Changing oil in a Prius sucks

I have owned more than 10 cars in my life (ranging from Yugo to RAV4, nothing fancy) and oil change in Prius is the most difficult by the factor of 10. Too many to list including ridiculously low clearance, the stupid design of oil change door that opens like door (backwards and blocks the access) and is closed by flimsy plastic pins, and hard to access filter (should be on the front of the engine accessible from the top) that is susceptible to being overtorqued by the dealership grease monkeys.

To cut to the chase, I got defeated, and was unable to replace the filter. Will have to wait to next oil change to get that sucker out. Hopefully it will last the 20,000 miles.

I'll also consider Amsoil oils and extended OCI to 20,000 miles to help with the nuisance factor.

 

FuelMiser, thanks for taking the effort in showing us how you do it! Much appreciated!

 

[QUOTE="Yes, I take the chance they will not do it right, but I have vertigo problems, so I can no longer do it if I wanted to. .[/QUOTE]
Have you googled "Epley maneuver"? It will fix at least half of all vertigo problems.

 

Changing oil in a Prius sucks

Concur!!

I know that there are probably cars that are worse......but I haven't seen them.

 

I thought baby bell handled your oil ETC(SS).

 

My recent oil change in our Honda Fit was even more annoying than the Prius because there is so little room to fit the filter wrench. I may have to buy a new tool

 

My son had a 2002 VW GTI and currently has a 2012 Porshe Boxster S. Changing engine oil on both those cars is much more difficult and time consuming than our 2010 Prius.

 

An OC in my CMax is worse I have to say. I have low rise ramps I had to buy especially for the Prius so the CMax is not real high off the ground when I have to remove the entire engine bay air deflector via (seemingly) 1800 screws! There is no separate, smaller oil door/flap. Actually removal is fairly straightforward, it's the re-installation by ones self that's the bitch. The good news is the Energi only requires an OC every 2 years or 20k miles due to extensive use of the electric motor.

 

The "official" oil change procedure in the service manual says to remove the entire engine under cover, not just to pull the flap down. Using the flap on some early DIY oil changes led to losing the flap on the highway one day. I ended up buying a new engine under cover since I wasn't happy with leaving that part of the underbelly exposed, especially in the winter. Now the entire engine under cover comes off every time when I do my semi-annual oil changes. Not that big a deal, really, since I get to look around underneath and check for anything unusual.

I seriously doubt that the entire cover is removed when oil changes are done by the dealer's mechanics, but they definitely charge you for the labor to do it.

 

^ What he said.

The manual actually tells you to remove the panel in front of the engine cover as well. Which is just nuts. But yeah, to take the whole panel off takes about 5 minutes; the fasteners are not that fussy. There are two kinds, so be careful not to mix them up And rinse the grit out of them with soapy water, while they're off.

 

In contrast, my wife's Outback is about the easiest car I've ever done an OC on. Being AWD with 18 inch wheels, ramps aren't required to reach the drain plug and it has an ample size access hole so cover removal isn't necessary. The filter is even easier being located on top of the engine.

 

That's good, but I like best vehicles which don't require crawling underneath the vehicle at all---much less jacking it up and coping with a cumbersome under-cover. For example, our 1966 inline-6 F-100, or my late lamented '81 Mazda. The former has so much empty space in the engine compartment between engine and inner fender that you can hop inside and stand beside the engine with both feet on the ground. My Subaru required crawling under the engine, although it was reasonably easy otherwise.

 

They do.
Interestingly enough....as cheap as they are, they still change it every 5k.

I've only done it once.
I had to do a theory-to-practice on a friend's G3 and I like to do an under-hull on Goofy every now and again.

 

On new cars I usually replace filter after 1,000mi. On new Prius C I could not do that, the regular replaceable filter would not budge. I left it to dealer for free 10K and 20k oil change, but if it still the same at 40k I am stabbing it with screw driver.

On Gen3 I had to make 2 cut-outs on cap filter tool to make it fit properly. Problem now isn't in opening/closing filter, it is to get the tool off when you done with it.

BTW why $40? my changes are ~$30. $26 for 5gal jar of Mobil-1 at wallymart, $4.50 for OEM filter at dealer.

 

Maan! Talk about luck I hope it will be better from now on.

 

I always have to use a 18 in. Flex Handle to remove it no matter how I tighten it on the previous oil change.

 

A lot of folks seem to have difficulty removing the Prius oil filter housing. I think that results from how it is installed. I do the following when installing the filter housing and never have a problem removing it:

• clean the filter housing threads,
• lubricate the O-ring, both before and after installing it on the filter housing, with 0-20 oil,
• tighten the filter housing with a torque wrench to 18 FT/LB.