Opening The Oil Filler Cap Of An Iq3

August 29, 2015

For the first 5 years of operation the oil level of my IQ3 has hardly moved off the maximum on the dip stick. This year, after its annual service in December, it has started to go down. It is now half way between min and max when cold (though according to the manual you should check the oil level when warm before topping up and so actually it would be higher when warm). So I am starting to think about topping it up. It may not be necessary this year before its service but at some point in the future it will be necessary. I tried to turn the oil cap anticlockwise and it would not budge. I put on some leather gardening gloves and tried again and it still would not budge! I was not really that surprised. I have exactly the same problem with my wife's car. I think my wrists are just not very strong. I solve the problem with her car with an adjustable spanner and two mending plates to make sure the spanner does not mark the plastic. I attach a photo of my tools. I tried this technique with the IQ3 but it would not work. The mending plates would be fine but the oil filler cap is so deeply in the engine bay that there is no room for the adjustable spanner. Can anyone think of a tool that would solve this problem for me? I attach a photograph of my current tools.

August 30, 2015

Assuming your filler cap looks like the one below I'd suggest you try a mini stopkok key (proper spelling would ne censored) shown in pic 2. You might have to bend in the metal tabs a bit but it should work. Incidentally if you ever fancy changing the oil and filter yourself there's an excellent post on the board under http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/135807-changing-the-oil-in-your-iqsort-of/

August 30, 2015

Stopcock key?

September 1, 2015

Since all you are after is leverage why not fashion one out of wood? It would look like an oversized salad fork with a tine or two missing You would be amazed the strength of wood.

September 1, 2015

I have just got back from a little holiday on the Isle of Wight with my wife. Our IQ3 got us to different bits of the island with its usual efficiency. There was plenty of gear changing on the hilly bits though!

Thank you for your replies. I think they would all work. I am thinking of the stopcock key a lot. This is something I do not have for my house and ought to have. When I go on holiday, as just now, I often switch off the inside stopcock. However what happens if I do this and it starts to drip, I have often wondered, and I have to leave to catch a booked plane (or in this case car ferry)? The idea of the stopcock key made me think of a solution to that - I just need to now how to close the external stop ***** for the house (which I have never touched before) too for this possible scenario. Maybe I could get one tool which would enable me to shut off the external stop ***** and open the oil filler cap? These are all just ideas at the moment I am mulling over.

June 2, 2018

I bought a stopcock key some time ago. It looked a little large so I bought some mending plates too as padding. The oil was full on my slightly sloping drive after the last main dealer service, perhaps even slightly over the full mark. Now after half a year and 3,700 miles it showed halfway between full and low. It may not have stayed above low when it got to its next service. I decided to try and top up the oil to make sure that it stayed safely over low all the time! I had a litre bottle from the Toyota garage. I got back from a long run and put the car in the garage to make sure it was on a level surface (normally my wife's car stays in the garage). I switched off the engine and waited five minutes as per instructions in the owner's guide. I checked the oil level. It still came out as halfway between full and empty just as on my sloping drive when cold! According to the owner's manual you should always check the oil when hot but for some mysterious reason in my case it appeared to make no difference. I had the mending plates on a long string around my neck to make sure I would not drop them in the engine bay. I put three one side of the oil filler cap horizontal bar at the top and three the other. I put the stopcock around them and was able to release the oil filler cap with no problem at all! I put a funnel in and carefully added oil from my litre bottle a bit at a time checking the level on the dipstick each time. After I had used about three quarters of it the level was up to the full mark. I cleaned the funnel and replaced the filler cap. I attach a few pictures.