I hate this hole and door

This is my 12th oil change (oil change interval thread!), 1st with an aftermarket skid plate with the stupid hole and door through the skid.

I can unequivocally say I hate it, and I will just drop the skid each time. Ive never spilled so much oil all over my garage, myself, the top of the skid, my tools, and my ego.

Heck to these access ports

 

It's that last one that ruins it all for you. Remember: Your Ego is not your Amigo!

 

Get this drain tool/hose so that you can drain as much as you can the filter housing before you take it down. That is the only way IMO to try and keep everything spill-free.




My goal everytime is zero harm, zero spills.

 

Have you considered one of the oil change gadgets to help with draining? e.g. Fumoto or Valvomax?

Really made a difference in reducing the mess with my oil changes.

 

What brand of skid is that ? Are you saying there’s not enough access through those openings ?

 

Exactly the reason I have not gone for these after market skids. They might help with added protection but they do not make the process of changing oil any easier.
I have started changing oil roughly every 3 months now. It's not enjoyable but I have gotten it down to about 40 mins start to finish. A lot of cursing and hatred is involved.

 

I like this. Have any more info on it?

Its the Greenlane Offroad skid, which I have nothing but praises as far as protection goes. I had the both front tires off the ground and the skid on a boulder and all that was on it was a scratch.

There is certainly enough room to get tools/hands in and out, but its not fun. Given that there are just as many bolts to drop the entire skid as there is to access the door, I'll just drop the skid next time.

Definitely a risk/reward thing. If I didn't have the armor I would of been stranded a few times with a broken 4Runner.

 

Motivx makes one but this one is half the cost and works perfectly for me

$14 POWERWORKS Oil Filter Drain Tool Release Hose Tube Pipe Fit for Toyota, Lexus, Scion 2.0L - 5.7L Engines with Cartridge Style Filter System

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088LX23ZC

 

Yeah, that works too.

 

What skid brand is that ?

 

Greenlane Offroad. Read above, but again nothing but praises as far as their skid quality/protection goes.

I'm beginning to realize maybe its not the skid's fault, and more of Toyota's design. The skid manufacturers are just trying to compensate for the silliness from Toyota.

 

Operator error maybe ? If you are like me, you would need every little tool and help to get every job done, and done well. My hands shake sometimes and I can't control it and as you bring the damn filter housing thru that small window, you can make a big mess in the process, hence why you end up taking down the skid plate and not splash everywhere.

 

Skids coming off with 4 bolts and it goes directly on top of a sliding car jack.

Roll that out the way, drain the oil, slide that skid back into place and jack it up.

 

I think it’s operator error. My c4 skids make my oil changes a breeze. No oil spills either.

 

^^^This right here . I must be one of the few or the only one on here that finds the stock TRD skid and oil changes a non issue .
I have a 10”square of plywood that I put on the floor jack lift pad and lift it up to just touch the bottom middle of the skid .
Then four bolts and let the jack down a little at a time as the bolts loosen and then roll it out of the way . Just reverse this to reinstall and lift the jack a little at a time as the bolts tighten up .
The jack holds all the weight of the skid. So easy and no cross threaded bolts .

 

Have you tried not taking the filter drain plug out? I used to leave the filter housing all assembled and just stick my arm up there with a plastic grocery bag over my hand, flip the bag over the filter housing as much as possible, then unscrew and let the whole housing glop into the bag which - granted- made a mess of the housing in the bag, but was pretty clean on the skid and the garage floor.

 

These kind of comments crack me up. You might as well say, "You're an idiot unlike me!"

Thanks for the pro tip! I'll try remembering that for next time.

I like that plastic bag idea. I'll definitely try that.

I don't have a stock TRD skid plate.

 

Have you used both? I'm looking at those now. Pretty neat.

 

I have the Valvomax to replace the oil drain plug and the Powerworks filter drain tool from Amazon. Both work great.

My only minor gripe with both of them is that I'd like a little more flexible tubing (easy enough to replace). They both have that hard(er) plastic tubing that can kink when you are twisting, bending it etc.

The beauty of both of them is that I can route the hoses directly into the small hole in my Flotool drain container. I barely get any oil on the canister at all. e.g. no draining the oil into the catch area, waiting for it to drain into the container and then have to wipe off the catch area of all the oil.

 

Awesome Valvomax ordered! I'm pretty excited to never mess with that drain plug again.

 

Now you have to show us so that we can QA/QC your next oil change. Good luck!

 

I do the same. Granted, I have a custom front skid with no filter access.

6 bolts and it's off and out of the way. Easy.