2004 Toyota Sienna oil change

Where are the key parts located?

Oil cap and dipstick:

The red arrow points to the oil cap and the yellow arrow points to the oil dipstick.

Enginer oil drain plug:

That is located at the bottom of the engine block, marked up with a red arrow. For your reference the tire you can see in the background is the left front tire.

Oil filter:

It is very difficult to see it from above. The oil filter is located right underneath the metal cover, in the direction, where the red arrow points to.

A very interesting and positive design implementation from Toyota is the plastic cover, that supposed to collect the dripping oil when you remove the oil filter. This black plastic part (see red arrow) is right under the oil filter - top view:

Looking at the same location but from underneath the vehicle:

green arrow: vent on the front of the vehicle

blue arrow: the metal cover that was hiding the oil filter looking from the top (see picture for oil filter location above)

red arrow: the oil filter

yellow arrow: oil filter drain

Tools you will need:

- 14mm wrench to loosen the drain plug

- Oil pan

- Paper towel

- maybe an oil filter wrench => I do not have any recommendation as in my case there was no need for any tool to loosen the oil filter.

- oil funnel => to avoid oil getting all over the engine block... :-))))

- you might need to raise your vehicle, but in my case it was not necessary. I could reach the drain plug very well, so no need to raise the vehicle. One step less :-)))

Parts:

- 5 quarts of 5W-30 => probably you will not need to use all the 5 quarts. In my case, I chose synthetic oil. Bit more expensive, but best for the engine.

- oil filter => I chose from the FRAM catalog in the store. I have picked the one for extended lifetime as using synthetic oil, I will not plan on replacing the oil in every 3000 miles, but only at every 5000 miles.

Here are the steps, how I changed the engine oil:

1. Locate all the key parts you will have to work with (see the pictures above for reference)

2. Prepare all the tools you will need as well as oil and oil filter

3. Start the engine for a short time, until it warms up and warms up the engine oil as well => Be careful with any parts as well as with the oil itself as things might get very HOT!!! Always act very carfully!!!

4. Place the oil pan underneath the oil drain plug => I try to position the drain plug to be above the middle of the oil pan

5. Remove the drain plug with the 14mm wrench => you have to turn it counter-clockwise!!!

6. Wait until most of the oil is out and the used engine only is only dripping

7. Move the oil pan as much as to cover the area underneath the oil filter => make sure that it will still capture the dripping oil from the oil tank

8. Loosen the oil filter => you have to turn it counter-clockwise!!! Despite it is difficult to see from above, there is a fairly easy access to it. Be careful, as the metal cover above the oil filter is going to be HOT!!!

9. Slowly remove the oil filter => slowly is very important, to let the oil drain while you are slowly removing the filter.

10. Clean the parts: remove any smudges from the oil cap, clean the drain plug as well as the location where you removed the oil filter from.

When you clean the drain plug, please make sure not to loose the sealing ring!!! The below picture is from another vehicle, but still perfect for reference, the ring is marked up with a red arrow:

11. Put the oil drain plug back in place => you have to turn it clockwise!!! First tighten it by hand, then use the 14mm wrench to tighten it a little bit more (in general a 3/4 turn with the wrench is sufficient).

12. Have the oil filter ready for installation: put some of the new engine oil onto the rubber sealing of the oil filter. I missed to take a picture of this step, but found on the internet an excellent picture showing this step (source is http://www.renault4.co.uk/technical/oil-filter.jpg):

13. Put the oil filter back in place => you have to turn it clockwise!!! First the oil filter will go in very easy. Once it stops, tighten it by turning another 3/4 turn, to make sure it is tightened properly.

This is where the oil filter will have to go (bottom view of the engine block, marked up with red arrow):

14. Remove the oil cap and through the oil funnel, start pouring the new engine oil. => I usually pour 3/4 of the amount defined in the vehicle manual and then I wait for a short time, before I check with the dipstick.

BE CAREFUL, YOU DO NOT WANT TO OVERFILL, therefore check the oil level with the dipstick frequently.

15. When the oil level is reaching at least the minimum, I start the engine for a few seconds, to make sure the oil will get everywhere inside the engine. It is normal that after the first startup of your engine it will take 1-2 seconds, until the oil pressure will get back to normal.

16. Check the oil level again and adjust add oil as needed. I always fill up until the middle point between the minimum and maximum mark on the dipstick.

Once you are done with the above steps, your oil change process is still not 100% completed!

- Please make sure you clean up any spots you might have left on the floor/ground.

- Please always recycle the used engine oil, protect your environment!!! Usually stores, where you purchased your new engine oil will take in the used one for free. Wal-Mart, Autozone, Advanced Auto Parts are all taking used engine oil.

I hope this description will help you through the engine oil change and you will also realize how easy it is. :-)

Good luck and please let me know in case you think any improvement is needed in this description.

Preparation for an oil change

Before you would "pull the plug", always make sure, that you have available everything you need. Here are a few points, kind of as a self-made checklist to minimize the chances for any glithces during the process:

1. Check the manual of the car for the type and the amount of oil you will need. In case the manual is not available, check on the internet, I am sure you will find this information very quickly. In case of some vehicles, the type of the oil is also printed on the oil cap. See below an example from a 2004 Toyota Sienna: the oil type (5W-30) printed on the cap

2. Check the manual of the car for the type of oil filter you will have to use on your vehicle. If you do not have a manual available, in the stores where you can purchase an oil filter there will be catalogs where you can look up the part number that fits for your vehicle.

3. You will need an oil pan to capture all the used engine oil. Make sure to confirm that the capacity of the oil pan will be sufficient to capture all the used engine oil.

4. Confirm the location of the key parts. It would be very bad if you would start looking for parts in the middle of the process.

The key parts are:

- drain plug (located somewhere at the bottom of the engine block => this is where you let the used engine oil out)

- oil cap (located somewhere on the top of the engine block => this is where you have to add the oil to the engine)

- oil dipstick (located somewhere on the side of the engine block => this is what you use to determine how much oil your engine has)

- oil filter (located somewhere on the side of the engine block => this is a part you will have to replace)

5. Make sure you have all the necessary and proper tools. Be careful, different vehicles might require different size of wrench or other type of tools. Also in most of the cases it should be possible to loosen the oil filter by hand, but in some cases you might have to use a tool. I remember when a friend of mine purchased a Honda CRV, we end up struggling a lot to loosen the oil filter and the first tool we have purchased could not fit to the small area where the filter was located, so we end up purchasing another one. Learn from our mistake. :-) For reference, please see pictures of two completely different oil filter wrenches (took the pictures from www.autozone.com), so that is why it is important to locate all the parts you will have to work with.

6. If your hands are sensitive, make sure you have gloves available as this process can make your hands very dirty.

7. Purchase some automotive paper towel. Believe me, it worth it and will help you much more than the regular paper towel you would use in the kitchen. Paper towel is also very handy to keep your work area clean as well as the parts you work with.

How this blog started

Not that it is important, but I thought I type a few words about the moment when I decided to create this blog.

I am not a huge fan of dealerships, therefore when we got our family van, a 2004 Toyota Sienna, I found a repair shop very close to our house, where the owner Dave was a really nice guy and really knew what he was doing. I hate, that in the dealerships, you are not allowed to stand next to your vehicle, while they are working on it, you cannot ask questions what and why happened and in general I just do not trust dealerships. At Dave's shop everything was different: we could go and check what he was doing, he was very open showing what part was wrong, if needed, he spent time explaining why it was causing problem, how to prevent it in the future. Everything went very well. He has done larger repairs and even simple things like regular oil change. We have never had his cell phone number as his shop was really close, that is how it has happened, that one day we wanted to ask for an appointment and recognized, that his shop is closed and the garage is up for lease. Since we could not find him and the next oil change was due within a few hundred miles, we end up trying to find an alternative solution.

As I have been doing the oil change myself on my old 1994 Ford Explorer, I thought it cannot be that difficult to do it on the Sienna. Of course as with everyting else, first I was searching on the internet for reference information, pictures, descriptions. I told you, I am not that familiar with these things so I need every help I can use. Then I could not find too much information and when I have found a page, where someone put together and answer for exactly the same question that I had ("How do you change the oil in 2004 Toyota Sienna?"), I thought I could do better than this...

For your reference, I include a screenshot of that description (the source is from http://wiki.answers.com):

It is an average, generic overview of the oil change process, but for people like me, who has never done it on that particular vehicle and was looking for the location of parts, did not offer any help.

Then I have started to check carefully everything with a friend of mine and took care of the oil change. As expected, not big of a deal, as soon as you know what to do.

I told you this story is not that important. :-)))

I wish I would have taken pictures of replacing the front brakes or the shock absorbers on the Explorer! As much as I was scared to death, now as I know what to look for, both are easy. The key is: in case you know what you have to do with which parts... :-)

In case you have any recommendations, comments, description you have created and want me to add here, please send me a message to diy.repair@gmail.com.

Good luck and never give up learning new things! :-)))

Disclaimer

Just to make sure that we are all on the same page:

These descriptions have been prepared with a good intention, but in case you decide to use this information, you will use it at your own risk. Anything might go wrong or would void any warranty on your vehicle is your own responsibility.

Good luck! :-)