What to look out for with your vehicle after wildfire ash and debris
22 September 2022
Published by: https://nbc16.com
USA – With all the wildfire ash and debris we have been seeing lately, you might know how to keep it out of your home.
But do you know how to keep it from doing harm under the hood?
Some people are forgetful when it comes to car maintenance. But when it comes to wildfires, some people do not even know what to look out for.
Local mechanics say your air filter can be number one.
“It depends how close you are to the fires. We’re 50-60 miles away from the fires, but people in town are bringing their cars in for service,” says Derek David owner of Jerry & Walt’s Complete Auto Care. “We’re seeing signs of ash under the hood. We’re seeing signs of ash in the air cleaners. A lot of people don’t know they have a cabin air cleaner under the hood that actually filters the air that goes into the cabin of the vehicle.”
David says you might even want to change your cabin air filter a couple times per year, especially during allergy season.
But if you have been driving where ash was falling from the sky and you have a dirty enough air filter, there are other things to keep in mind.
“If you do an air filter change and it’s dirty enough, we’re probably going to recommend an oil change too – making sure none of that ash got passed into the engine,” says David.
Also, critters like mice and other rodents can crawl up under your hood to seek refuge from a fire if you’re close enough to one.
David says these critters can potentially cause quite a mess.
“That filter can fill up pretty bad. We can take them out and shake them and take all the stuff out, but you still got stuff in it. This is a charcoal filter, so it starts out gray, but you’ll still have stuff in here that you don’t want to breathe in.”
The question is: do you have a cabin air filter or not?
David says most cars from the mid 90’s to most newer ones usually have them.
David’s shop, Jerry & Walt’s Complete Auto Care, in downtown Eugene can look that up just by checking your VIN number.
But he says an air filter’s cost could be all over the board depending on the kind of car.
