FRONT SKID PLATE REPLACEMENT WITH ACCESS TO OIL FILTER

R C I metal works makes a nice item but does not fit a 2 wd model, 4x4 only. so, being tired of screwing with the stock piece, i need to find a way to change the filter without removing the skid plate. either with an after market or modify the factory item. i do not need some brutal piece as i am not off road, strictly daily driving on paved roads. i am sure there are more than one brilliant reasons toyota didn't leave us an option from the factory to access the filter. right, costs money to do so. so, guys, there is a lot of talent on this forum, bring it on with your ideas!

 

Hi, I just cut out a square notch out of the skid plate were the filter is, smoothed the edges and painted it. works great and it was FREE! Now no more having to take the plate off.

Obviously they didn’t leave us any room because they don’t want US working on it anymore. That’s why they went and made the filters stupid complicated.

 

did you fabricate a cover for the access hole?

 

That was my original plan. I was going to cut a 6 x 6 square out of it and hinge it. By the time I looked at it, It ended up only being a small 3 in. Square, so it wasn’t worth messing with.

 

OK, maybe mine was a little bit bigger than 3 inches. More like 5, but you can see how much room they gave me.

 

I think the TRD Pro skid plate will fit a 2WD. Nice plate, with an access panel for oil filter. Shop around for the best price.
PTR60-35160

You will have to remove, or modify, the front air dam.

 

good info, thanks for the help!

 

nice solution for 2WD guys, isn't $370 a little steep to fix a filter access issue?

 

might be a good idea to have to remove the skid plate every 10k miles OCI, those pan bolts will rust and freeze up and break if not removed over time I found this out with my truck I didn't have to remove the pan at all to access the oil filter but by not removing the pan, the bolts froze and I had to break all 4 bolts to get the pan off.

 

obvious quetion! why would you ever want to remove it in the first place??? You could say that about every bolt on the vehicle then??? right?

 

you will eventually need access to other components and the skid will have to be removed to do this, example I had new front struts put on my truck and all 4 pan bolts had to be broken off cause they were rusted and seized up, the dealer will charge you extra for the repair of the broken bolts if u wish to use your skid pan again, even tho they broke them they will charge for the repair. im just giving a heads up to remove those bolts and either anti seize them or clean and oil them at certain intervals and avoid all the crap I had to go thru to get my skid pan back on.

 

yes, the trd item is really spendy and reviews are not that good. i think my plan going forward is to get a 3 1/2" hole saw, find the center of the housing and saw away. i can't see any reason to cover the hole since i do on road driving 100%. if i notice krapp getting in and making things messy, i'll fab a little door and use some dzus fasteners. all i want to accomplish is access to the filter. not interested in protection from off road activity. when i get this finished, i'll post some pictures. by the way, i did replace the stock bolt with stainless, being in florida, everything should be ss

 

bill, my solution was to replace these with stainless.

 

Why doesn’t the RCI fit 2WD trucks? The Mobtown one should.

 

I think they should be size m8- 1.25 bolts that's the 2nd gen size, or u could take a bolt to the hardware store with u to match up, I would definetly salther on the anti seize, was a pain in the balls to finally get my pan back on after that crap, if id known they would all seize I would have removed them once in a while just to make sure they didn't get seized up.

 

not sure. i sent them a message asking why not. when i get a response, i'll post it.

 

The TRD Pro version has a section that can be removed to change the filter, but that sounds like more than you need. I'd say the idea of cutting out a section looks promising.

 

that would be a lot of overkill for me, just to change oil. far more spendy than a 15 buck hole saw!!!

 

So why not just remove the 4 small bolts for the stock skid plate? Most cars have an under belly pan that needs to be removed. You can take the stock skid off in about 2 minutes.

 

Do you get any wind noise with their mod?