Cannot remove oil filter

It's sort of a perfect storm: plastic housing, coupled with way over-torqued. If it's torqued to (spec'd) 18 ft/lb, there's no major problem loosening it, with any decent, correctly sized socket. Even the ones without the extensions down to the stiffeners.

But this is a problem: the pros don't give a damn, over-torque them, and access that area by bending back the fragile flap at the back of the under cover, eventually breaking it off. Due to more fragile plastic, ill-suited as a hinge.

Doing my own, torqueing the filter housing to spec each time, and removing the entire engine under panel, I've had zero problems. But Toyota has dropped the ball on this: they need to remedy these two "pronies" and educate the service department staff.

 

Ughhhh...I bought the right filter cap removal tool, the one with the slots. Jacked up the car carefully, opened the hatch and tried to remove the filter cap...

Could not remove it with my 3/8 inch wrench...so I got my 1/2 wrench out....tried it again...no luck....what do the mechanics (can you call them that ? ) do at the dealerships...torque wrenches with no oil on the o ring...

What a messed up situation.... I am so glad that I find a bit of relief reading your guys misery...

Next time, I should read this first....

I am going to find a real mechanic and ask him to do the oil change and to torque to specification.

 

Did you break or round-off the cap or your socket, or were you just not able to budge it?

If it just hasn't budged yet, chances are you only need a longer pipe over your socket handle. Though that might mean getting the front end higher off the ground so there's room for the pipe to swing. (And securely, so you don't bring the car down on yourself while hauling on the pipe.)

You can always use a longer pipe, unless it gets to the point where you deform your socket or break the cap. (So, if it's very stubborn, you might want a second cap on hand just in case, it's about $36 at the dealer, you'll never need to buy another.)

Mine was pretty stubborn the first time, but did come loose uneventfully once I reached the right amount of persuasion.

-Chap

 

MUST be over torque. I've no problems backing ours off, and my filter socket is a simple Honda one, no extension with slots. My ratchet wrench is about 18" fulcrome to tip of handle, that helps. I'm always torquing to 18 ft lb, the spec.

Persevere per Chapman's all I can think

 

No particular problem getting mine loose my first time (after the free dealer changes). I used a wrench about half as long as Mendel's.

 

I just use a short wrench and whack the end of the wrench handle with a hammer to loosen it. In fact I use this method for stubborn bolts as well. I find a sharp jolt loosens it much more easily than constant applied pressure on a longer extension.

 

@jack520 Who were the knuckle draggers who last installed it? A dealership?

 

Impact is the time-honored way of loosening stubborn things ... I needed it to loosen my lug nuts the first time (but never again since, given that nobody else tightens them any more but me, with a torque wrench). Without impact, I would never have succeeded in changing my sister's water heater anode rod (took about ten refills of my 4-gallon air tank before it visibly moved). Impact is awesome.

The filter cap ... however ... is plastic ... so you may be taking a chance ....

-Chap

 

Buy another cap before you get serious with it?

 

Toyota dealership...

I have a spare cap.

I took out my half inch drive and tugged as hard as I could on it and it would not budge.

I was on my back on the floor, tugging my 1/2 wrench which is 10 inches long, and I was sliding on the floor....I could of gotten out my 2 foot breaker bar, but I was afraid of breaking something I could not fix. I will take it to a real mechanic later in the week and get him to do the oil change and ask him to torque to specification.

The dealership did an oil change on my 4Runner a while ago, and left off one of the bolts on my skid plate...fool me once, shame on your, fool me twice, shame on me....well I am Shamed and never returning to the dealer again.

Jack

 

Yeah, 18 ft lbs is all it takes.

I wonder if a strap style filter wrench would help. Maybe wet it and sprinkle on some pumice on the inside of the band. Or lay a strip of double-sided tape along the inside. Then slip a pipe extension over it's handle, and see what breaks first, lol.

The sudden jolt suggestions are good too: if you can get access to an impact wrench.

My preference would be: instruct the dealership (the guys to who dropped you in it) to just break it loose (back it out no further, you shouldn't lose any oil), then retorque to 18 foot pounds, and hand it back to you.

 

I am not going to waste my time with the Dealership. They are incompetent...I only went there because it was a free oil change.

I had bought a spare oil cap just in case I cracked it...but if I do crack it and top part pops off, but the bottom part stays, what do I do. I do not have a lift, so I am crawling below my car and I could quickly get into a jam. I am self employed and have a lot of work to do and projects to do. I need to hire some out, and I choose to hire someone to fix the dealership incompetence.

Oh, now that I am started on how incompetent the dealership is....I had made an appointment to get my oil changed. They asked me to be there thirty minutes before me, and made me sit for 30 minutes, my car was not ready for over two hours after the start time, so I was at the dealership over 2 1/2 hours.....

There is a great mechanic in town, he is actually a nice guy. I do not mind supporting him and his family. They are there to help me out when I need help.

 

Yeah, good points.

For some perspective, I'm the only person, since the factory, to take ours off, never a problem. It takes some effort, for sure, but not hard at all. It continues to resist as you're backing it out, all the time the O-ring on the cap's barrel is still within the cylindrical cavity.

There's a metal "locking" clip on the side, that does nothing really, doesn't really stop it.

Here's the very basic socket I'm using, repurposed Honda socket:

 

With a metal filter cap tool over the housing, spreading any force over the entire cap. I don't think there's much chance it will break. It will come loose before that

 

If it doesn't it's cus the sum'bitch cleaned the threads and applied super glue before install.

 

I had the same issue today while trying to change the oil on my friends prius. i called the dealer that she had been using and they told me that this is a common issue. they said its not caused by overtightening but by the plastic heating up and that causes the problem. i told him he was full of it. he did offer to remove it if i brought the car in.

 

Every oil change, routinely, I tighten that thing fastidiously to the exact manufacturer spec, like a regular li'l teacher's pet ...

... and every oil change, routinely, it is stubborn when I want it off. I do think swellification of the rubber O ring probably has a lot to do with it ... not of the plastic cap per se, but of the O ring.

I'm guessing length of oil change interval probably has as much or more to do with how stubborn it gets as overtightening does. I use the shorter OCI that Toyota recommends for people with short drives, and generally it's stubborn but manageable. My very first oil change after I bought the (used) car, it was way more stubborn, but I don't know how many miles it had been on there since the previous change.

-Chap

 

Yes, even after breaking it "loose", is is far from loose, and that O-ring is what's resisting.

 

Mystery solved. Why do they over torque? So you won't be able to remove the filter therefore you'll go back to them, and hand them money.

 

My filter was near impossible to get off too. Took as oil filter pliers and held it together with vise grips. Then I hit the pliers with a mallet and it came right off. I made a mark on the filter to make sure I could tell it was spinning.