Oil change - Removing the plastic shield

You can get equivalents at any auto supply or via Amazon. Dealer is not too bad either for originals.

 

and many of these parts are way cheaper purchased bulk on ebay or amazon (although lower quality plastics)

 

Toyota generally uses 7mm plastic rivets as opposed to the more common 8mm ones.

 

For the plastic fasteners where the centre cap needs prying up, a paint can lid pry tool is my usual method:


Before reinstalling the fasteners, sluice them in hot/soapy water, and work the mechanism. Doing this without fail, they WILL last. With full panel removal, besides the bolts, there’s two kinds of fasteners: the smaller, majority-case ones, and two larger ones at the back edge. The latter have grey heads. You might want to circle the holes they go into, with a coloured Sharpie. The part no’s are shown in post by @rjparker.

If you’re switching back to doing the oil changes yourself, I’d spring for the Toyota fasteners; treated carefully they’ll LAST.

You’re on the right track removing the full cover; it’s tempting to just bend down the flap at the oil pan, but it’s a material that DOESN'T take kindly to flexing, will eventually crack and fail. Also, full removal affords you a better view, to check for leaks, Inspect drive shaft CV joints, etcetera. You get quick at it.

Sounds like oil filter was installed by impact wrench, pretty sad: torque is 18 foot pounds (or 13, with spin-on conversion). Drain bolt is 29 IIRC; check attached.

I’ve done over 20 DIY oil changes on ours, and did the spin-on oil filter conversion a few back. Shield’s like new. I finally started to need to replace one or two of the fasteners, teeth missing. Found Amayama quite reasonable priced, especially if you bundle several items, incur just one shipping charge.

 

you can buy a clip fastener kit with an included pry unclip tool all under $10.

 

You don't need to remove the entire underbody shield to change the oil. There is a flip down section beneath the drain plug and filter. Since you say you are missing a bunch of clips, go with any of the above suggestions. How many miles are on the car?

 

bought the paint opener and tried it myself. I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be, once I got the kit with the unclipper, life got much easier.