My DIY oil change tips

I have to caution you on letting the car sit overnight without oil in the pan. Depending on the ICE, it can be easy for the oil pump to lose prime. When that happens, the oil pump will cavitate and you won't have oil pressure.

For example, older Ford 289 and 302 V8's if you let the pan sit empty too long, the oil pump will lose prime. On those motors it's best to quickly drain the pan, fill a new filter with fresh oil, put the drain plug back in, fill the pan, then change the oil filter.

In most cases, if you should happen to lose oil pump prime, you can take the oil filter off again. Refill the oil filter with fresh oil. Get an oiler, also filled with fresh oil, and liberally squirt oil into the oil filter mount ports, then put the filter back on.

There isn't anything unusual about the design of the Prius oil pan. I just don't see what you gain waiting overnight. If you're really worried about some crud in the pan, once the oil is just dripping out the pan, put the plug in finger tight. Put a quart of cheap 5W-30 in to rinse the pan out, then take out the plug again.

 

FYI - this is made by Mity Vac and can be had numerous places. There are several versions of it as well.

 

Jay, did you slip the o-ring over the bolt after or before the washer? Or does it fit inside the washer?

 

You mean on my former 2000 GMC Sierra with Vortec 5.3 V8?

The o-ring neatly pops into the drain plug head. It can be a bitch to get out though, I had to use a sewing needle to pry the old one out. The new o-ring just popped right in.

If you mean the Prius, I haven't changed the oil myself yet. It has just over 17,000 km on it. The first oil change at 8,000km was complimentary, and at 16,000km I was too busy to drive all the way to the hobby farm to monkey with it.

 

Thanks, Jay. It sounds as though the Prius has a different arrangement than the Sierra. The Prius' rubber gasket is attached to the washer from what I could see.

 

we now carry them in stock as the larger Toyota forklifts use the 4.3GM. So no big deal for us, but I've seen lots of them leak. I've also gone to the Fram SureDrain on my Prius but I annealed the copper washer before I installed it. Nice and soft to conform to all the dips and pips on the oil pan.

 

Amazon has the Mityvac MIT7400 Fluid Evacuator for just $52 and $6.95 shipping. That's the cheapest I've found. This link will take you right to it.

 

I was going to install the SureDrain, but it extended about about 1/2" lower than the original bolt (and lower than the oil pan). When I also noticed that someone had already scraped the oil pan near the bolt by runnning over something, I didn't feel comfortable using something that might be more vulnerable to damage and causing a leak.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

The TOYOTA gasket is as follows. I tried to explain earlier but did not have my husband for all the precise answers.

The Prius uses the same gasket as all other Toyota models. It's an aluminum gasket with a paper liner on both sides. There's no rubber involved here. And there is no crush gasket. When a dealer changes your oil they will replace the gasket for you each time. However, it's not because the gasket is damaged or crushed. It's because they're really cheap to replace. Even if the aluminum gasket is squished, it will still work. However, they use aluminum because it will deform before the plug or threads. So it prevents these things from getting stripped, and from having to replace your oil pan which can be costly to do.

azw, i found out the gasket you described is a GM gasket. not a Toyota gasket. did you take it somewhere like Jiffy Lube? or does the dealer you use handle other makes besides Toyotas? if so, it's probably related to some inexperienced oil change guy doing your service.

anyone working on a vehicle at a Toyota dealership has pretty much unlimited access to these gaskets and most people have 30 or more at their bay at any time.

if you're doing your own service and you really want the Toyota gasket, you can go to the dealer and get one for 49 cents.

hope that's informative to someone.

 

Frank:

Trust me on this: if I had not had the Big Box Of Assorted O-Rings In The Convenient Plastic Case at the hobby farm, I would have been SOL. I've learned the hard way that if you're out in BFE and have some equipment around, especially hydraulic equipment, you had *better* have a nice assortment of o-rings.

It makes all the difference between half an hour of getting your hands oily or driving 1.5 hours back to civilization just to get one lousy part. Been There and Done That.

I'm a bit curious why you had to anneal the copper washer. Too tight a fit on the SureDrain?

Jay

 

Good point. I imagine if you nailed something it would just shear the SureDrain right off.

 

Yeah, just looking at that SureDrain hanging down gave me the heebie-jeebies, Jay!

Thanks for the info on the gaskets, Galaxee. It's good to know that the one I had wasn't OEM. The previous oil change was done by a Toyota dealer for the guy I bought it from, so I'm not sure whether they serviced other brands, too. Autozone gave me a plastic gasket to use, which seems to be working.

 

you're welcome

but my husband advises not to use the plastic gasket as they crack and leak. maybe change that with your next oil change. the Toyota ones are reliable and cheap.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll do that.

While we've got expertise on the line....what does your husband think of our using the Mityvac MIT7400 Fluid Evacuator?

 

it just seemed like really hard copper so I just annealed it to soften it up. Hard copper I figured would problaby not deform at the low torque on the drain plug. In the old day's I used to anneal them every time I did an oil change.

 

Just like the stock drain plug would shear off. I plan on not driving over stuff that would break it off. I put the stock plug in the trunk with a new washer just incase of such an event occuring. I'll eventually pull the oil pan off and weld a protector on the pan in front of and behind the drain valve. As it uses selastic for a gasket no cost to do it. It doesn't stick down any lower than the Fumatomo drain valve

 

Frank:

Okey-dokey I figured there had to be a good reason to anneal (Soften) the copper. You can also buy from large industrial supply houses the exact copper you need, but probably not in the exact size. So easier to just anneal it at home or work.

That probably would have sucked if you had put the Sure Drain on, refilled the pan, and the next morning had discovered oil drips in the garage. Also Been There and Done That.

Jay

 

Frank:

The stock drain plug only appears to slightly protrude, I would imagine something clearly poking lower would increase the chance of a strike.

To be sure the Prius isn't an off-road machine. But you never know what you might nail while driving on the highway.

In 1983 an Aunt of mine here in Winnipeg bought a brand new Dodge K Car. That winter she was driving on the Perimeter at the posted 100 km/h.

A large truck in front of her hit a bump and chunks of ice broke off the trailer. She couldn't swerve so she figured it wouldn't hurt to run over a chunk of ice.

She put a hole in the oil pan *and* in the gas tank.

So it doesn't take much to disable a car even on the highway. Since I have to worry about driving on rutted winter streets, I'm now seriously thinking of fabricating some sort of shield, like a skid plate, to protect the oil pan.

You're lucky you don't have to worry about that in sunny funny Vancouver. I have another Auntie in Port Coquitlam and she just stays home when it snows.

Jay

 

Fluid evacuators have a lot of use in industrial and commercial applications, and from what I've seen they work well and save a lot of mess and time. If you figure it pays to invest in such a tool for home use, then you should be happy with it.

Make sure the dipstick adaptor is included. Most automotive dipstick tubes are quite small, and the industrial equipment is sized to larger tube diameters.

 

Sorry bout that, we went to bed for the night

He told me one of those things isn't really worth the expense, and that at least for our purposes for our prius we don't need one. It may be convenient but it's no less effective to pull the drain plug and let the oil drain out. So it's really a money thing.

But he's got a facility at work to change oil where he can lift up the car and check underneath and etc. I think if you're doing it in your driveway you should get whatever you want to feel comfortable with changing your oil. That's just my thought on the issue.