Leaking oil from oil filter housing. Catastrophic failure.

OP needs to chime in and update everyone on the findings even if it’s to just say still waiting on dealer to look at.

 

Or pinched.

 

Nothing is hanging lower when you do it this way.

 

I'm just not sure how an o-ring can "blow out" if it's installed correctly

Its sandwiched in between the housing and block. They can get "flat" and hard if they stay on too long and never get replaced. I guess I don't understand what people mean by blow-out. Are we talking pieces of o-ring coming out with the oil as it leaks and gushes out of there? Split or knicked? No longer seated in the groove?

Like I said if it's installed correctly it really can't go anywhere

 

Try it this way instead. I max out the filter size and use either a Wix 51393XP or Amsoil EAO34.

 

Hold on to him tight. They are very hard to find.

 

No, just even more potential for issues as a result of the hoses. I'll just keep doing my own oil changes and trust that the Toyota engineers know better than people concerned with crawling under a truck.

 

wow. i can see myself flubbing this up...thanks for the reminder.

 

Dealer told me it was in correct groove, looked like was pinched, got weakened under high pressure and broke. Oil was shooting through the gap between the cap and the housing assembly.

 

If it was pinched, it wasn't installed incorrectly. I regularly install o-rings in systems pressurized into the thousands of PSI without issue, a vehicle oil system doesn't blow out correctly installed o-rings.

 

some people cant

 

They never do tire rotations, ive caught them like 4 times, on other car and now Tacoma. So yea, I wouldn't be surprised if someone working on 12$ per hour was too lazy or depressed to do his job.

 

Changed oil and filter today, no idea how many times I've removed the RFN housing now...20?

The first time was a pain in the ass getting the housing loose, no drama since then.
I'm embarrassed that this is kicking (alleged) grown men's asses on a daily basis.

 

You may already have one of these but if you don’t it’s a must have.

$30 Motivx Tools Oil Filter Wrench for Toyota Camry, Tundra, Tacoma, 4Runner, RAV4 and More - 64mm 14 Flute Precision CNC Machined Aluminum Oil Filter Removal Tool

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XTAGHU0

 

So here we go. Life got a bit busy. Sadly I’m struggling with going through cancer and treatment and such. I’m all good. Nearing the end of the cancer battle with reasonably good long term chances. It’s been a long school year. And I am now retired from teaching at 34 years as a shop teacher. I decided this year you can always make more money. You can never make more time. So that’s why I didn’t post a follow up till now.

1. I do all my own maintenance. Have my own garage. However the first 25,000 I tend to have the dealership do the work. The reason I do this is to establish a sort of baseline mechanical record. And there always seem to be fit and finish issues with every new truck. This one needed an alignment from day one and a couple other things. I actually know my dealership well and the people that work there. They are excellent. They have technicians there that have worked there for my whole career. And 2 of them are former students. The service advisor I work with is also a former student. So instructed. And once they are done I come home and check all their work carefully. This is my 7th Tacoma over almost 40 years. I drive them a lot. And I keep them for a long time. And they work hard. I like starting off with the dealer because their techs are personal friends and the ones that do my work I met as students a long time ago they have always been excellent, and since they deal with these trucks every day they have the benefit of seeing truck after truck and knowing things I could never know about trends and issues. Dealerships always get a bad wrap. But I am very lucky.

2. The problem in the end was a cracked filter housing. It is the original one. He showed it to me. There was a hairline crack. The material was very thin in one area and it gave way. Makes me hate this oil filter system even more. He said they have seen a few recently and they have been finding in early oil changes the caps are installed very tight from the factory, so that’s making the weak spot worse. They replaced the cap and I inspected the replacement before they put it on and in comparison can see the defect area being thinner. Could feel it.

3. I reread my original post. Didn’t write it quite right. There is a tiny gentle hill that leads down to my drive. I drove up the hill. Noticed the rapping near the top. Low oil came on. Leveled off. Shifted into neutral. Low oil went off. Rapping stopped. Continued a maybe 500 feet. Noticed oil trail. Turned around. No low oil indicator. Got back to top of the little rise. Rap started again and low oil came on. I shut it down and coasted to my drive. Had it towed from where I stopped. They pulled the fault codes. Low oil comes on at 5 psi. Don’t never lost complete pressure. And it came on twice and then pressure resumed and it shut off within a few seconds. So my guess is as I was on the hill the pickup tube was out of whatever oil was left but when I leveled off pressure resumed. They think the rapping was most likely the vvt gears as they lose pressure first and that I’d agree with as I have had them fail on previous engine when there was that vvt gear recall and that was what I heard. Those gears and the way they are built inside are pretty tough. It’s a two part gear where the oil pressure inside changes the relationship between the inner part that drives the cam shaft and the outer part that runs off the timing chain. Without oil the inside and outside parts would slap and make that noise. And it makes sense they would have lost pressure first as they are on the front of the engine up higher and I was going up a rise. Then when I turned around same thing. They drained about a quart and a half from the engine, so it did not all leak out. I watched. They gave me the oil. They ran it through a fine filter and found no metal. I have run it through multiple finer filters. Nothing caught in the filters. I’ve looked with a high power lighted magnifying glass I use to inspect fluids. And I have sent in a sample for analysis. So I will see if that produces anything. It is running perfect again. Can hear absolutely no problems so obviously without further evidence of damage they aren’t going to rebuild the engine. They documented it all beautifully. If the analysis shows any metal then I will be pushing them for a new engine.

3. I am suspicious a technician could have possibly messed up at last change only because they recently had a guy resign and he did my last change. But who knows. I’ll admit last time oil was changed I did not inspect their work. I was just too weak to do much physical work after some pretty entrance surgery. The guy could have gotten a better offer. Or maybe he was messing up. I met him. Seemed like an OK guy.

So that’s it. Toyota paid for everything. Tow was slow to come but I live in middle of nowhere. So no surprise. I had to be to cancer center by 2. It’s a 2 hour drive. I got to dealership with the flatbed and truck at 9:30. Talked immediately to the service advisor who I know well. He’s been there in that role for over 20 years. One of their senior techs who I also know well as he is a former student took it right in. I had flatbed dump it lined up with garage door. They pushed it in on my request vs adding oil and starting it. They then added 2 quarts. Put it in the lift with a tech in the cab and started it. We immediately saw the leak and shut it down. Lowered the truck so other guy could get out. They then cleaned the engine of the mess. Nothing on hoses or the belt. Changed the cap and filter. Test drove it. Did the other service it needed. Gave me the old oil after they ran it though a fine filter they use themselves to just document what they saw. I was on my way by 11:30 with time for lunch and to get to my appointment on time.

So that’s the end of the post. I could not see the leak laying in front of the truck even with the skid plate off as it was in back side. I did kind of feel it. But sadly I’m not at any where near 100% of my capacity right now. And since I knew it’s under warranty I put it in their hands with me watching over them closely. I always buy the 120,000 extended warranties. I’ve always gotten my money back from them. I’m at 15,000 now. So if any problems arise 3 or 4 years out and I’m still alive (lol) it will be fine.

That’s it. Thank you for all the comments. I will admit I was a little rattled by all this when I posted. It’s been a very long school year. I never thought I’d be wrapping up a career I loved quite like this. But all is well that ends well. And as I said above. You can always make more money. You can never make more time.

I will be giving the truck a work out next week. Taking off for a week with the camper in tow. Finally a gal in doctor appointments so time to wander a bit. If anything is going to fail, camper load will most definitely nudge it along and I’ll hear it.

 

Oh one final thing. This is a new truck. My profile still shows my 2016 in the description. I’ll update it. I’ve had a lot this year. I replaced the 16 in the fall as I wanted a new v6 before they changed to the dual turbo 4, and while my 16 was in awesome shape at just over 200,000 miles there was some work coming up on it. With the massive runs to the cancer center I needed something new that didn’t need work. It sad this cap failed. But this one I have now is a 2023 with 15,000 since October.

 

Wow, thanks for the detailed update. I’d say they handled the issue fairly. You have most other things covered via the extended warranty and detailed indecent documentation. Yes, life and things happen. You have the right attitude. Time is limited on this rock. Just had 2 skin cancers removed this week. 26 years of grounds maintenance. Hopefully no more issues for you. May you and your truck pull through to enjoy endless miles together moving forward. Take care.

 

OP, that’s a lot to take in I sure wish you the best and I’m glad everything turned out for the good with your truck. I take all this as a good sign you will be fine and live a long life.

God Bless

 

Very true……there will come a day where my back isn’t going to allow me to crawl around under the truck

 

Cancer sucks…….happy thoughts and prayer for you and family