Every bolt on every vehicle and every soark plug has a torque spec. I don’t know any mechanic who’d use a torque wrench for the oil filter housing.
Is this new? Yes, I bought the specific tool to service these oil filters so I won’t damage anything by using a cap-style wrench. Just as I have bought vehicle-specific tools to do oil filters on Volvos, Mercedes, Volkswagens, Chevrolets, and a number of others. I still have the tool to do an oil change on the General Motors engine of the 1980’s that had a paper element in the oil pan. Almost 30 years in this business, a guy can collect a lot of tools.
I’ll bet the Toyota oil filter wrench will give me a better return on my investment than the Chevy oil filter wrench I bought in the 80’s.
Your Toyota filter is a lot different then the one on my 14 Highlander or wife’s 07 Lexus. The filter is very easy to replace. First couple times I did the oil change I used a pipe wrench. Then I went to my local parts store and bought a filter wrench. Nothing special - just an end cap socket wrench.
And the housing is metal. Much thicker then a canister filter.
It’s a little more time consuming but not by much. There are also two gaskets to replace (they come with new filter). And you still have to put a thin layer of oil on them.
The device that I’ve been using for years, and have had the most luck with, is Channel Lock oil filter pliers. Got it at Home Depot!
The Rav-4 that I have serviced had a plastic filter housing but as for the spin on filters, they have proven to be very reliable, the name brands are virtually bullet proof. And my beef with the Rav-4 filter is 2 fold, Toyota’s only reason for such a filter seems to be making service difficult for the DIY and I have a 1 gallon paint can full of accumulated filter base tools and while 2 fit somewhat snugly on the Rav-4’s filter housing they roll over the corners uselessly. A Toyota specific filter tool that has slots to accept several 1/4 " ridges is necessary. And for the DIYer, which I am these days, changing the filter requires an additional trip getting out from under the vehicle to clean the housing and replace the insert and O-rings. Of course I am lazy and so I bought an extra filter housing which I will have ready to install next time I service the car but it’s a real pain in the rear and for what purpose?
I think the main reason for the change is environmental impact. I only throw away the filter element.
How difficult is the filter on the RAV4. Ours are extremely easy to replace.
The filter housing looks the same as mine…And its made from Aluminum
https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Toyota-15620-31060-Filter-Assembly/dp/B008BHP68A
I didn’t worry about an oil filter wrench for my first car which was a 1947 Pontiac. It didn’t have an oil filter. Changing oil was simple as there was no filter to worry about. Unfortunately, there were about a zillion zerk fittings that needed to be lubricated. Also, the generator and starter motor had to be oiled. That.old Pontiac didn’t require detergent oil. The dirt just settled to the bottom of the oil pan. The dirt particles weren’t forced through the bearings as it is when detergent oil is used. I think the real reason for detergent oil was so that an oil filter would.be required and it was envisioned by the. inventor that there would be.a board like this so we.could.discuss oil filter wrenches and debate the quality of Fram filters.
I bought the metal piece @Mike. It was cheaper than the plastic.
My 2012 Camry used a plastic housing, the same year Veznia uses an otherwise identical aluminum housing. I despise this system. I remember when the spin on filters came out. They were much more expensive that the cartridges that came before and the reason given was they replaced the housing and cartridge. The factory Toyota filter is actually cheaper that most of the aftermarket ones at Walmart or the parts stores but still more than the spin ones.
Am I the only one who doesn’t bother removing and replacing the small o-ring.?
The plastic housing bottoms and won’t move further when I spin it on by hand long before it reaches the torque specified, so I don’t see any reason to use a torque wrench.
I can think of many reasons why a cartridge is preferred over a spin-on. Big picture, less manufacturing and shipping. The paper element is easier to produce and weighs a lot less to ship. There is no metal to be sourced and fabricated, no threads to get buggered up and cause problems on installation.
In the shop, I see 2 55 gallon drums of used oil filters that need to be carted off. The paper ones drain a lot easier and crumple up. Less waste in the landfill, less waste and cost for the shop. No more poking holes in filters and letting them drain overnight before throwing them in the dumpster or paying for disposal.
I find the argument of cost to be negligible unless you’re managing a fleet or running a shop.
But the filter element by itself, minus the metal shell, drainback valve, etc. SHOULD cost less than a spin-on filter
There’s only one likely explanation, IMO . . . greed
I work more and spend more to give the filter industry a greater profit… My dreams are now fulfilled.
I grew up serevicing engines with canister filters and when spin on filters came into use I was proud to pay double the price for the convenience. I still have a couple of spin on adapters for small block Chevys. Now, 50 years later Toyota reverts to using the cartridge and the price doubles again. What a CROCK.
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I don’t find it troublesome. It’s still a very easy oil change. Lot easier then meme wife’s 4cylinder Accords or ny 98 Pathfinder.
I’m not trying to fan the flames or anything here @Rod_Knox, but Chevrolet reverted to cartridge filters 15+ years ago, long before Toyota did. All the Ecotec engines (the replacement for the lovely Quad 4) use a cartridge filter. All the Cavaliers, Cobalts, Malibus and Equinoxes with 4 cyls, heck, just about anything GM with a 4 cylinder, uses a paper element. And yes, it requires a special socket.
I’m still in the business so my price experience is wholesale and not what retail stores charge, but if the cost difference between a paper element and a screw-on for most cars is more than a buck I’d be surprised.
There is only one filter cap wrench needed for all 4 sizes of Toyota’s replaceable element filters during the last 11 years, nothing new. If Toyota had not changed to replaceable element filters while other manufactures had, some would feel that Toyota is environmentally unfriendly or negligent.
Toyota’s common spin-on filters and replaceable element filters have the same MSRP, $5.41.
The retail price is very similar. But I’ll bet anything the manufacturing cost is significantly cheaper then the canister filters. So profit margins have probably increased significantly.
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Aircraft oil filters DO have torque specs printed on the sides of them. At least the Champion CH48110’s that I use on the engines of my Piper Seneca do.
I was in fact, changing the oil in my Seneca’s engines one day in September of 2000, at Barnes Airport in Westfield, MA. There was a small airshow going on at the time. Some older gentleman came up to me and started talking to me, about how I was doing my oil change. I found him to be annoying, and was about to safety wire the oil filters in place. He asked me"you did use a torque wrench on those, right?" Just as I was about to tell him to get lost, he showed me his ID card from the Bradley FAA Flight Standards office, and said “I’m with these people”. I pointed to my torque wrench in my tool bag. He smiled and left.
I’m getting old @asemaster and long ago all my rough edges got smoothed and polished in the hard knocks of making a living. It seems that opinions vary on most issues even something as inconsequential as automotive oil filters and I think we can have some fun bickering over the subject without getting disturbed. I might guess that you’ve seen your share of hard knocks. Adults can disagree without being disagreeable. And I don’t take comments personally.
And as for those filter elements. We can see just what we’re paying for and possibly see what is being trapped with those. But I don’t have a lift anymore and getting up and down from a creeper is getting difficult. As I mentioned up there somewhere I bought a replacement filter housing for the Rav-4 to eliminate one round trip under the car. I can have a freshly cleaned and loaded housing handy when I pull the old one off.
Maybe, maybe not.
I field this same basic question on a fairly frequent basis-
You guys changed the design to reduce costs, why haven’t we realized the increased profit yet?
- We’re still trying to recover our investment in tooling, set up charges etc. Those are amortized across several years at least.
B. We have not yet hit the volume number that realizes those full cost improvements.
III. I do not dictate price. Our sales group is exercising their right to charge what the market will bear versus just getting marginal/reasonable profits. The latter will occur later when we have critical mass in volume and the aftermarket catches up…forcing us to be more competitive on price.
Another problem with the apples-apples comparison is that the spin on filter market will be decreasing as the element business ramps up. Less volume = greater cost. They will start to creep up in cost as their numbers decline. But, since all the development, tooling and capital costs have long since been recovered, it can devolve into a race to the basement for the survivors…At the same time, the newer technology may see adjusted costs declining as they become the prevailing technology but no change or even increasing in price due to inflation…