Learn From My Mistake - Replace Plastic Oil Filter Housing With Metal

at the dealer right now getting my last free oil change. going to start doing it myself. couldn't have been more timely. thx

 

Good catch! Just ordered mine too! Also be sure to read how to swap this over, IIRC you need to remove the metal screen from your old housing and put it on the new one.

 

If the center tube is a different length then just swap it from the old one.

 

Gonna order it and request that they put it on at the next oil change. Wish I had it yesterday when I was at the dealer! Oh well, get it handled in 5000 miles.

 

Just ordered the metal filter housing, metal drain cap for the filter housing, and the Motivx filter wrench. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

Yup just wanted to give people a heads up in case they haven't heard.

 

Yep, honestly the dealer probably hasn't over tightened the filter as much as the thermocycling tighened it up. Never fails that I spin the Tacoma and F250 filter on snug by hand and then I have to drive a screwdriver though it to get it off at the next change. My MS3 wasn't any better with a cartridge style filter either.

 

I had the same experience as OP. Bought the cheap, stamped Toyota wrench from the parts house and tried with a breaker bar, but the wrench broke. Went back and swapped it for a new wrench and tried doing it slower with the motor warm - same result. At the recommendation of the guys at the parts house, bought a good $30 wrench from the Snap-On truck and tried again. This time it broke free, but cracked the housing in the process. Of course the dealer won't do anything at all, even though they were the only ones who had put a wrench on my truck up until that point. Swapped out for plastic cover for the metal one, and converted the center tube as others have done here. The OEM center tube/ spring looked to be of better quality than the rather generic ones that came with the new cap. The one I bought came with all 3 lengths.

My advice to anyone with a new Tacoma:
1) If you're going to take advantage of the free services for 25K miles, tell your service writer to write the torque spec of the oil filter cover on the ticket. Tell him you're going to check it when you pick up the truck.
2) Purchase a quality tool to do your own oil changes after the freebies run out. There may be others out there, but the one from Blue Point is legit. Snap-on has them on the truck.
3) Nothing inherently wrong with the plastic oil filter cover if torqued properly. If it breaks, get the metal one.

Here's the tool that I bought. From memory, it was about $30



The oil filter cap I purchased came from Advance Auto parts and was $25 with a coupon. I used all of the internals from the OEM piece and threw the other 2 away. It's made by Dorman and is Part No: 917-016

 

that was one of the first things I replaced on mine after the first oil change..

 

I replaced mine with the metal version as well I didn’t need to switch the screen inside since it was the same length. I also recommend the filter drain tool (about $25) to make filter draining mess-free. Well worth the price if you ask me!

 

Same one I have, works really good. No issues at all.

 

I’ll bet they aren’t overtightening them. I put mine on by hand, next time I changed the oil it was a pain in the ass to get off. The plastic swells and it’s a bitch to get back off. Same thing happens with my chainsaw gas cap

 

@TheTacoma

 

Found the sma fan haha

 

Here’s the new oil filter housing (left) next to the old housing (right). Everything looks identical inside and out to me. Fit was perfect and everything went back together like a breeze. No leaking. Will keep an eye out for any issues and update accordingly.

Also, I’ll have to get that oil filter drain tool for cleaner oil changes in the future. Thanks everyone!

 

I agree. Just like a spark plug on a 2 stroke motor. One shouldn’t over torque the plug. The heat and cold cycles tighten them. Tighten the spark plug too much, and it has a negative effect. You’ll have a hard time breaking it loose, possibly causing damage to the cylinder or yourself.

 

Definitely no. 1.

I have a '17 Tundra, my wife has a '16 Camry. Both have the plastic housing. I've personally done all the oil changes on my Tundra, torquing the housing to spec and it comes off easily every time. Dealer did the 10K changes on our Camry and I could never get the housing loose when I would do a change at 5K in between. Same tool fit both.

 

There is NO WAY that you should have needed a breaker bar to remove that. Just a standard 1/2" socket wrench should have been fine. Though I also switched mine to the metal housing.

 

The one I got I did not have to do this on. It was a direct swap replacement.

 

I just recently finished my free oil changes. Just over 18k miles now and done at 17k. Not due again for a few more months. Have received the new aluminum housing. Was going to buy 3 or 4 new Toyota filters off ebay to stock up. Do the filters include o-rings in the box. Wanted to be sure before I ordered them. Also is everyone sticking with 0-20 or are some going with 5-20 or 5-30. Here in the mid-atlantic we rarely see temps below 10° F. That 0 just seems awful thin.