in perfect working order.
SOFIMA filtration systems are ideal for resisting ‘bad fuel’ by virtue of their advanced technologies and materials. Thanks to the UFI Filters Group’s solid experience in original equipment, SOFIMA filters meet even stricter water separation standards than those required by regulations.
SOFIMA petrol filters guarantee long replacement intervals and a very high degree of filtration of particulate pollutants. The filter media can, in fact, filter particles as small as five microns. SOFIMA diesel filters are capable of filtering water residues in the fuel down to particles as small as four microns. In particular, they are developed with the exclusive DFM – Deep Filtration Media – polyamide filter material which, thanks to the conformation of the fibres of different porosity and the inside-outside filtration system, ensures maximum water separation capacity from the diesel fuel, over 95%.
The SOFIMA catalogue includes 569 fuel filters.
The engine air filter
After winter, the engine air filter can become very dirty due to the accumulation of particles, dust, and debris. It is therefore important that the filter faces the summer in perfect working order to cope with the drier climate, the increased presence of insects and pollen, and the possibility of travelling on dusty roads.
If the air filter is clogged, fuel consumption increases, injectors can clog, and the engine becomes more irregular at idle.
SOFIMA air filters, made of cellulose combined with resins and with non-woven fabric prefilters, ensure correct engine operation in all conditions. Exclusive to the SOFIMA catalogue is the new MULTITUBE filter, the revolutionary engine air filtration technology with hydrophobic and flame-retardant filter media that offers better fluid dynamics in air passage, lower weight, and maximum filtration performance.
The SOFIMA catalogue includes 1,337 of them.
The passenger compartment air filter
After winter and spring, periods when cabin air filters have to retain higher concentrations of fine dust and pollen, it is important to replace them to ensure comfortable summer travel.
Poor air quality in the passenger compartment can lead to respiratory irritation, sneezing, and sore throats, making long summer commutes more tiring. A SOFIMA filter, on the other hand, protects the air conditioning system by reducing the load on the fan, and keeps the windows, windscreen, and dashboard cleaner for longer.
Sixty per cent of the SOFIMA range consists of non-woven synthetic pollen filters, capable of retaining more than 90 per cent of particles larger than 2.5 microns in diameter; the remaining 40 per cent comprises non-woven filters combined with activated charcoal, which neutralise odours.
The SOFIMA catalogue includes 329 interior pollen filters and 194 interior activated carbon filters.
The right choice
Given the importance of filters in guaranteeing the efficiency of the car when travelling on holiday, it is therefore essential that drivers always turn to their trusted workshop for their replacements. These workshops use spare parts of the same quality as the original equipment such as SOFIMA filters, developed thanks to the experience gained by the UFI Filters Group’s original equipment laboratories.
