Replacing the Oil, Oil Filter, Air Filter and Spark Plug
OIL AND OIL FILTER CHANGE:
I apologize if this has been covered before. I bought a 2006 Toyota Hiace TRH201R Petrol 4 cyl 2.7L 2TR-FE and have had it for about 2 weeks. I wanted to get it serviced by a mechanic. Lube mobile was gonna charge me $244 for a simple oil and oil filter change. If I took it to a mechanic I'll probably end up paying nearly $200 or just over.
So I decided to do it myself. I had a good look under the hiace to locate the oil filter. No use trying to look for it from the top of the engine bay. It's actually quite simple to do. You will need a good set of car ramps or if you have car stands that will do the job too. Once you have the hiace on ramps or stands locate the sump plug. Even though there is a cover under the engine there is a hole for the sump plug. Now to be able to access the oil filter you will need to take the under cover of the sump. There are 6 bolts you have to undo (or 8 I can't really remember). Once you have taken the cover you will be able to see the oil filter.
It's a very tight space but I manage to get a filter wrench (with a handle that swivels) in there and undo the oil filter. Don't take out the oil filter just yet. I normally drain the oil first of a warm engine via the sump plug. After a while, all the oil is drained out (into a bucket of course) and then I take out the oil filter. Make sure you are wearing safety glasses and a long sleeve shirt as you will have a few drops of oil from the oil filter when you undo it.
For the oil filter I decided to use a Ryco (Z418) brand. I normally put a coat of oil on the rubber seal on the new oil filter and then screw it back on. Just tighten the oil filter by hand or if you find it hard getting your hands in there to tighten it, just use the filter wrench and just make sure you don't over tighten it.
For the oil, I used a fully synthetic 5W-30 oil (Nulon). You don't have to use a fully synthetic oil either. That's just my personal preference. You will need at least 6 litres of oil to do the oil change, it will take about just under 5.5 litres of oil with a new oil filter but less than that if you don't use a new oil filter.
REPLACING THE SPARK PLUG:
Replacing the spark plug is very simple. You will need to unplug the cable first as shown in the first photo.
In the second photo you can see the little black box. You will have to undo the bolt so you can gain access to the spark plug. The fourth spark plug is right underneath the plastic air filter hose. So you will need to undo 2 bolts and loosen the hose clamp so you can move the air filter hose to the side to access the fourth spark plug.
Do one spark plug at a time. Meaning unplug the cable and undo the bolt of the black box one at a time. The spark plugs I used are the NGK LFR6AIX-11 (Iridium IX).
AIR FILTER:
This is a simple one as well. The air filter housing can be located just in front of the front right wheel just behind the bumper. There are 3 clips and a wing nut to take the cover of the air filter housing. Once you have taken the cover of the housing you have one more wing nut that holds the air filter in place. Just undo the wing nut and the air filter will drop easily.
