Corolla cross. Oil cap almost loose.

[Søren Hansen]

Hi all. 

This morning I was checking the oil on our corolla cross. And as an old habbit from earlier cars, I checked the inside of the oil filler cap for condensation/mayo after winter All was good. 

What I did notice though was that the cap was almost loose. Like it was hardly tightened at all from the factory, and certainly not as much as I would tighten it. 

That makes me wonder. Are the treads in the plastic valve cover and cap too delicate to handle normal finger torque? 

Have a nice day. 

Søren 

 

 

[Cyker]

That's kinda funny, as I had the opposite problem on my Mk2 and Mk4 Yarisesieieuesiees - Even if I tightened the filler cap to just be snug, it's difficult to unscrew later. If I tighten it properly, it becomes almost impossible to remove afterwards! I had to use some molegrips to turn it once!!

 

[Søren Hansen]

2 minutes ago, Cyker said:

That's kinda funny, as I had the opposite problem on my Mk2 and Mk4 Yarisesieieuesiees - Even if I tightened the filler cap to just be snug, it's difficult to unscrew later. If I tighten it properly, it becomes almost impossible to remove afterwards! I had to use some molegrips to turn it once!!

 

Yeah... Quote opposite.

Was your Yaris also with plastik valve cover? 

[Cyker]

Hmm, good question! I think it's metal...

 

[TonyHSD]

Yaris and all Toyotas since 2016 has plastic valve covers 

[Søren Hansen]

38 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Yaris and all Toyotas since 2016 has plastic valve covers 

Thanks. Any known problems with weak filler holes or caps? 

[Rhymes with Paris]

I think that the plastic impellers in BMW water pumps failed on regular basis.

Spewing plastic debris into the cooling system, and destroying it.

Am I thinking right that metal is a better material in engine components than plastic.

 

 

[dannyboy413]

31 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Am I thinking right that metal is a better material in engine components than plastic.

 

 

Where on earth did you get that idea from? 😁

[AisinW]

I have good and bad experience with plastic parts.  Plastic cap is great, they almost never stuck unless we tight it too much.  Plastic valve cover are also find since 1996 Nissan Sentra I used to owned.   I use my finger tip strength for oil cap and it prevent the rubber seals gets flatten.  Plastic oil filter catridge system are also fine, they never fail until some fools tighten it with Hulk strenght instead of hand tight. 

There are few plastic and rubber parts that can be cathastropic especielly on V6 2GR engines:  

1. The plastic pipe right after thermostat out of sudden can have a hole and spew all the coolant when driving in motorway at 70mph. Fortunately I noticed it because the AC suddenly stop and the temperature gauge went down, now water, sensor cannot read the temp.  It takes about 10 years/150k miles before it cracked/broken and I found more than 4 cases from people I know. 

2. rubber hose on the oil cooling lines, they burst out of sudden and destroy perfectly running engine in instant. Toyota revised it with all metals but funny enough only on  newer model although these metal lines also fit and fix the older 2GR engines. 

What I found, Toyota, Honda, Nissan engine plastic parts are fine but not in  most of German cars. 

[TonyHSD]

The plastic oil caps on Toyota cars are tricky. If you tighten up too much you won’t be able to undo on hot engine to add oil if you need. Also if you tighten with gloves on them you need gloves to undo, otherwise it will be very difficult. I had to use pliers over a cloth to undo few times., not to mention plastic oil filter cartridge cap, these are omg once incompetent mechanic touches the car. 

[Rhymes with Paris]

Mechanics eh , they know not what they do.