Main-te-nance
- continuing repair work: work that is done regularly to keep a machine, building, or piece of equipment in good condition and working order
- condition: working order
- maintaining of something: the continuation or preservation of something
The filter above is an air filter designed to keep continuation from entering the engines air intake system. As you can this filter is extremely dirty. Maintenance of the filter has not been performed until now. When a filter gets this dirty bad things begin to happen. The fuel mileage drops off, the engine searches for alternative sources to draw air into the engine, and the engine performance suffers. The crankcase ventilation system is one alternative source for the engine to draw air from. When it pulls from this area of the engine it brings with it engine oil. The oil is mixed with the air / fuel mixture in the combustion chamber and causes damage to the spark plugs and emissions system.