My Firsts couple of DIY Oil and Filter Changes

Started doing my first oil changes after spending $80 on an oil change in North Carolina when driving it up to NY from FL. I had 81,500 miles on the odometer back then.

The mechanic used Mobil 1 and a Wix filter in NC.
When I did my own last year when I was at 91,500 miles. It was my first time and used a guide similar to chris4x4's guide. I used Valvoline 5w-30 Full Synthetic with a K&N HP-1002 filter (I know, I took the pic of the K&N filter on the French translated side instead of the front English cover by accident).

I recently found more info and plan on using more of the

$55 Toyota Genuine Parts 90915-YZZD3 Oil Filter 1 Case (QTY 10)

OEM Toyota YZZD3 filters and the

$8 TOYOTA OEM Gasket 90430-12031

gaskets going forward.

Edit: How to reset your MAINT REQ light:
To turning off the Maintenance Light on 2nd Gens (2005-2015) Toyota Tacoma, conform to the following instructions:

1. Turn the ignition switch to the “On” position, but do not start the engine
2. Press the odometer button until you see “TRIP A” on the little display
3. Next, turn the ignition “off”
4. Press and hold the Trip Odometer Reset button, and turn the ignition switch to the “On” position
5. Continue to hold down the Trip Odometer Reset button until “000000” MILES appears on the display and the maintenance light turns off.

 

I’d re think your intervals but to each their own. I do mine every 5-6 with Mobil 1 and the larger Oem filter. It’s nice knowing you did everything right vs a kid making $9 a hour that could care less.

 

Yes, I was new back then, I recently changed my oil again now at 94,450 mi on the Odo, right before taking the family on a road trip to DC.
I'm now aiming to do my oil changes with the correct OEM filters every 4.5K or 5K miles going forward.

 

i'd stick with OEM filters and invest in a Fumoto drain valve to simplify things, Just my .02. Cheers,

 

All good, I was going to try longer intervals with a Mobil 1 filter but made it to 7k and ending up with my current routine. Works good with tire rotations.

 

I do a mix of road trips of 300+ mi, camping trips, and NY City highway driving riddled with potholes, nails, and horrible stop-&-go traffic. I would aim to keep my tires rotated every 4-5k miles to keep everything comfortable (also want to stay on top of things due to my busy schedule, so would rather spend more now being early in maintenance than cry later over late maintenance).

 

What's Fumoto drain? I just use a tube to help the oil drain from the oil filter saddle to my old oil catch/container. Is it better?

 

Oh, Also! I use Valvoline oil. Was sitting in the train trying to figure out what was the best oil. Apparently it's more about the oil filter (OEM YZZD3 is best, I see) and the frequency and consistency of the oil & filter changes.

 

Absolutely better. The fumoto valve replaces your drain plug in the oil pan. The one I got is the f103s along with the hose kit hk-3/8.

No more dealing with the wind blowing oil all over, no more removing the drain plug.

Overtightening, don’t do it. I used an adjustable wrench, just snug. After filling, I checked it, made it slightly tighter, checked again and no leaks.

$37 Fumoto Original F103S LC-10 Lever Clip FS-Series Engine Oil Drain Valve, 1 Pack

https://www.amazon.com/Fumoto-F103S...1712185931&sprefix=Fumoto+f103,aps,148&sr=8-1

$10 Fumoto FHOSE KIT 3/8"x3' Hose+Fittings for Quick Oil Drain Valves w/ 3/8" Nipple

https://www.amazon.com/HOSE-KIT-NIP...12186012&sprefix=fumoto+hk-3/8,aps,146&sr=8-1

 

Oh Boy, initially worried about the little valve hitting something on the road and ending up leaking oil, but after reading another Tacoma owner's review, the shortened version doesn't seem to stick out much more than the original drain plug.
Is this one in the link that shorter version?

 

If the area around your existing drain plug isn't beat up I wouldn't worry about it.

 

In wouldn't buy ANY drain plug gaskets off Amazon.
Too many fakes. There was a thread here not long ago on a few guys buying them on Amazon.
The washers would "shrink" and the drain plug was finger tight in about 500 miles.

Just buy them from a dealership.
Buy 5 or 10 at once. They usually give you a break on the price.

 

If you do your research you can buy from Toyota dealers on Amazon. I have bought cases of oil filters at excellent prices and they ship to you from the dealer and not Amazon. But you have to be careful. I have even called a dealer to confirm it’s legitimate before ordering.

 

BTW.....if you want try switching to Kirkland or super tech 5w-30 its just as good as mobil 1 as far as I'm concerned and less than half the cost.

 

Just another thought to make scheduling oil changes easier to remember, if you're on a 5K schedule just align with 5K changes on odometer rather than 5K after some random change. Kinda a no brainer after first adjustment.

 

$6.34/filter

$55 90915-YZZD3 Oil Filter 1 Case (QTY 10)

90915-YZZD3
+
$19.99/5qt Kirkland 5w-30 synthetic
+
fumoto valve
=
more $5 latte's at starbucks

 

What if you like the oil additives and build-up protection that comes with Valvoline?

 

I think synthetic oil is worth the extra cost, but which brand you use isn't. I buy the 5 quart 2 packs at Costco. They used to be $25 for 10 quarts. I think they are just under $40 now, but that's still cheaper. I buy Fram filters at Walmart.

Time is more important than miles. The 1st 9 years and 180,000 miles I owned my Tacoma I averaged 20,000 miles/year. I'd set reset the oil change indicator when I changed oil. On my 07 it comes on briefly at start-up after 4500 miles and stays on after 5000 until it is reset. I used to just replace the filter after the 1st 5000 and reset the indicator. The next time after 10,000, I would change both the oil and filter. I ended up changing the oil about every 6 months.

Starting in 2016 the Tacoma has become a 3rd vehicle for us and is now only driven about 10,000 miles/year. I now change both the oil and filter every 5000 miles, which is still at 6 months just as before. On the other vehicles I still change every 8000-10,000 miles. The Tacoma now has 245,000 miles on it and I have 680,000 combined miles sitting on the driveway. None of them need any oil added between oil changes.

The valve might be a good idea, but I've never found it terribly hard to remove a drain plug.

I made the decision to do 10,000 mile oil changes 20-25 years ago. Before I retired I worked 60-70 hours/week for about half the year. Did 40 hour week for about 4 months of the year and only 20 hour work weeks the other 2 months. I had more important things to do with my time off than change oil. Doing it every 10K on 3-4 vehicles saved me a lot of time vs every 5K. None of my vehicles have ever had a problem with that, but some people just can't accept that oil can last 10,000 miles. If you do the research 10K is actually conservative. 15K or even 20K is possible with modern oil and engines.

 

@DyegoPC23 seems you've got a lot of opinions here about oil change interval but so far they're 100% anecdotal. My suggestion would be to use an oil analysis service (like Blackstone Laboratories) to inform your service interval. Or, just stick with the factory interval and you'll be safe.

I've been using their service now for almost 15yrs and use it for all our vehicles, even diff and trans fluid changes. For me it's a small price to pay to gain a better understanding of what's happening in my engine and to ensure my oil intervals are correct. It all started with my 04 Impreza which I was putting 20-25k miles/year on and I wanted to try and save money/time by extending my interval. With their help I stepped my oil changes from 6k to 8k to 10k and eventually to 12k. I likely could have even gone further but after that I stopped driving as much and sold that car. Would have been cool to see how far I could take it - likely could have been safe up to 14-18k. They can also help pinpoint issues with the oil you're using, if they see wear beginning, if they find moisture or other contaminants in the oil...etc. They might catch a problem when it's minor so you can address it before it gets worse, or even potentially catastrophic.

 

Awesome. I'll just keep a consistent interval change for now - oil changes don't take longer than 20-30 mins for me and is ok exercise! But this sounds excellent if I want to test my ATF, Rear Diff fluid, and engine oil!