Changed the oil myself for the first time today (just the oil - keep reading) and found out the dealership left me a few little surprises (they handled the first two oil changes, only because they were included with my purchase). First, the oil filter housing is so tight I’m going to order a new one before I even try again as I’m sure it’s going to break. Using the correct tool and plenty of leverage the truck was rocking back and forth and the damned thing won’t budge. In fact, the tool deformed and it won’t move.

Also, they somehow managed to snap one of the 10mm bolts for the front plastic cover clear off and just left it like that, and lost one of the other ones. Oh yeah, great work! And they wanted $140 to service it again. lol


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WOW! Over 930 posts on something as simple as changing the oil and filter cartridge. The only other possible discussion that could beat this one is the never ending debate on which oil is the best.

So far as trusting the dealership ( or others) - I am 61 and have been changing my oil and filters since I was 16. So easy, and I don't have to worry about some numb skull screwing the job up when I do it myself.

YA same deal like you ... I am a bit older .. done oil changes when I was 16.. fathers car/my car back in the 60's.. never had problems when I did all those oil changes.. when I purchased my 1973 impala new.. I had to poke a big screw driver into the cartridge to unscrew it ..

free oil changes it is not good .. quick lube floor sweepers..
I take 1 hour to do the job because I want all the old oil to come out and inspect undercarriage..

if anyone has a problem with the free oil changes post the dealerships name and location ...that will help ..

I'll start a thread on which wax is best and it will probably eclipse that

Just curious, but are the oil filter kits the same part # for my NEW 2019' TRD OR as they were for my old 2010 SR5 4x4 ?

Thanks !

I broke down and bought the RCI skid plate only to make oil changes easier, no rock crawling where I live. Only for easier oil changes!!!

Changed the oil last week in my '14 and it went almost perfect.

Managed to snap off one of the two bolts holding the drain plug cover plate - my impact was too much for it I guess.

The filter cap was also a bear to get off. I have the nice cast metal socket adapter and I felt like I was going to snap the plastic cap. It eventually came loose and then the next struggle was getting the socket adapter off of the cap!

After that everything was painless. But they definitely don't make it easy. Going to have to figure out some way to drill out that broken bolt on the cover. One is holding it fine for now but enough vibration is going to wear that out in a hurry.

So I've done this over a dozen of times in my 2012. Can almost do it in my sleep now!

Just finished one this evening but I was in a bit of a rush. When I put on the housing I couldn't immediately find my smaller torque wrench so I used the larger one right at the bottom of the range to get 18 ft-lbs. However I know this is a bad idea because it's a lot harder to feel the more subtle click that far to the low end and it is less accurate. But I was in a hurry and you know how that goes; "I can make it work".

Anyhow long story short: as I was easing the housing to seat I know I overtightened it before my Mk1 arm realized I was definitely past that 18 ft-lbs point, and I stopped.

Grrr.. I'm an Idiot! So I looked at the pin and it seemed the typical cm or two past the cast notch where it usually sits and I quickly backed off the housing 1/8 of a turn. I then went and took the time to find my proper, smaller wrench and finished it off correctly. All seemed fine with re torque but *maybe* (?) it sat a few degrees further rotated.

Now, however, my OCD mind is spinning though scenarios and keeping me awake worrying about having stressed the threads (I would assume the plastic ones are more fragile) and otherwise compromised something.

Arghh! The 30-40 ft-lbs or so I had it at for less than a minute probably did nothing significantly serious or permanent but I keep having visions of folded threads, cracked plastic, leaking oil, housing blowing out on a logging road next month.... Help me! I need therapy! Having read before, and now reread, all the over torquing horror stories I'm pretty sure there are 10's of thousands of 4Runners out there happily running with filter housing regularly torqued to 80+ ft-lbs or something crazy so I probably have nothing to worry about.

Anyhow I'm mostly writing for psychiatric reasons but might just have to buy that metal housing to stop the nightmares...

Dude, you are fine! Do you think the dealer torques the housing to 20, drain cover disc thing to 10 and drain plug to 30? No way!

FWIW, I use my large torque wrench with a step down adapter on all 3 and have never had an issue. My housing tab is at least an inch past the indicator.

that exactly what I did.

I'll be changing my oil on Sunday. First time with the Fumoto valve.

I bought one of those too, when I got the new filter housing...considering how much I drive and the fact that I just had my first (courtesy) oil change only a month ago, it will be another year before I need to install it..

I bought a couple of tools to make oil changes easier and less messy. Instead of a Fumoto valve I got a Valvomax oil draining system. It’s a great looking stainless steel ball valve design. To drain the oil you use a special screw-on adapter that depresses the spring-loaded ball that starts the flow. With an attached drain tube you can drain right into your recycling jug.
ValvoMax Oil Drain System

Since I recently had an oil change I needed to do the shop vac trick in order to remove the OEM drain bolt and install the Valvomax without dumping any oil. I was leery of this, so I had my big drain pan ready underneath just in case, but it really works! I took off the drain bolt and the oil stayed in the engine with a high velocity slurping sound. Check out a demo on YouTube:
YouTube

I’m going to keep an eye on the Valvomax for a few days to make sure it doesn’t leak.

More info:
The Valvomax website needs some updates. I emailed them to make sure I ordered the right part for my 2018 4R and the installation torque value. (PN VM12-1.25. To install, remove the external rubber o-ring and dust cap tether, use a deep 24mm socket to torque at 16-18 ft-lbs. Then re-install the o-ring and tether/cap). Also, they supply a metal gasket to use instead of the typical OEM fiber one.

The other tool I got was the Motivx oil filter drain tool. A similar concept, a screw-in device that depresses the spring loaded valve in the oil filter. And an attached poly tube to drain oil into a container.
Oil Filter Drain Tool for Toyota, Lexus, Scion 2.0L - 5.7L Engines - Motivx Tools

It will be a few months until my next oil change when I can actually test it all out. Fingers crossed.

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I emailed and called Valvomax, no answer. Website doesn't say it fits a 2017. So I went with Fumoto.

Switched the oil filter cover to metal. Big mistake. Leaked. So I went back to factory plastic.

It took a couple of days but I had a few emails from them. I told them about their website deficiencies in another email, sounds like they’re working on it.

That’s interesting and disturbing about the metal cover leaking. I have one waiting for my next oil change to install. Did you figure out where the leak was happening? At one of the rubber O-rings? At the cover body to engine interface, or from the drain plug?