Originally Posted by greenjp
My mother in law comments this morning that she needs to take her 2010 Rav4 4 cylinder in for an oil change, I say don't bother I'll take care of it. (I've done a hundred or so over the years on my Saab, Saturn, couple Hondas, other random cars). Grab 5 qts of Castrol syn-blend and a PureOne filter from Advance for $23 on special. Note that the filter is a cartridge type, no biggie or so I thought.
So I get the car up and find that the filter cartridge is accessed from the underside (doesn't this defeat the apparent purpose?) and has a separate drain plug built into the cap. So I remove that, a little oil drains out. I then realize that there is no obvious way to remove the complete cap to replace the filter. Hop on the internet and determine it requires a special tool.
After a couple fruitless stops at auto parts stores I find myself at the nearest Toyota dealer, buying a friggen $30 wrench attachment, my rear end was quite sore on the drive home. Get home and finish the change without a problem, except that when you do get the filter housing cap off, another load of oil dumps out all over the place, a complete mess.
Now, I have no problem with specialized tools for special jobs (I have a $25 wiper arm puller that I've used exactly 1 time, it was worth every penny) but this is absurd. I'm a mechanical engineer with two master's degrees and I cannot think of a single valid reason for this setup aside from creating a difficulty for the DIY mechanic, thus driving business to dealer service and parts departments.
Immediately prior to working on the Rav4 I did my umpteenth oil change on my 2003 Saab 9-5. Standard screw on filter located on the bottom of the engine, just forward of the sump. Comes off with ease, drains cleanly right into the oil pan. That's the way it should be done.
So to whatever fool(s) at Toyota thought up this thing, go to [censored]
ha ha.
jeff
Well, if you want to call a cap-style oil-filter wrench a special service tool... It's the same one as for the Toyota spin-on oil filters. I have a half-a-dozen varieties of them. You can get cheaper ones at car-parts stores but not all work well. I had no problem changing the oil on my 2009 Corolla with the old cap wrench I had for spin-on filters but it felt like my shoulder blade would separate to get to the oil-filter cap because it was a long reach without raising the car.
I do like the spin-on filters because you can go with different varieties and oversized ones. Also, you don't have to worry about your housing cap breaking one day in the middle of an oil change.
