Oil filter unused when doing the oil change

Son: Mom, I got a job in the Accessories Section behind the Parts Counter!
Mom: Oh, son! So proud! I must get a picture of your doing your job!

 

You can’t thread it on with that piece intact. And only the OEM Toyota filters are pre-lubed and sealed like that

 

Not if you accidentally remove the wrong bolt and drain the transmission. Lol

 

For the life of me I'll never understand how that mistake gets made so often. The transmission is nowhere near the oil pan lol. Who climbs under the transmission and thinks that must be where the engine oil is?

 

To be fair, it’s not like people are under the truck often enough to know. It’s really a 50/50 chance whenever you go under there. I know for me, I always go under my truck behind the passenger front tire, so the first bolt I see is the transmission bolt.

 

I haven't, never had a need to yet. The copper alloy I buy is free machining & already annealed anyway. I don't make oil drain plug washers out of copper, too expensive to machine them from solid bar stock although I have in emergencies for other things, waste of material. Cheaper to just buy stamped copper washers.

 

Happened to my buddy with his F355. I still make fun of him to this day. Cost him $700 to get it fixed at the Ferrari dealer. Lol

 

For awhile I never really commented about it because having a manual trans, there's no mistaking the tranny drain bolt for anything other than what it is but I assumed maybe the auto was different. Seeing some photos of the auto trans, I guess it makes a little more sense where the confusion might come from. But they're still so far apart from one another it's hard to imagine it happening as often as it does, but yeah I guess most people don't climb under their trucks as often as some of us.

When you have a 16 year old truck you tend to be under there quite a bit looking at something that needs to be fixed or fixed soon

 

OP has things going on, at least he is changing his own oil.

I think that he's not going the exact 10,000 mile interval, hence the oil filter didn't realize it go time. Wanted to stay attached, not leave home, watch TV in the basement and play games.

You know, 3rd gen........

 

If you google "oil filter dry" there's many threads on other forums about this same thing, and the consensus always ends up being that the oil just drains back out into the engine when the truck is sitting for awhile.

 

I think people who make this mistake may actually start out crawling underneath from the front of the truck, but then see the quasi skid plate. They look no further, not realizing the engine oil drain plug is just a hair back and upwards from that plate. They decide it must be further back, then proceed to crawl underneath from one of the sides of the truck near the front doors. Once they are down below, they see the transmission pan drain plug and think they've located the engine oil drain plug.

It's apparently an easy mistake to make, especially for people who do not understand engine/transmission orientation.

 

I dont have that issue. All three toyota trucks in my driveway have a 3rd pedal.

 

It would take a seriously special person to drain a manual transmission instead of the engine oil on accident.

 

Yeah when I looked up some photos of the auto trans, there's a pan underneath it where the plug is. I can see how someone might confuse that with the engine oil pan (even though it's behind the engine lol) but the fact that they're both pans makes it more understandable. With the manual trans, the drain plug is right there on the transmission itself, so you'd have to think that the transmission was actually the engine to make that mistake.

 

You know what it sounds stupid I agree, but even I got fooled at first when trying to find the oil pan. I almost drained the tranny until I thought about it for a second. The first gens were placed in an orientation where it was good common sense. 2nd gen is where Toyota started F'ing people around with lack of dipsticks and foolish locations for stuff.

This. Lol.

 

2Gen Auto, skid plates removed. I go at it from the front to drop the oil...I'm fat enough that when I get to the point I can just barely reach "some 14mm bolt"...........that's the one.

 

Better not ever lose that belly

 

Bottom line,its your responsibility to know what you are doing if you want to play mechanic.

 

Woooooooooow Ho Lee Phuk!

 

LOL, who knows what may come, but I don't think I'll lose enough to get all the way back to the tranny and think "hey, there it is".