Klick Wrench

It will prevent issues like this, because you can't overtorque? Just using a torque wrench accomplishes this, and you can choose the torque value. And, like a lot of these, it's aluminum:

I've been using the simple, heavy-gauge, stamped-steel Honda socket, since 1990; never had an issue. Also, I don't understand the rational of the extended sidewall down into the zone with stiffeners (not on spin-on stye btw); it doesn't really accomplish anything.

 

It's for total amateurs.

My husband's friend marked his filter when it was correctly torqued with a white paint marker. For each subsequent change, all he did was to tighten the cap until the cap lined up again with the mark.

 

$50? Way too expensive that adds further insult to injury when it comes to the imbecile at Toyota that unwittingly normalized the use of impact drivers on oil filter cartridges that don't comply with standard oil cap removal wrench, but is slightly off/proprietary. The first few years of Gen3 Prius sucks in almost every way! So much unneeded complexity and hassle in every way! I can't stand early Gen3 Prius! It's an insult to the simplicity that made Gen2 great!

 

I converted mine to the spin on filter in 3017. Never looked back.

 

So far ahead of your time...

 

In the year 2525, if man is still alive
If woman can survive, they may find

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lie
Everything you think, do and say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 3017 Georgina is still spinning her gen3 filter
Not that it matters
They stopped making head gaskets and brake boosters for it in the year 2525

 

Yes, that was me with a Gen3 last week...

Gen2 are so simple! Changing spark plugs, cleaning the throttle body and mass air flow sensor, new filters and oil change is so straightforward and easy.

Yet doing that in an early model Gen3 is more than twice as much work to do the exact same thing. There's an essential design principle that Toyota massively failed on when it comes to the "advancement" of the Prius line:

"Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) is a design principle which states that designs and/or systems should be as simple as possible. Wherever possible, complexity should be avoided in a system—as simplicity guarantees the greatest levels of user acceptance and interaction." https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/keep-it-simple-stupid

 

I don’t know of anything other than the piston rings (changed sometime in 2014 model year) that changed in 3rd gen. Oil filter is always the same, permanent housing.

 

Are you kidding? In a time of engines going 300K miles with nothing more than an oil change and spark plugs, the early Gen 3 engine blows headgaskets, has failed piston ring design and an EGR valve that easily gets fouled and fails, which causes all kinds of other issues.

Just to do the spark plugs there's over a dozen bolts and fasteners in hard to reach spots just to pull the entire windshield assembly and cowling off, which is a step that you don't have do on Gen2 to do spark plugs. What's more, there's way more hoses and wires on Gen3 in the way of the air box assembly which is made from 4 times as many parts as the Gen2 assembly.

And then there's the underbelly pan nonsense... On the 2017, the Prius C and Gen2s I've worked on you just put the car on ramps and undo the drain bolt and unscrew the oil filter. But on Gen3 there's constantly lost fasteners that are replaced with non compatible fasteners that you have to figure out. And then when it comes to cleaning the engine compartment, good grief! A gen2 takes almost no time to clean, but a gen3 seems like they almost designed the engine compartment to make it massively time consuming to clean because they wanted us to give up in order for the engine compartment to look as ugly as possible.

And maybe with a little practice after doing it a few times it's not a big deal, but if you bid a job to do a tune up on a Gen3 because you have lots of experience doing them quickly on a gen2, you'll be taking apart and cleaning and removing so much junk the first time around that it's a time losing and money losing nightmare!

 

Mendel would not have anything to talk about if Toyota didn't add the screwed up egr on the gen3. No one has ever changed or cleaned a gen2 egr. The rings were better on gen2 and did not require a rebuild to remedy.

 

Later 3rd years are not any better, my 2 cents.

 

You're literally 10 times more prolific at affiliate link work than every last one of us combined. Someday you oughta write up everything you've learned about it and when it has served you well versus when it was a waste of time. Almost everyone I know has failed at affiliate links, but obviously you're the opposite of that, or so it seems?

 

$40 for a one-setting torque wrench? At least provide a link, not just a phone screen-grab?

Technical question: does it slip/click at 25 n/m (aka 18 ft/lb) in both directions? That would necessitate another oil filter socket, for removal.

addendum: also, it’s a single purpose tool, would be too much torque for the spin-on (13 ft/lb) for fourth/second gen, and third with the conversion.

 

OP doesn't have time for all the... They too busy chasing affiliate link opportunities. Being the record holder requires focus!

 

For me the sell on a new filter wrench, besides not having the stupid notched extension part, would be ease of removing the filter housing from the tool, especially when unscrewed from the car.