I mentioned in another thread about the drain back hole on the XRunner.

The filter is so easy to change now since it's right on on the top of the engine unlike the 4R.

Now, my questions are:
Do I have to be concerned with water and particles getting in there?
Do you think it could also serve as some type of vent? (Toyota engineering)
What could I use to seal it up, that should be affected by oil or heat of anything and won't dry up or crack and fall in?

 

When you change the oil filter, some oil will drain out into that cup/crevas (sp?). THat hole allows you to drain that little bit of oil out. Its pretty handy.

 

But what about moisture and particles going in there? I can always plug it up if it serves no other purpose and use some degreaser and some paper towels and clean up anything that spills.

The X has two air filters, but this hole right on top with a funnel to let anything and evrything collect and go back into the engine.
What if I wanted to clean up the engine in the future?

Weird design.

 

I don't think that hole drains into the engine, check where it goes to. I wouldn't make sense to have an opening, collecting stuff to go into the internals of the engine.

 

I highly doubt that it goes into the engine, that would be kind of, stupid. I doubt Toyota would make it that way. It looks to be just a drain hole for that little shield for the oil filter, so if it does spill it just drips out of it and doesn't build-up. Sounds pretty handy to me!

Fink

 

I was thinking the same thing... And Toyota wouldn't let that happen and have a ton of engine failures on their hands, but it did look like it goes right back under the filter. I saw a few articles on other boards mentioning it, but there wasn't much feedback.

I'll have a look again tomorrow and some more pics if I can get the camera where I need it under the hood.

 

This is a long shot, they could put this into the line which supplies the filter with oil. Any dirt would go in, and then get trapped in the filter. I wouldn't like this idea personally, but theoretically it could work. It this were the case, I would install a rubber plug to plug up the hole.
I would like to have a close look at what toyota did there. I love the way they positioned the oil filter on the 4.0 though. Convenient location.

 

Several newer vehicles have catch trays for the oil filter drippings. They usually drain out the bottom of the compartment near where your drain pan should be

Stupid design is my daughter's Saturn. Take off the filter, it runs down the inner CV joint and frame rail

 

That hole only goes through the drain cup surrounding the filter. If you stick a wire through the hole, you'd see where it comes out near the filter. It does not connect to the engine whatsoever. Its nothing to worry about.

 

I think you are wrong there...it would be totally illogical to have that hole go anywhere but all the way to the bottom of the truck right by the oil drain hole.

 

Nope. The service manual tells you to place a cup under the drain of that hole (which is ont he outside of the surround) to catch the oil that the filter is going to dump out.