Oil Filter Cap...Destroyed From Over-tightening

Good story. My two takeaways are: 1. Respect plastic and don't over-tighten it, 2. Do your own oil changes and everything else within your skill level. Did you see the screw-on filter adapter someone recently posted? It's a bit expensive, but something to consider for anyone who doesn't care for cartridges and plastic housings.

 

Third takeaway I learned the hard way: Don't do major (or a lot) things right before leaving on a big trip. Give yourself at least a week, two preferably (some say even a month), to make sure A) things were done correctly or B) time to correct them (shipping, etc) if they weren't.

 

About the dog chewed filter, if they were drilling through the cap it could have been easily nicked by the drill bit. (Hopefully)...

I’m quite nit picky about getting service done precisely when due, so glad you got everything done to give you peace of mind on your trip!

Have a safe and wonderful time!

 

That's for sure. The day before a long road trip, I had my tires rotated and balanced. Just a short drive home on side streets from the shop, all appeared normal. Next day, load up the car and head out on the Interstate - the car is undrivable it is shaking so badly. About 15 miles from home hit the next tire shop, and they found that all the wheels were off balance by well over 2 ounces. They showed me where the weights had been and where they were now (opposite sides of the wheel, essentially). They fixed it and car drove perfectly. Got back home the next week, went back to the first shop. Owner apologized, refunded money, and explained that the kid who (used to) work there had set the machine up for a different size tire. Apparently I wasn't the only one and so he was let go.

 

The glass filled nylon cap expands with age. My 2012 v's cap got harder to put the official Toyota cap wrench on and take it off with every successive oil change.

I eventually converted to the "spin on" filter as Toyota did for newer Prius models.

Now, it is a breeze to remove and install the filter.

 

I’m not quite sure the terminology for it but I think he’s referring to retrofitting the metal filter type. Then you don’t deal with the plastic canister anymore, just remove the filter and replace. It might be possible to retrofit your wife’s engine as well. It doesn’t seem possible with my ‘14 Scion iQ, so I just decided to continue using the original plastic canister filter configuration. (I found the dimensions of the filter element to be the exact same so I am actually using the same filter for both the Prius and iQ).

 

The 2016+ Toyota 2zr Engine oil filter conversion - Armstrong Family Blog

 

I would like to add that the oil causes the O-ring to swell on the filter cover. Always takes a lot more effort to get off than when putting it on. It will usually spin on finger tight then take a 1/8 or 1/4 turn to snug up with the ratchet handle. When it comes time to remove, it is easily a 1/2 to full turn before it will spin off with the fingers.

 

I've done 18 diy changes now (twice yearly for 9 years). Always oil the cr@p out of the new O-ring, always torque to 18 foot pounds. Nobody else has touched it. Haven't had any problems.

Likely some idiot put OP's on with an impact wrench.

 

Never a problem with my filter cap. It's easy, excepting the awkward location.

 

Last oil change I didn’t get the oil HOT like I did prior. The OE Toyota Service Tool fit slightly loose, and came off slightly loose.

 

I just finished the annual oil change on our v this morning. Unfortunately when I seated the plastic cap, I did not seat it properly. It got hard to turn so I used the cap tool and wrench to start. I stopped when I realized something was wrong, backed it out, and found I had damaged the first cm of the initial threads on the cap. I found the nearest AutoZone which opens at 6:00 am and drove down there to pick up a replacement Dorman cap. Sigh...

 

Bought my 2010 with 115K miles, previous owner had changed oil and filter every 5K miles at Jiffy Lube. My first oil change could not budge cap, even with long breaker bar. Had it at dealer for warranty work a couple weeks later, they loosened it up and torqued to 18 ft/lbs, and said a bunch of teeth were busted off. I put a new cap on, but will probably do the spin on filter conversion sooner or later. Don’t trust the filter/cap/o-ring system.

 

Did the spin on conversion a couple of years, ago, and never looked back. No more stuck plastic cartridge housing.

 

Here is the kit I got. Really like it. works like a charm.

 

I got the parts shown here:

Spin on oil filter | Page 2 | PriusChat

A little further down the page, the swap went fine:

Spin on oil filter | Page 2 | PriusChat

Purchased through Amayama, very low price.