1st Oil Change Yesterday. Pan plug washer glued on?

Yesterday, I hit the 1000 mile mark on my new Tacoma, and decided to change its oil. Arguments abound regarding interval, and oil type, etc., but that’s not what I want to discuss. I should also note, that my kid has a ‘22 RAV4, that had just hit 5000 miles and she’d not had it serviced yet, so I decided to change the oil in that for her as well. You’ll see why I bring this up in a second.

Did my truck first. Small back-story, the truck had its 1st Fluid Film application earlier in the week, at which point we swapped out the factory skid plates for a TRD Pro version skid plate, mostly to make oil changes easier. That swap worked well for my previous ‘18 Taco. Everything was going fine. Pan plug seemed to be properly torqued. Oil filter cap and cap plug were the same…until I went to find/remove the factory pan plug washer (Toyota calls it a gasket). Discovered that it was still stuck to the oil pan, which isn’t horribly unusual…except this thing was REALLY stuck. As in, wouldn’t budge with a screw driver, type of stuck. Ended up having to drop the TRD Pro skid plate out, just to get enough room to work on removing that washer. It took a hammer with a plastic trim tool to get the washer/gasket off, and scotch-brite to get the residue from the thing off the pan. Never seen anything like it. Replaced the plug with an F103S Fumoto valve, and re-installed the skid plate, so hopefully that issue doesn’t arrive again. Figured I had some sort of weird anomaly from the factory.

That brings me to my kids Rav4. The pan plug washer/gasket was the exact same way on that! Stuck solid! That one was a bit easier to get to, plus I knew what I was fighting. Simply popped it loose with the same hammer and plastic chisel, cleaned the residual crud off the pan face, replaced the washer/gasket with a new one from Toyota and finished that job.

Does Toyota now glue these things on from the factory? It’s it something that makes assembly easier for them? I don’t remember experiencing this with my ‘06 or ‘18 taco, and want to make sure others are aware.

 

It sounds like you wasted money getting an oil change.

-1,000 miles, really? Damn man.

 

Next time try sticking a flat head screw driver in to the drain hole and gently pry up on the inside ring of the washer. This method works for me when the washer does not want to come off using my fingers.

 

Mine is stuck at 30k. Get a flat screw driver and pry it off. Or just leave it. I never changed mine on my 03 Tundra for over 100k and it never leaked.

 

Might be time to invest in a BFH tool.

 

I changed mine at a thousand. Lots of metal in the oil from manufacturing. Probably not the best idea to leave that in for 4k more miles

 

The toyota gasket is one of the best in the industry, I've never run into issues with it.

Many other makes have way worse issues.

I did a F150 the other day, what a stupid plug, plastic and blows all the oil out at once.

 

i suspect the drain bolt is installed on nearly-new paint on the oil pan just after it's been manufactured, so it's stuck on there while the paint is still curing somewhat.

 

Just exactly why do you think there will be an issue with all of that metal? Here's the thing, if/when it gets picked up out of the pan it WILL be trapped by the oil filter and never get inside the engine. The flip side is, I expect Toyota, like most other manufacturers these days, uses a special "Assembly Lube" during the manufacturing process which is designed to mix with the oil and aid engine break-in; changing the oil before 5,000 miles is a very bad idea.

 

You know that this site is full of members who know more than a company with years of manufacturing experience and all those Engineers with Masters Degrees.

 

And littered with blown engines from people that did their oil changes at 10k instead of 1k.

 

This scenario makes a lot of sense, thank you!

 

A thousand miles is plenty for break in oil. Many metal flakes can pass through the filter due to their size

 

And I'm one of them and have worked for three of the world's auto makers (not Toyota) in my career.

 

It's your truck. Change the oil as often as you want. The Car Care Nut on You Tube suggests 1000 miles and then at 5000 miles or 6 months, whatever occurs first. What harm can be done?

 

Utterly and completely false; any particulate matter which makes it through the filter medium is way too small to do any damage at all.

 

Why not just leave that washer if it’s stuck on there? Means it won’t leak

 

Missing out on the special package which aids break in; that's the harm.

 

Same here on my 01 tundra at 300k miles. Imo, if it never leaks don't remove the old washer.

 

The Toyota drain plug gasket almost always get stuck to the pan. I've been using Dorman 12mm / 1/2" copper drain plug gaskets P/N 65271 for the past five years on two trucks with good results. It's widely available at most auto parts stores. If the store clerk needs to search for it by vehicle, tell them it's for a 1979 Jeep CJ.