Fumoto oil valve for 2nd gen Tacoma good or bad idea?

I've had one for almost 10 years now on my 08, love it!

 

Love mine. Got the hose kit too so no more oil all over the place because of wind. My only complaint is it drains slow and probably not completely. It screws up and into the pan so I'm probably leaving a little bit undrained. I accidentally bought 2 so there’s another somewhere in my garage.

 

Makes changing oil a lot easier. Mine is above the skid plate, tough to damage.

 

Love my Fumoto valve. Its been on for nearly a decade. Makes oil changes easier and less messy - but takes a little longer to drain.

Somewhere on TW there's a picture of a Fumoto valve that got hit wheeling. Valve was fine, oil pan was slightly dimpled from valve getting pushed back. Everything was still functional.

 

No more catch basin, just drain right into the last change’s 5 qt jug. Mine’s an EZ-drain brand but it works great on my ‘14. No leaks, no problems.

 

Makes oil changes super easy with less mess to clean up. absolutely love mine. so much I gave one to my son for his FX4

 

Somewhere after I passed 400,000 miles I had to replace the lower oil pan since the the threads in the drain pan were getting worn after umpteen oil changes since new. I put on some drain valve (Dorman?) from Rockauto when I installed the new pan, worked ok but then came across a Furmano that someone was selling here, installed it and is definitely nice to have. Mines a pavement queen so no off-roading here but I totally agree with what Bishop said , he’s going to see more vehicles that are not taken care and how it be troublesome

 

The reason we put these on is so we don’t need to take them to a mechanic to change the oil. The entry level employee that changes your oil is what we are trying to avoid along with the pricing. The reason these valves are difficult for some shops are that the employees are inexperienced to begin with.

 

It's not so much that they're difficult to use, it's the extra liability. I'm not saying the valves are dangerous but to a shop, the farther the vehicle gets away from stock, the harder it is to reasonably guarantee your work.

If a tech forgets to tighten a regular drain plug, it's 100% on the tech. No gray area at all.

If a fumoto valve leaks oil after an oil change and the engine gets damaged who's fault is it? The tech? Fumoto? The customer who chose to deviate from stock? It's no longer a cut-and-dried situation.
Shops are already busy, they don't have time argue back and forth over stuff like that. Most of them (like me) would rather just focus on stock vehicles where they know what to expect, and they can keep moving getting the cars in and out

I'm not saying I refuse to work on a car with a valve but I'm definitely going to vet the customer and make sure they understand that the risk is on them, not me if something happens

 

I’ve done hundreds of oil changes in my life and never did one with a Fumoto. I find changing oil with a regular drain plug is fast, simple and easy. The drain plug comes out in just a few seconds. I’m neither anti or pro using a Fumoto valve. I guess it makes something that’s easy even easier.

 

Less messy, wrench free, can be done with skids still installed.

 

13 yrs and well over 200k miles without one and see no need for it. Running an RCI engine skid and don't have any issue accessing the drain bolt. Don't know why guys are talking about removing the skid for an oil change, lol.

 

I would bet the general public doesn’t change their own oil, so I don’t think it’s a problem. So the general public wouldn’t even know what a fumoto is.

 

I felt the same way for years before buying one out of curiosity. Now, my entire family uses them in all our cars. In my opinion, you almost have to try it—I've never met anyone who switched back to a traditional drain plug let's put it that way.

 

Makes sense with skids. Wrench free, who cares. Less messy, once you’ve done a few changes you learn how to avoid or mitigate mess. Again I’m neither pro or con on this. For me the old school way works just fine. Just gotta do what works best for each person..I’m sure if I switched to Fumoto I’d be happy but I’m good for now.

 

Not going back.

 

If my skid actually got in the way, I'd consider it, but it doesn't. If I was putting tons of miles on my truck and doing 3+ oil changes per year, I might consider it. I've never really had trouble with a drain plug, nor thought to myself what a pain in the ass that drain plug is, because it's not.

 

Had them on multiple vehicles for many years and I love them for all the reasons above! Also, I can change my oil when the engine oil is super hot, and not burn the shit out of my fingers trying to unscrew the drain plug those last few turns.

 

^^ very true.

It looks like the only folks that don’t like them, never tried one.

 

And mechanics claiming it’s a liability.
You don’t have to use it. Remove it like a drain plug and carry on.
Bottom line is that it makes oil changes clean and tool less but takes a few extra minutes.