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How hard is it to change the oil in a 2016 Camry LE ?

6K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  smcgill 
#1 ·
I looked @ the beginning on DIY oil change but the link didn't work for me.
So the question : how hard is it to chang the oil and filter?
What synthetic oil is being used these days ?
Thanks for your help.
 
#3 ·


Use any brand 0w-20 synthetic oil. The oil change interval is 10k miles. Toyota OEM oil is very, very good and can protect your car easily for 10k miles. Others use Mobil 1, Pennzoil Platinum, Valvoline, etc. This vehicle is easy on oil and yes you can go 10k miles without any long term issues. The oil filter is a canister style and it works just fine.

Good luck.
 
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#5 ·
It's like any other oil change except removing the oil filter housing to change the cartridge can be very difficult because I suspect heat and removable plastic do do not go well together... or you can blame Toyota like everyone else... ?‍♀
 
#6 ·
Depends on what you mean by "difficult". It's POC for any decent DIY guy but for lay hands, it might be a challenge.
You will need ramps, or jackstands, jack to jack the car, absolutely have special housing removal tool, wrench to use with it, possibly even a cheat pipe or breaker bar, as those housings tend to be very hard to remove. Drain pan. Rags. That's about it. You will have hardest time ever trying to remove housing without that tool. Center cap in the housing is not for housing removal, it's simple drain plug for oil in filter housing drain.
For me, it's 2 out of 10 difficulty. Though I have seen posts of folks taking hrs to remove that housing.
 
#8 ·
Its very easy to change the oil if you have the tools.... oil filter wrench, quality socket set, ramps, and above all, the not so common common-sense

I would use ANY full synthetic oil and ANY full synthetic oil filter in the grade recommended by the manufacturer, or one grade thicker for higher mileage motors, motors that burn oil, or for hotter climate areas.
 
#9 ·
No problems changing oil. I used the OEM Toyota filter from Rockauto. It comes with new orings and the tool to drain the oil filter. I use Walmart 0w20 synthetic.

I bought a filter french from Amazon. It was a real ^(&#&%$ to get the filter housing off. I had to use a breaker bar on the filter wrench. When I re-installed it, I put silicon on the oring instead of oil, and snugged it up. Careful with the oring, its easy to get it in the wrong groove.


..
 
#10 ·
I take the Oil Canister off without taking off the canister drain plug. ALSO, when you tighten the Oil Canister back on,,, don't over tighten, it will snug up in an instant stop there. After a day of driving, go under and check it's tightness along with the oil drain bolt as well . Have fun.
 
#11 ·
The canister seems to come off easily with a long wrench, but then there is that puny 3/8" drive square opening built into most of these tools that probably confuses people who might think that a regular 3/8" ratchet is plenty long to allow easy removal.
First time I tried it I used a longer 1/2" breaker bar with 4" extension going into a 27mm socket. I was worried that a 3/8" square drive might crack or strip the canister tool's drive lug since it is only aluminum!
The longer handle and 27mm socket work beautifully, easily.
The tool is quite tight-fitting on the housing, so one should make sure that the tool is fully engaging the flats and the canister side lugs into the slots in the tool before applying torque. One mechanic relative told me that he had one come into his shop for an oil change with the tool still stuck on the housing from it's last oil change.
I found sludge (looked like a layer of brown paint) in the housing even though my car never went over 7.5k on an oil change. The sludge actually resisted brake cleaner, didn't dissolve readily. My oil changes using synthetic oil will be at ~5k every October from now on. This was a low-mileage Camry LE used-car purchase which may have seen frequent short trips on it's last oil change. It also sat unused for several months on one occasion just before I bought it, though it's records show change intervals were at 5k or less except for the last 7.5k interval that I changed out from last month (and which was my first oil change on this car).

One more thing was that when I pulled the full canister off, the filter element momentarily stuck to the block, so then dropped a couple of inches into the full canister and splashed oil. So this would make one good argument for draining it first.
 
#12 ·
One secret of getting the oil drain plug secure without heavily torquing it is to push at the head of the wrench as you pull on the handle. This produces a pure torque with no side-loading along the threads (which might not settle the threads under tension as well as pure torque). Longer wrenches tend to do the same thing btw.
Also, when applying torque, allow an extra couple of seconds for the bolt to settle fully (wait for it to positively stop turning instead of applying excessive torque that damages the threads).
The housing as well should be tightened using two hands, and given a few seconds for the threads and polymer seating surfaces to settle fully.
But as KableXL says, keep the torque to a quite-modest level, since unlike with a gasket or crush washer, the canister O-ring doesn't rely on tightening torque at all to produce it's full sealing effect. And these plastic canisters are not known for coming loose on their own.

Also, speaking of drain plug sealing washers, I always re-use them, but first I clean the threads of oil and apply grease to the threads which effectively prevents any oil seepage past the old washer.
 
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