Silver plastic cover under hood.

I have no problem removing my oil filler cap with the engine cover on. I use a large adjustable wrench with smooth jaws to loosely break the cap loose.

You could even put a rag over it to protect it from the wrench, but haven't had a problem using the smooth jaws on my wrench.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

How tight is this ever-lovin' cap? I use my fingers....

 

Like the plastic oil filter housing, the plastic on the oil filler cap tends to swell and becomes tight.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

That plastic cover is purely ornamental. I pull it off whenever I'm doing an oil change, avoid possible spills on it. If you put a little dab of silicone grease on the rubber grommets on the underside it goes on and off much easier. When putting it on, I find helps with alignment to eyeball the oil filler cap: get the hole on the cover centered on it, a little further back than you think it needs to be, and squared up. Gets to be second nature.

I'd leave it off, but knowing me I'd misplace it, and it keeps the engine bay looking "stock".

 

Maybe somebody overtightened the cap? It should be easy with bare hands without removing the cosmetic plastic cover thingy. However, the first time I took it off I had to use a tool, because of course the dealer people had overtightened it.

Two tricks to make removing and replacing the cover easier:
1) Smear a tiny bit of silicone grease on the top ball of each peg;
2) To align it before pressing down, make sure the hole for the oil cap is centered around the cap, and the length (or front edge) of the cover looks perpendicular to the length of the car.

 

Here's why I removed mine and never put it back.

This could damage your car if you don't take action! #shorts - YouTube

 

It's also possible to link to a 'short' in regular youtube video link form:

This could damage your car if you don't take action! - YouTube

That way, the person clicking on the link gets the more useful normal interface that shows timing and other controls, description and comments below, and so on,

 

Yeah, but on a regular HEV Prius, if it is being driven regularly, I can't see the mouse being able to "live" in the nest built directly above the engine. The car in the video had to be sitting undriven for a while.

On the other hand, in my Gen4 Prius Prime which was driven often enough but not much with the engine, mice decided to build a cozy nest under the DC-DC inverter and under the hood on the hood insulation.

Mouse nesting locations in the Prius Prime | PriusChat

 

Good point Thanks for posting the link

 

Prius gen3 is the most trickiest of cars i’ve seen to add oil. Cannot align bottle freely. Not enough space

 

An offset funnel would help.



I should get one, lol. I plunk a regular funnel in there (with the plastic cover off): it sits on an awkward angle, but stays put.

 

You could use a funnel. Or cut a water bottle in half, and place
the cap portion in the opening and pour the oil in....

 

I noticed @Ragingfit was using an oil bottle (with the bottom cut off) as a funnel, the kind where the neck is offset to the end, and it was wide neck, seemed like the thread diameter and pitch matched the filler cap: he sorta screwed it in. Maybe he’ll see this and comment.

 

Yes, offset would be best, if there's a way to keep it upright. I use a smallish regular plastic funnel, with the "silver" rocker cover in place, and the funnel resting against the cover. The drawback is that the low side of the funnel is only gently sloped, so I have to pour slowly. Without the cover, the funnel falls over. A larger regular funnel won't work.