2013 4Runner oil leak

Unfortunately, this is true.

Poor choice of aftermarket parts poorly executed.

 

No sweat...I didn't take it as an insult. My hide is to thick to get insulted after 20 plus years in the Corps. I was just trying to make the point that this was the dealer's most recent oil change of several. What upset me more than anything else is the service manager trying to tell me I was using the wrong tools. I made sure I was using 6 pt sockets vs 12 pt. All the turkey had to say was "sorry" I'll talk to my guys.

 

That's the Dorman China one

 

FYI:

 

Pardon my ignorance(newbie).
That metal one was made by Toyota. I thought the only OEM version was plastic.
From this thread, I got that the consensus was to stick with the plastic one.
Are you saying to go with the metal one?

 

Gotcha. I personally skipped all of the "free" Toyotacare visits, and paid a independent shop if needed. Free isn't free when you get damaged components from such a simple task.

 

Stick with the plastic one. The metal one I have is from another Toyota model, thats why you gotta sway spring and tube. You basically move the stuff from the plastic one over to the new metal one.

I have two trucks. One is metal can the other is original plastic can. Save yourself any hassle, especially if your gonna do the oil change yourself, I do not think the metal one has any advantages other than being harder to damage from some retard entry level tech beating on your truck during an oil change.

If anybody can tell me why my metal one is better than my other 4 runner with a plastic one let me know. Ive had the metal one on for maybe 5 years. Its an upgrade that realistically.. serves little value.

But it looks nice!

 

Agree. It’s not so much that the Toyota metal one is bad, rather that it’s not the specified part for the 4runner, and it requires donor parts (tube and spring assembly) from the correct 4runner filter. It’s hard to really know if swapping those things over will affect the oil bypass function.

 

We are going with the plastic OEM. The wife is on her way to the dealer. She travels alot for work, so she was within an hour of a dealer.

 

Yes ->>> Toyota

$55 Genuine OEM Toyota New Oil Filter Housing Cap + Plug 15620-31060 15643-31050

15620-31060

The ones that come on our 4Runners are plastic. The Aluminum one is a Toyota replacement that fits the 4Runners but with the shorter tube that must be replaced with the one that comes on the plastic canisters. (IIRC the aluminum ones are fitment for some camrys, hence the shorter tube. The can is the same, just a shorter tube.).

There are other threads discussing this question.

I have an older tech that has serviced my 2014 & now my 2021, he informed me that the plastic ones are prone to cracking if dropped or the side ears will break off. He said the aluminum one is definitely an upgrade over the plastic.
you make your own choice on this one. I use the OEM Toyota 15620-31060 and changed my tube over.
I have not had any issues.

 

The aluminum and the plastic cans specs are the same with the exception of the material used to manufacture them. The tube and oil bypass function are not affected when moving it from the plastic over to the aluminum can.

 

OP, did you purchase this 4Runner from a dealership and did they do the last oil change?

If those 2 answers are yes, then you should be having a conversation of your findings!

 

Seeing as how the OP didn't have the center tube in his, he was going to have to buy a composite canister anyway, even if he wanted metal, just to get the center piece. Might as well get some use out of the composite one.

But @Saker is right - if the dealer he purchased the 4R from did the last oil change, they should be the ones paying for the replacement.

 

Read this thread regarding the metal cans....


Genuine OEM Metal Oil Filter Housing Upgrade
https://trail4runner.com/2019/04/17/genuine-oem-toyota-metal-oil-filter-with-motivx-tools-wrench/

 

Yes, this is a fact.
The center tube doesn't have a part # !

 

Yep, you hit the nail on the head...too bad you weren't around here to hit me upside the head. Now I have a stripped bolt on my skid plate. Plus I use Mobil one on all my vehicles, Toyota dealerships use a blend. I was tempted to change the filter housing but the cheapest I could find one at any Toyota dealership was $134 plus some change. Interesting how much the prices change from dealership to dealership. I think the high was $236 + all the way down to the $134. Notice below the metal is $34.97. The engineering reports I've read from Toyota do not recommend the metal. I even called the dealerships where our children live.
I can vouch the plastic housing can take a lot of abuse. You would not believe how much pressure I had to use to loosen that housing. With the breaker bar I had to brace my foot and pull like a banshee. Lucky my wife was around so I tempered my language. Just realized I haven't tried Rock Auto.

 

Can you point me to the engineering reports you speak of.
I would like to read those.
More data is good data!

 

Yes and yes.

Absolutely.

 

Service manager is the first place I would start or customer relations manager.
Bring photos.

 

But the metal housing is a OEM P/N. I too would like to read that engineering report too.

 

Have been dealing with this since my 2007 Tundra, No issue changing it every 7500 miles so I was not surprised to see this joker on the 4 Runner when swapping out the drain plug and filter after the first 3500 miles. Just take your time and don't let it slip, configure your O_rings and you will be golden.

 

What is the purpose of that metal clip on the canister?

 

A"locking" clip anti rotation

 

Uh oh!!!

 

I watched an installation video by "The Car Care Nut", and his canister didn't have one. I took it off to install the canister. Should I reinstall it?

 

It's you're choice.

 

Is it ok to drive for a day without the skid plate? I want to make sure there's no leak.

 

Sure as long as you don't run over anything that would get kicked up to do any damage to what it protects.

 

Morning Saker,
Like you I was thinking of buying a metal housing after prying my plastic one off. I started by googling which metal housing is the best and ran into two or three comments from Toyota engineers, or so they claimed, that presented a negative view of the metal housing for a 4 runner and 4 runner only. The metal housing has a baffle that is longer than the 4 runner plastic baffle. So one has to remove and replace the shorter baffle from the plastic housing and put it in the metal unit. According to these guys that's a problem since the baffle is no longer fully secured. One comment stated that once the baffle on the plastic housing comes loose the housing needs to be replaced. One of them stated that the plastic housing was the one intended for the 4 runner. I guess, according to them, that the metal housing was designed for some other Toyota. Sorry I cannot find which site or forum I found this info. Again I just went to google and started reading as much as I could about metal vs plastic filter housing covers for Toyota. A lot of the information was not in the original post but once I scrolled down to comments and reviews from different readers. After much reading I decided to still with the stock housing that came with the 4 runner. I was considering changing mine and really thought the metal one would be a better option. One of my mech buddies told me if that was the better option Toyota would have used that one since it's cheaper. I'm still not sure but I'll stick to the one that came with the Yota. If someone out there has found a source for a Toyota plastic housing that is reasonably priced let me know. Also if you find the comments/reviews I'm talking about please post them since I believe there are more people that would find the information very helpful.
You guys have a grreat weekend.

 

The Car care nuts on Utube talk about filter housing, and specifically said to not screw with the tube, if loose replace the housing and do not try to fix it. So removing the tube to swap it into a new housing fit right in that category IMO. I was afraid like many people to find out the housing made of plastic instead of metal after reading on WWW! I was OMG hurry up to find a metal one! If the plastic housing was so crappy and creating issues, Toyota would have installed a metal one long time ago already. The main problem with broken housing is coming from people not using proper tools and procedures.

I just replaced the engine oil/filter on my nephew car, an old crappy mazda 3 2004?? with +250000 km, still has OG plastic housing…..