Grossly overtorqued oil filter housing '16 Tacoma

Was helping out my widowed mother today and changed the oil on her 3rd Gen Tacoma.  Dad had stockpiled oil, filter and filter housing removal tool.
As it was not my car, I wanted to do things "by the book" and used a torque wrench to reinstall the plastic/composite filter housing after changing the filter. As I was tightening it, the wrench was not clicking so I kept tightening WAY past the proper torque before I realized that Dad's torque wrench was broken. (it clicks, but all but imperceptibly)  I feel like an idiot- if I had just tightened by feel, it would have been fine, but that stupid wrench made me doubt myself and I kept going beyond all reason. I wouldn't be surprised if the housing was torqued to 50-75 ft lbs. 

       I  sent it... it runs fine, no leaks but I'm worried that the filter housing is going to crack down the road from the stress of the the excess tension+  heating cooling expansion cycles etc. What do you guys think? If it's a bear to remove down the road, that's fine, I'll deal- I just don't want to create a loss-of-oil type event that's my fault. 

Lots of Tacoma dudes upgrade the plastic cup to an aluminum one. You can get them from Amazon and have it on hand for when you next change the oil. Less worries about cracks. 

I'd take the time to undo that. The cost of failure is way too high. 

I would do whatever is needed to loosen and reseat it now.  The plastic ones can swell in place and become even tighter!  You don't want it to be way worse when you go to service it again.  I'd imagine you can loosen it and retorque it with minimal fluid loss right now.  If you wait....   don't wait. 

I'd undo it and see what you're dealing with, and would probably upgrade to an aluminum one.  I've grown to hate torque wrenches because just about every time I've snapped a bolt, I've been using a torque wrench that didn't click.  I finally upgraded my 1/4" and 3/8" torque wrenches away from HF (my 1/2" HF has been solid), and that's improved the situation, but they still make me nervous.  I still feel way more comfortable torquing something with a 1/4" ratchet than a 1/4" torque wrench.  It's way too easy to apply too much torque with the torque wrench.

The Toyota filter housings have little tabs on the side.  Some filter sockets have ears that reach those tabs.  Some people assume that you have to reef the housing into place because the tabs are there.

Many Toyotas get massively overtightened.  I have not seen one crack but I have broken those ears off while trying to remove them!

Snug until bottomed out and a little (LITTLE) extra umph. 

The canister on our '06 Rav4 has a hole on the bottom that accepts a 3/8" extension. I'm guessing that there are techs who use an impact to spin them back on (I do mine by hand). When I've had the dealer do an oil change, I've had instances where it's tough to get the aluminum case off on the next oil change.

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

That is for the drain.  See, in theory, you remove the plug, giving you access to a check valve.  You stick a hose on a plastic widget that you then cram into the check valve, draining the filter before you remove it, so you don't make a mess. (Environmental hazard to have waste oil around not getting recycled)

I tried doing that once, and could not figure out how to get the widget in.  Talked to a friend of mine at a Toyota dealership, asked him how it worked.  He said, absolutely nobody bothers trying to use it.

I got the drain widget which came with the replacement filter to mostly work. Problem is that (at least the way I had it fitted in) you had to apply constant upward pressure to activate the drain  valve, and it's kind of slow to drain. Seems like almost more trouble than it's worth. 

I saw aftermarket drain widgets/hoses which seem like they might work better. Based on appearance they seemed to have threaded ends which could screw in and push up on the valve. That makes a bit more sense but is still kind of fiddly. 

I've got the MotivX filter socket and the drain hose apparatus. They work pretty darn good. 
 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

That is for the drain.  See, in theory, you remove the plug, giving you access to a check valve.  You stick a hose on a plastic widget that you then cram into the check valve, draining the filter before you remove it, so you don't make a mess. (Environmental hazard to have waste oil around not getting recycled)

I tried doing that once, and could not figure out how to get the widget in.  Talked to a friend of mine at a Toyota dealership, asked him how it worked.  He said, absolutely nobody bothers trying to use it.

 

I've probably done about 40 oil changes on mine and it's about 50/50 if I can get the drain widget to work. It almost always ends up cocked to one side and makes a mess. You have to press up simultaneously and evenly on both sides to press it in. I should probably try a deep socket to seat the drain widget, but know it would get oil all over the socket.

My Land Cruiser has the same oil filter cap.  The oil filters come with the plastic widget, it literally just gets pushed up into place.  I attach it to some clear tubing and use that to drain the oil filter housing, it works great.  However I've since changed over to the Jowett Performance oil filter cap that has a fumoto valve in the bottom of it.

I don't know what I was thinking when I posted those pics above. The drain hose is correct but that wasn't the Toyota filter wrench. 
 

let's try that again. 
 

I just changed the oil on my Tacoma yesterday. 
 

The plastic widget can be a little bit of a PITA, but you just need to install it fast and forcefully, and then it works great. Torque spec on the small center plug is 12Nm +/-3, (I never bothered to convert it), which is just past finger tight. 

The big plastic cap is marked 25 ft-lbs. Under ideal conditions, there's a lot of friction from start to finish, so I wouldn't trust myself without the torque wrench. 
 

I ordered a replacement OEM filter cap and a fresh filter to get the new O rings... I like the idea of the upgraded aluminum cap (which costs half of what a wholesale OEM plastic/composite cap does) but since this is not my vehicle, I'm operating in CYA mode- and the most CYA thing do is to install a fresh OEM part, torque to spec* and call it that.  The truck gets lightly used, has only has 37K on it, so a fresh OEM cap should easily outlast our family's ownership of this vehicle.  I'll let you folks know how removing the old cap goes, hopefully it won't be a E36 M3show. 

* Note to self: this time, for a really quality job, use a working torque wrench. 

Our '06 Rav4 has the metal housing, similar to what Woody said you can feel resistance the entire time you tighten it, which is much different than a regular spin-on oil filter. In my application, it bottoms out and won't turn any more. Or at least it won't turn without more force than im willing to use.
 

When I'm changing the oil, I wait a while before I attempt to loosen the filter housing. If I try while everything is still hot, it's almost impossible to spin off, even with the OEM metal tool for removing the housing. 
 

It's a convoluted system in my opinion, and I'd prefer a regular, spin-on filter.

Lots of discussion regarding the composite vs. aluminum filter housing in the Tacoma World. This is just one of many threads:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/aluminum-oil-filter-housing-downsides.765682/

It put up quite a fight.  The cap tool got a bit cocked and broke off an ear as I was attempting to unscrew the cap with the tool + a breaker bar...oil started dripping out, so I was fully committed at that point. 

Took a scissor jack to apply a small amount of upward force to the breaker bar-extension-cap tool combo to help prevent it from cocking and got it off-barely.  All back together with a new cap, filter and o-rings, torqued to spec, no leaks, everyone's happy.  Really appreciate the advice here- it was really solidly stuck after a week, there's no way it was that tight on installation. I can only imagine what a challenge this would have been by the next oil change interval. 

I was tempted to unleash the Milwaukee electric impact wrench on this thing, but I think the cap tool is alloy and the cap is definitely composite- I was afraid that the plastic would shatter or the cap tool would get deformed. 

Bravo