My dealer gives "Free oil changes for life" and I have had two oil changes done there so far. But it's such a pain in the neck to get it done at the dealer I decided to start doing my own. Doing my first oil change on this car today, I just discovered that my oil access cover is has gone missing. At first I thought maybe the dealer left it off but I checked the forums here and it seems it is an inferior part design and they frequently break free and fall off. Reading here on other threads, I see that the original part has been redesigned several times: part # 51410-12105 replaces 51410-12100, 51410-12101, 51410-12102, 51410-12103 and 51410-12104. Other than the disappointment of discovering an inferior part on Toyota's behalf, I see you can't replace just the missing cover, you have to replace the entire engine compartment cover. I also see that it's not exactly cheap. I saw on another thread that someone fabricated a panel to fit, and I my try that first. If I decide to bite the bullet and replace the panel, does anyone know how much better # 51410-12105 is than the previous versions? Or should I wait for number 6 to come out?
Once you get the replacement cover, if you remove the whole cover at each oil change, (obviously) you'll have not further problems with that flap breaking. It was a piss-poor design, the plastic is too thin and brittle to flex. Each time you remove it, take care removing the plastic fasteners, and wash them out in soapy water, working the mechanism back and forth. They'll last a long time IF they don't get progressively more jammed up with grit.
My dealer did the same thing (I bought at McGeorge in 2009 when we lived out in your neck of the woods) and by the time I started doing the oil changes, I found the same thing. But we now have 199k miles on our 2010 and the door is still missing. So I wouldn’t worry about it and it makes the oil change even easier without it .
Eyeballing pictures of 51410-12100 vs 51410-12105, I think the latter is compatible with the sub-part 51447-47020, a cover for the two largish openings. I was thinking to order that part, but my engine under cover is the older model, doesn't look to be compatible. JP-CarParts.com was one source I found for that sub-part.
