Never have two toyotas in your garage

[lugnuts Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close lugnuts]

This is more about not paying attention when servicing your car. Earlier this week the prado was due for a service and due to our impending holiday decided to do a little more than an oil and filter change. Spending most of the afternoon working on the car and fairly satisfied that all was O.K. started the car and checked for leaks. None apparent, cleaned up and that should have been the end of the story. The next 2 days driving was short local trips. But on the third day had to travel to Coffs Harbour for work. During the trip I could smell what I thought was excess grease from the uni joints being cooked on the exhaust pipe.Thought to myself it'll eventually burn off and that'll be the end of it. Parked the car in the garage after getting home late in the afternoon and for some reason noticed a lot of oil on the garage floor. This is not right where's this coming from. Checked sump plug O.K. Checked tightness of the oil filter and then noticed that the filter looked like it had shrunk. I could clearly see the seal mating surface and thought this doesn't look right. At this point I should inform that we have two toyotas in the garage. One prado 150 and a Rav not quite 12 months old which I perform the services on. It suddenly dawned on me that I have installed the Rav filter in the prado. Checking the shelf in the garage confirmed that I still had a brand new prado filter in the box. Removing the shrunken filter and comparing the right one confirmed the wrong one had been installed. The appearance was similar and the thread seemed to be the same. It looked like oil had been leaking from around the mismated seal. The burning question of how much oil was left in the sump needed answering. Had I run out and ruined the engine? With trepidation I removed the dipstick and was relieved to see oil just below the normal level. Mentally kicking myself for not paying attention with a critical process decided how lucky I was not to have dumped the sump while driving and be stranded somewhere between home and Coffs Harbour. As a payback for my inattentiveness I now have to clean up all the spilt oil on the garage floor and under the car. Dare not tell the minister for war and finance as the holiday trip may have ended in disaster before it even started. I do the servicing myself because I have a problem trusting the dealer to do it properly. What will I do now that I can't even trust myself.
Lignuts

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

Nothing to see here , move along ,move along .

[mackayvx Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close mackayvx]

Wow. Thats lucky man.
I would keep that quiet as well!

[glen_ep Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close glen_ep]

I assumed as long as there's still enough oil you're fine, but as Brendan pointed out, without a correctly fitted filter the oil pressure wouldn't be correct. The incorrect filter may have broken the chain of oil circulation. Any components which are at the top of the engine and first to be supplied the fresh oil may not have been properly lubricated. So there could have been some wear.

If it's running fine now then it's probably okay - you've got away with it, lucky man!!

However as a precaution I'd investigate the engines oil flow design (or even better, talk to an engine re-builder) to determine which components were most likely to be running dry. Perhaps a couple things could be checked or replaced.

[Bushbasher Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Bushbasher]

Remember when every Ford ran an AFL1? K.I.S.S.