Anyone do an oil change on a '09 V6 Toyota Rav4?

[StevieC]

Hey Everyone: My friends from Kentucky have purchased an '09 Toyota Rav 4 with the V6 and they are due for their first oil change so I offered to do it for them as a good BITOG-er. It seems that it has a cartridge style filter off the oil pan. So I went to Toyota and bought the filter element which came with a plastic nozzle drain thingy and 2 o-rings. I also bought 5w20 M1 to put in it, because I have nothing else quickly available in a 4 - 5 Litre jug at a good price. So my questions are this and I'm hoping you can help: 1) How easy/hard is it to do one of these Toyota cartridge filters on this engine. 2) Anything special I should know or think of for the first time? 3) Thoughts on Oil choice for this engine (No M1 bashing please) 4) How many litres/quarts does this engine take? (I know I can look in the manual, but in case anyone already knows) 5) Anything else you can offer. Thanks everyone!

 

[Quattro Pete]

Can't help you with the other stuff, but the oil capacity is 6.5 quarts.

 

[daman]

 Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Can't help you with the other stuff, but...

Same here Steve but good choice on oil.

 

[simple_gifts]

Wow, I'm surprised with 4600+ posts in 9 months, you don't already know the answer. What do your coworkers @ Quiznos think? 8)

 

[StevieC]

 Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Can't help you with the other stuff, but the oil capacity is 6.5 quarts.

Guess I have to go buy another litre of oil then. 6.5 Quarts = 6.1 Litres and I purchased a 5 Litre jug. That's a pretty big sump for such a small looking V6

 

[StevieC]

 Originally Posted By: simple_gifts

Wow, I'm surprised with 4600+ posts in 9 months, you don't already know the answer. What do your coworkers @ Quiznos think? 8)

I don't work for Quiznos... Is there something wrong with enjoying posting here as a hobby? Am I somehow offensive? Furthermore I'm not familiar with later Toyota engines and being a $30K SUV I don't want to botch anything up for my friends that will have a 900KM (562 Mile) drive ahead of them in a weeks time. I'm sure it's like any regular oil change but I'm looking for any experiences people might have because I don't rush into things like you rush into postings that really don't need to be posted.

 

[daman]

If he knew the answer he wouldn't be asking..,anyway whats manual say for the first change steve and about using a syn.?

 

[StevieC]

I don't have the manual here, they left it in Kentucky. They were told by the dealer that the first OC was due at 5K Miles and they are just under that now. I checked with Toyota here on the Synthetic and they said it's ok to do at this mileage as long as it's SM rates or higher and the 5w20 M1 says it's SM/ILSAC GF-4. Plus I know M1 is a very good oil from the postings here and from personal experience so I feel more than confident putting it in for them. The oil that's in there now is FF and has been in there for quite some time as the truck was built in December and they bought it in February and it's now the end of May. It's also quite dark on the dipstick (I know this isn't scientific). I think this M1 will clean things up after the break in and the older dino being in there for this long and will do nicely with the highway drive back which will be 9 hours.

 

[Quattro Pete]

By the way, Mobil1 website seems to recommend 5w-30 for this engine.

 

[daman]

 Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

By the way, Mobil1 website seems to recommend 5w-30 for this engine.

Really?, steve?

 

[ekpolk]

My wife's Avalon, which is a very nice car in almost all ways, has the same engine, and same oil filter setup. The fly in this car's ointment is that downright evil oil filter setup. I will address your questions in order.

 Quote:

1) How easy/hard is it to do one of these Toyota cartridge filters on this engine.

It's not, it's a total PITA. There are TWO openings, not one, potintially doubling the opportunity for leaks. There's a little cap on the end of the housing you must undo, which allows access to a little port that you plug a little spigot affair into. It pre-drains the housing for clean removal. The spigot is the white thing that comes in the filter element box. Then you open the main housing to switch filter elements. Putting the whole thing back together requires that you carefully install two floppy o-rings, and apply different torque for the housing and cap. Don't even think about going to an Iffy-Boob. As of our last change, the little cap wouldn't come off at all. I just loosened the main housing, like any other filter, and removed it into a plastic bag.

 Quote:

2) Anything special I should know or think of for the first time?

Oh yeah -- be careful of handling the housing the first time. It's nice cast aluminum, but the first time, I found it had burrs on it, and ended up with a painful metal splinter. After rubbing it down with a piece of leather, it seems burr free now, but I'd still just wear gloves to be safe and comfortable.

 Quote:

3) Thoughts on Oil choice for this engine (No M1 bashing please)

I've used GC and now, PP 5w-20, but alas no UOA yet. On a subjective level, no discernable differences. Both sounded great, no bad noises on start, etc. Our engine seemed to darken both pretty quickly. The one noticeable difference: mileage. Per the computer, the car is doing 2-3 mpgs better on the 20 wt than it did on the much heavier GC. No real surprise there, I suppose.

 Quote:

4) How many litres/quarts does this engine take? (I know I can look in the manual, but in case anyone already knows)

As already stated, it is a 6.5 qt fill.

 Quote:

5) Anything else you can offer.

Yes. Somewhere on the internet, before we owned a 2GR-powered car and I cared about it, I saw someone selling a conversion kit to allow the use of a normal, disposable spin-on filter. But I can't find it now. I'm looking for one, and urge you to do so also. If you find it, pleeeease let me know.

 

[StevieC]

Thanks ekpolk for the good information... This is exactly what I was looking for. My dad is a retired mechanic and I will be passing on your information to him and let him do it. I have a torque wrench and the specifications for torquing down the housing and the end cap are on the filter box. I thought it might be a PITA but I just couldn't fathom them driving back on factory fill that is 5 months old and is due in a couple hundred miles for a change. As for the 5w20/5w30 thing, the dealership told me this engine is setup for 5w20 oil so that's what I bought... I asked about a 30wt because I have lots of it and was told it's highly recommended that I use the 20wt. Being in warranty and not my own vehicle I wasn't going to argue. I will check on Amsoil.com and see what the spec is for this engine.

 

[daman]

yea just stick with the M1 5w20 then and call er a day..

 

[StevieC]

Daman... Thanks for pointing this out. On Amsoil.com it calls for a 30wt oil so I will keep the M1 to use in my Santa Fe for the winter and put in some Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 I have or some Amsoil XL-7500 which is API Certified. As for future changes on this vehicle, my friends are the type to take it to Toyota for everything as they do know with their Corrola. They have a very good dealership they deal with that has kept their Corolla on the road for over 200K Miles and still going strong. It was just the timing of them being up here and needing an oil change. I talked them into using synthetic as they have cold winters/hot summers similar to ours and I think this would help keep this engine purring and in very good shape.

 

[daman]

If thats what you want to do but i'd go with the 5w20 in that new tight engine,,but anyway she's protected well.

 

[StevieC]

I would have to go and get another litre of M1 to finish the job, whereas I have multiple 5w30 jugs and litres on hand in my stash so I'm thinking I would just use this since this is what seems to be the right oil. I just called another dealership in Hamilton and they are telling me that the engine is 5w30, so I'm thinking the parts guy at the other dealership is out to lunch.

 

[oilslick44]

Steve, go here. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1223853

 

[daman]

Ahh yes i see,,i would think most all toyota's spec 5w20 now? but i'm a GM man so i don't know about that. the PP will work great too.

 

[StevieC]

I just checked some other engines by Toyota and they call for 5w20, but some call for 5w30. Both on the web and on Amsoil.com match so I'm gonna go with the 5w30 as specified by a google search and amsoil.com

 

[RTexasF]

In addition to what ekpolk pointed out the RAV4 also has a shield beneath the engine that has to be removed before you can do anything. The only reference you will find to 5W20 for the 3.5 V-6 is a TSB from Toyota in 2006. Oddly they do not approve 0W20 which makes no sense. In the owner's manual & on the oil cap it states 5W30 SLnot SM (both of our 08's)!!!! The local dealer where I live says 5W20 is okay but not in the summer!! What a mess this deal is, eh? Keep in mind that the oil has to be changed every six months or 5K miles so depending on driving habits the synth might be a waste of money. I have decided to stick with dino 5W30 every six months which might be 1500-2000 miles for me.