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We'd all like to save hours of time spent on diagnosing a customer's root problem, right? Aside from a road test, checking technical service bulletins from the vehicle manufacturer is key to pinpointing where the trouble lies...
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 -by Patrick Sullivan, Mighty Distributing System of America
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| What many installers today may not realize is that the spin-on oil filters that they use daily are virtually the same filter in many of their design characteristics, leading to the inevitable question: Why can’t the oil filter manufacturers provide us with just one filter that can work for almost every car we service? The answer may not be too far from reality, but there is some complexity to this issue that needs to be addressed up front. |
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USCAR Spec's Revolutionary Initiative
The USCAR Spec, as part of the larger United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR),1 the umbrella group for collaborative research between Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, has announced a revolutionary initiative to standardize the spin-on oil filter that will be used on new and in-development platforms across the Big 3 nameplates.
Filter size and in-stock (SKU) rationalization has been slow to evolve over the years for interconnected reasons:
- Original Equipment (OE) designs have always focused on fit and need for their specific OE platforms;
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A desire by Original Equipment Service (OES) providers to match like-for-like on these released OE offerings; and
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The desire of the professional installer (aftermarket) to provide equal or better quality on their offering, making the need for an “OE appearance,” including numbering, vitally important.
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These three perspectives have been mutually exclusive from one another for many years, and it is not an easy proposition to change them overnight. |
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Nothing can ruin your day like a contaminated Mass Airflow Sensor (MAS). 
About 10,000 cubic feet of air passes through the filter housing and related ducts for every 1,000 vehicle miles driven. There's a lot of dirt in that volume of air...as well as other things that can gum up the MAS. Read on to find out how to perform a thorough air filter inspection, complete with tips...
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