An oil change is one of the simplest, most common pieces of maintenance you can perform on a vehicle. For most cars, performing an oil change is painfully straightforward: Slide underneath the engine, remove the drain plug from the oil pan and the oil filter from its mounting location, and let the oil flow out. Then, replace the drain plug, install a new filter, and refill the oil from the top. Simple!
With modern cars and all of their gizmos and gadgets crowding up the engine bay, oil changes can sometimes be a bit more annoying. Whether that means removing multiple skidplates or aero shields to get at the oil pan, or having to remove multiple drain plugs, or having to reset maintenance lights on the dash, even oil changes aren’t immune to the complexities of modern engineering.
The current Toyota Tundra is no exception. Most versions feature a retractable air dam under the bumper that deploys at 37 mph to improve aero efficiency and retracts at 25 mph to unlock ground clearance. When the air dam is in its retracted position, it blocks access to the bolts needed to remove the skidplate, which hides the oil filter. Instead of making people crack open the owner’s manual to figure out how to move the air dam out of the way, Toyota has built in a genius solution that only requires you to have a phone with a camera.
The retractable air dam is standard equipment on the majority of Tundra trims, save for most off-road-focused models, which don’t get one. If you don’t do your own maintenance, you’d probably never even know it was there. When working properly, it can measurably increase efficiency, and unlike the Tacoma’s ungainly, fixed air dam, a retractable unit doesn’t spoil the Tundra’s good looks when you’re parked. Plus, you don’t have to worry about removing it when you’re going off-roading.
The downside, aside from worrying about yet another electrical part that might one day fail, is that when the Tundra’s air dam is in its retracted position (as it always is when the truck is stopped), you can’t easily perform an oil change. Toyota engineers, smartly considering how to make maintenance easier, built in a way to deploy the air dam without having to go through all the pain of removing the whole mechanism.
Many automakers require a special computer or a secret sequence of button presses in the cabin to get mechanical features to work in ways they’re not supposed to, and the Tundra is the same. To get the air dam to deploy, you have to switch the car in and out of ignition-on mode, then, within 45 seconds of shutoff, raise and hold the wiper stalk in the raised position for two seconds. After that, the air dam should deploy manually.
The coolest part about the Tundra’s air dam, specifically, is that you don’t have to spend a bunch of time scouring the internet or digging through the owner’s manual to find this information, like you would on most other cars. That’s because Toyota took the time during design and manufacturing to actually imprint a QR code onto the neck of the air dam that, when scanned by your phone’s camera, takes you to a YouTube video with the instructions. It takes all the guessing out of what to do and makes the process far more streamlined for career technicians and casual DIYers alike.
This has been a thing since 2021, when Toyota first started selling the current Tundra, but I’m just learning about it now, thanks to this TikTok I came across of someone doing an oil change job on their Tundra hybrid:
@joybarrett1961 #carspotting #carsoftiktok #mechaniclife #mechanicsoftiktok #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Carrestoration
In it, you can see the QR code molded into the arm of the air dam—it’s physically part of the plastic, not a sticker, which I think is a neat touch. It’s pretty fascinating that we’re at a point where car parts can now feature codes that take you directly to YouTube.
Sure enough, when I scanned the code, it took me to this video published by Toyota back in 2022 explaining why you’d want to manually deploy the air dam, and the instructions on how to do so:
As an aside, I think it’s also worth shouting out the cool built-in funnel for the oil filter. Usually, removing oil filters makes a huge mess, especially if it’s mounted sideways to the engine like it is on the Tundra. But Toyota engineers included a piece of plastic that collects all of the excess oil and funnels it into one tiny outlet.
In this case, the outlet drains directly onto the subframe, so it’s not a complete solution. But it does make catching all of the oil in one place way simpler.
As a person who often struggles with basic maintenance due to generally low brain activity, I really wish every car had QR codes imprinted on various locations that gave instructions on how to repair, replace, or fix things. It would make my life a whole lot easier.
I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that Toyota is using QR codes in this way. We’re talking about the company that literally invented QR codes in the mid-1990s for streamlining manufacturing at its plants, after all. It’s only natural for this sort of idea to eventually trickle down to the people who fix and own the cars.
Top graphic images: Toyota
Based on my cybersecurity training, I should not scan random QR codes. In this case, hackers will go under my vehicle and slap a fake QR code. After I input my social security number to get a discount for oil change supplies, credit karma will fill my inbox with spam emails about changes in my credit score.
Based on my experience changing oil on relatives’ cars that have been through “quick change” oil change places, this airdam will 100% be broken by the “tech” trying to get the skidplate off and then the skidplate will be mounted back on with only two bolts.
Also, the little funnel is a neat trick… until I read that it drains onto the subframe.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but I’m surprised Toyota used a 3rd party host instead of putting the video on their own servers. If YT goes out of business, or even if they change how URL point to specific videos, the QR code becomes worthless.
I don’t know that it’s intuitive for people to take their phone under the truck and start to scan QR codes in the hope that something links to youtube when trying to do an oil change if they didn’t know this. Even if so, it then means you need to get back off the dirty ground and get into the presumably clean truck to do the automotive hokey pokey to get it to retract or deploy or whatever it needs to be.
Just engineer the thing correctly in the first place so the filter is easily accessible to the average human or add a button to the maintenance section of the giant screen that makes it deploy. It’s. Not. That. Hard.
I’m of the firm belief that many oil filters (present AND past) are located in more difficult to reach or messy places than they need to be purely in order to funnel service dollars to the manufacturer’s dealer service departments.
I do not own a smart-phone, so this is yet another reason for me not to buy a Toyota, I guess.
I remain annoyed that I needed to buy a scantool with specific Porsche programming to reset the maintenance interval on the Panamera. It definitely tells you what Porsche’s maintenance expectations are.
While a fireman I learned that all newer Mercedes cars have QR Codes inside the fuel door and on the driver’s side B-pillar. When scanned by first responders, it will bring up the rescue card for that particular vehicle. It will show all of the air bags, no cut points, how ton turn off the car if EV, etc, etc, etc. And if your Mercedes is old enough and does not have the QR Codes, the service department will attach them.
That’s an awesome idea.
The problem for the air dam manufacturer is that a valid QR code is now a functional requirement of a good part (just like weight, dimensions, etc), so they would have had to create a quality check for confirming the QR code scans correctly for every part over the multiple years of the program. Toyota would look like morons if their slick QR code doesn’t scan.
I used to work for a Toyota interior plastics supplier and (almost) had to manufacture a part with a customer-facing QR code molded in. Technically we couldn’t just point an industrial vision camera at it and read the output with dedicated software, because the end user has a cell phone with completely different (worse) lenses and consumer grade QR translation programs. We half-seriously considered chaining an iPhone to the work cell and making the operator scan the code for every part. Luckily the QR code got removed and we didn’t have to worry about it anymore.
Or…hear me out…they could just put the oil filter on top of the engine.
“Toyota makes oil changes way harder than everyone else and needs extra parts to collect spilled oil because of dummy filter placement” becoming “Toyota is fucking genius for using a QR code” is some Thank you for Smoking level PR work.
Thanks for the chuckle
Or add a digital button in the maintenance section of the giant screen “Deploy air dam for oil change” and the next time the key is cycled it automatically reverts back to the default setting.
Yeah, that would only require programming and not a physical button.
Wait till you see how easy it is to change the oil on the 3.0 SCV6 and 5.0 SCV8 JLR engines. All topside.
Insurance adjuster: “explain to me one more time how your windshield got cracked”.
I don’t think the air dam position is what is spoiling the Tundra’s looks.
I feel like a power airdam was a feature of multiple bubble era Japanese sports cars. For some reason the R31 Skyline and A80 Supra come to mind. That makes this truck extra JDM.
Is this catch-feature for the oil new, I can’t quite tell from the image where it resides on the engine?
A lot of the top-mounted filters I’ve seen have a drip trough to catch the oil. I’ve never followed the drain tube where they go though.
Wait, when did Toyota go to the standard “can” oil filter design?
when did they leave the can? All of my toyotas have been can; Mazda and Subaru have been pleated insert.
FJ’s and 4runners changed to dual overhead cam in 2010 so the filter had to be moved from up top to the bottom which also switched to a cansiter style. My 2013 FJ is a PITA for oil changes since the filter is under the front skid plate which has been rusting to hell and has snapped some bolts. At times wish I had a pre-2010 but they also had their own issues and less power.
Every Toyota I’ve seen in my shop has had a filter like a Pentastar: a cartridge with an o-ring.
I guess it just depends what people see and when.
Yeah this is like “sit to wipe” and “stand to wipe” people discovering each other for the first time….I legitimately thought every Toyota used the cartridge design.
That’s a very specific bar you patronize.
It’s a crappy place called The Heart of Darkness.
Hmm… I have owned several Toyotas, and all have used the normal tin can spin-on filters.