About to replace the valve cover gasket in 2004 matrix. 1.8 1ZZFE with 191,000 miles. someone apparently had the valve cover off and didn’t replace one of the bolts. For some reason all the videos I’ve seen on this say that particular bolt has a 12 mm head. The threads seem the same as the other bolts which are 10 mm. I’m headed down to the hardware store to get a bolt that matches all the others. Is there anything different about that bolt besides the larger head that anyone knows about? Longer? Shorter? Made of special magical metal?
Sort of magic. I would get a proper valve cover bolt from an auto parts store rather than a generic bolt from hardware store. The metal does get a different treatment.
The dealer and the part store was no help. Maybe I can get one from a junkyard. I’ll put a hardware store one in as a placeholder at less than full torque, which shouldn’t be much
Amazing! Thank you for looking that up. Of course, I found out that that boat doubles as one of the bolts holding on the vanity cover. Everything I need is still stuck in the vanity cover. I just have to torque it down when I put it back on. I feel like a bit of a dunce, which is normal.
I think I just may have discovered the answer. I believe the bolt that holds on the vanity cover also screws into the valve cover, and there is supposed to be a nut there. Duh
I recommend the junkyard. I snapped one of my bolts. I was about to get a fresh one from the dealer, but they wanted $$$$$$. Went to the junkyard, and got all 5 bolts for a fraction of the price of one.
this one costs $1.32 from Toyota.
Damn. There must be a huge up charge at the dealers I was going to, because they were more like $25+ bucks for a damn screw.
But hey, if it is only a buck or two, get it from the dealer.