Change your own oil!

It actually is. They make synthetic oil out of petroleum derived chemicals, and they get the petroleum to make those chemicals on the open market (read: Middle East).

 

does anyone use those quick lube or oil can henry's to change oil? I hate going to the Toyota dealer.

 

Brad,

Actually it is one bolt and one filter. A screw and a bolt are two different things.

 

John's oil change guide is well done, but is missing one important thing: torque wrench for the oil drain plug and proper setting. (I haven't found the setting in my manual but they typically run about 25 ft-lbs in my other vehicles' drain plugs. I'll need to find the actual value.)

 

I found this other product which seems to be a much better alternative. Has anyone tried it?

Welcome to LiquidVac.com - Oil changing vacuum system Oil Change Pump DIY

 

28 ft.-lb. However, I've noticed when removing the oil drain plug (after 5K miles have elapsed) that not much effort is required to unbolt the plug (apparently less than 28 ft.-lb). I assume this is because the fiber gasket has collapsed a bit while in service.

 

I never used a torque wrench to tighten an oil drain plug. Simply tighten snugly and that's it. (never use a lot of muscle)

 

The problem is that there is a lot of variation in what "tighten snugly" means. For some it means stripping the threads apparently. For others it is not much more than hand tight. Using the torque setting you can be certain you are getting compression of the gasket without making it too hard to remove or stripping the threads. It's a pain when somebody strips the threads, because it leaks oil until you put a new plug in on the next oil change.