2016 Tacoma TRD cam position sensor oil leak!!??

Sorry to hear, hope they fix it right

 

According to what I have seen so far, it would appear that Toyota knows about this problem. I am mystified as to why they are not doing something more proactive in dealing with this. I have friends who are very interested in buying a new Toyota Tacoma; I have owned several versions of them dating all the way back to 1984, with nary a hint of any sort of problem.....ever. This is the first time that I find myself telling people not to buy a Toyota 4X4 Tacoma, because of so many quality problems. I feel like a traitor..., but a worried one as I am concerned for my own experience, as I can't afford to keep taking this truck back in for a problem that should be academic for Toyota engineers to take car of. We will see how the repair goes this coming Monday.
Rick

 

Got my truck back the next day and they claim it was "sweating" around the sensor due to the oil they used to lube the gasket on sensor.

Was told not to look at it till my 8K service. So I cleaned it up bone dry around the area and took a photo with the date on a piece of paper beside it.. Well see what happens next haha .

whats the update on your end?

 

Good luck, hope it is done leaking.

 

Ok dudes, this is straight from the feed bag: Picked up my truck from the dealership yesterday late afternoon, they had it all day, and they claim that the main cause of the oil leak was poor sealing of cam cap threads. So they; "Resealed the threads on the cam camps. No Damage done to caps or porous caps. Z-time inspect cam caps. Replaced cylinder head valve cover gasket, all looks good. Checked trans fluid, and rear end fluid all at spec."
When I picked up the truck they pronounced it all fixed, "we let it run for some time and no leak", I said great, and hopped in and drove 3 miles to my home which is all up hill as I live on the South hill in Spokane Washington.
Now, being of a rather suspicious nature, without having a great deal of faith in my fellow man, before I pulled it in the garage, I popped the hood and to my incredulous surprise, there was oil around the cam sensor, and what looked like a drip forming. I thought it could be due to "sweating" so I thought in all fairness, I would clean it up real good and recheck it at the end of work today, as I had about 30 miles to drive and half of that going up and down hills.
When I got to my last stop today, I popped the hood open and low and behold, it was leaking, this time the leak was coming from under the cam sensor itself and not around the bolt. As far as I was concerned it was leaking from both places before but was hard to tell, as the oil coming up from around the bolt, spilled out on top of the sensor, filling it up, then running off of that and onto the valve cover and then down on the exhaust manifold, and smoking.
This is a frustrating process, because as far as I am concerned they should have replaced the valve cover and the gasket, but accord to the service rep, on new Toyotas they "must" follow what the FST from Toyota instructs them to do. Which means, when they took off the valve cover from my truck and gave it the human eye ball, they could not see anything wrong with it, and were instructed to put it back on with the new valve cover gasket.....even though they ordered a new valve cover and gasket for the job.
So I took the truck back into the dealer again today after work, they wheeled it back in to the shop and took pictures of it and were contacting the Toyota FST for further instructions, which according to my service rep means they will replace the valve cover next, with another new gasket and possibly cam caps, if it still leaks, the next step will most likely be the replacement of the drivers side head and valve train.

I have to say that the service reps at Downtown Toyota here are straight up matter of fact people, and while they are sorry for the inconvenience, they will tell you on brand new vehicles, they are bound to do things the way the factory tells them to. Replacing the head will be a 3 day job, and they guaranteed me that Toyota will be supplying us a loaner vehicle during that repair time.
They informed me that Toyota knows full well about this problem, and are busy trying to find a solution, at which I said "that all fine and dandy, but that this seems like a design flaw to me and they should have caught it sooner". The Rep informed me that it is indeed a design flaw, but with major corporations, repairs of this nature can take some time to trickle down.

That may be so, but it does not help my situation any as this is a major inconvenience for me. As for a service rep telling you not to look at the area again until your 8k service, that is just plain B.S. In my case, it started smoking before the truck had 750 miles on the ODO. This is a safety hazard, which could end in fire, so If I were you, I would be checking it , and if it is leaking, get it back to your dealership ASAP. Residual "oil sweating" is one thing, and that is quasi understandable, but a constant leak no matter how much is a problem, and it must be addressed, don't let them blow smoke up your back fire, take it back and rub their noses in it.

What I want to know is ,what is the best Toyota Corp. phone number to call to complain about this and try and get some comfort where extended warranty periods are concerned etc. Because if this keeps up, they are going to be eating this truck, as we have a pretty good lemon law in the state of Washington.

Rick

 

Rick,

Any update for you? Hopefully you don't have to go through a head replacement. Mine seems to have been fixed with a new valve cover/gasket and sensor according to them. I noticed a sweat around the sensor again shortly after and took it back but no drip. They cleaned it and told me it was a sweat from the oil they used to lube the gasket. Also, placed a dye in the oil only visible under uv light to be 100 % sure

Checked it again a week later to see more sweat. Cleaned it up and I'm still good after a 1000km drive through the mountains.

Toyota Corp did nothing but offer $40 a day for a rental. Which barely gets you much up here.

Evan

 

Here is what I have been told the procedure will be for round Three: " Hey Rick, I heard back today from the Toyota field service tech; they are having me order a new cam shaft carrier, I will call you when the thing shows up, most likely will be a 2-3 day repair, Toyota will provide you a service loaner".
As far as the service loaner goes, they know that our truck is a working truck, so they have to provide something similar to meet my needs; to which they agreed, no discussion on how much. I inquired about the valve cover since he did not mention that they were going to replace that as well, so far they have been mute on that subject. However they must replace the valve cover gasket, I mentioned that,to me it would seem logical to replace the valve cover as well. We will see what they say.
Our engine is still leaking oil, but I pop the hood every other day and wipe it up before it starts smoking on the exhaust manifold; but no word yet on a repair date. As for a new engine "sweating oil", as far as I am concerned from this chair, that is unacceptable. Especially from a new Toyota Tacoma, now if it were a few years old with 60 to 80k, I could buy it then, but brand new.......no sale here.
I intend to call Toyota on this problem and voice my concern, what has been done so far, what I have seen on this forum, and that I have doubts concerning the long term viability of my truck; as I intended on keeping this one until I flat line, and compete with Scotts fertilizer company as to which of us can green up the grass faster.
So Even...., it's your truck, you must decide what you are willing to put up with; as for me, I am a picky old B--t--d, who does not like paying over 35k for a new truck that leaks or sweats oil. Other than that, this is the best Tacoma I have ever owned, and I have owned several over the long years.....I hope they come up with an acceptable fix. Winters coming and I smell snow, and they really have to work hard in that stuff, so if they are leaking, they will leak more then.

Rick

 

Have had the truck for less than 2 weeks, about 800 miles on it so far. Popped the hood after I brought it home the first time because I like looking at a brand new clean engine, and just decided for whatever reason to do it again tonight. Noticed this in the pictures that I have attached. Is this what everyone else on this thread is seeing? Im pretty sure I would have noticed the greasy residue on the engine components a week ago if they were there.

 

No that's not where it would be they sprayed some kind of detail stuff where your looking,look under the driver side wheel well and if it's leaking you'll see it right at the valve cover.If it's been leaking a while look under the truck it'll be all wet.Thats how i noticed mine.good luck

 

Oh by the way my truck is currently at the dealer now on its third day,and for the second time this week.they can't seem to fix it and they don't know how I think.what a fucking lemon this turned out to be

 

Just had one come back with this same leak issue. I hope Toyota is on top of addressing this quickly... anyone seen if this has been V6 only? The one that had it was a AC Off-road 4x4

 

How in the hell does a cam journal cause a leak in the valve cover???? Cam journals are underneath the valve cover and the cam rides in the journal and the cap holds it to the head. The journals are a pricelcy machined component and are fed oil pressure from the engine to lubricate the cam and journal. Is the dealer saying that oil is spraying past the journal because cap is loose and flooding the valve cover I'm really lost with this? I would think a loose cam cap would cause oil pressure problems because you would be out of tolerance if you had that much oil going into the valve cover and not be restricted by the clearance between the cam and the journal.

 

According to what I have been told, the actual cam sensor bolt screws down through the valve cover and into one of the cam component's, possibly one of the caps in the journal assembly. My leak is two fold, 1. the sensor bolt did not have the proper "red" Toyota thread sealant on it, which cause the oil to percolate up through the threads and out under the bolt head, then down onto the top of the actual sensor and then down onto the valve cover and off of that from there to the exhaust manifold. 2, after they put the proper red Toyota thread sealant on the bolt and installed the new valve cover gasket and ran the truck, oil no longer leaked up around the bolt, it is now leaking up underneath the cam sensor itself, and this is a new sensor that they installed on my first visit. If they were to ask me, it has leaked from both places from the get go, and I would have fixed the bolt, changed the gasket, and put on a new valve cover to begin with, as the original cam sensor was in perfect shape. But, these service departments are supposed to be doing exactly what the Toyota field service techs instruct them to do. So things are done in herks and jerks.

From my understanding, the cam sensor attaches somehow to the valve train, which is why they feel it is the problem at least on my truck; I'm like you, I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around that one. They should have left the valve covers as cast aluminum, as on the other trucks, they never leaked at the cam sensors. I believe, as does my service writer, that this is an endemic design flaw, and Toyota is trying to figure out just how to fix it, without having to redesign the whole works. I am too old to want to be a test mule for a multi national corporation; from what I have been told is that Toyota is very well aware of this problem, and that they are working to fix it. I just wonder how long they were aware of it........

I hate to say this, but when these trucks were built in Japan, this Never happened, and when it did....if it did, they usually called you first before you knew there was a problem, at any rate, it was fixed fast. But, so far, the dealership I am dealing with is bending over backwards to make it right. I'll keep everyone posted.

Rick

 

Where are they sourcing these problem 3.5 Engines and Transmissions from?

 

The same thing is happening to me. I got a 2016 TRD Sport in August. It started leaking oil around the cam position sensor within 2000 miles. Took it in to the dealership, and they replaced the sensor. It began leaking again within a week, so I took it back in. The Toyota tech advisor told the dealership to inspect the sensor bolt for scarring or pinholes. They noticed a pinhole on the sensor bolt, so the Toyota tech advisor instructed them to apply blue Loctite to the bolt. After driving the truck for 60 miles, the leak reappeared. The tech advisor told the dealership to replace the cam journal. I've had my truck back for about 5 days, and so far no leak.

 

Well mine is done from repair #2 (the lock tite excuse )I haven't picked it up yet so as of tomorrow morning I will be checking and expecting to see oil again at the same spot.Just starting to prepare myself for round 3 of this bullshit.Hopefully I won't explode soon at the dealer cause I feel it coming.My theory is fix it right the first time don't keep sending me back and forth to the dealer,or worse stranded on the side of the road somewhere with my 2 little ones.

 

I would tell them to go ahead and order parts 04112-0P180 (Gasket Kit) and 11104-0P020 (CAM Housing Sub-assembly). They're fixin' to need them. It too two days for those parts to come in for me. I still can't believe their solution to repairing a part with a hole in it is to slap some locktite on it! I would have expected Toyota to replace the defective part in the first place. It's a brand freaking new truck!

Now I keep a big piece of cardboard under where I park to see if it's leaking again.

 

Thanks d-man,I knew this shit wasn't over with yet

 

Rick,

I would seriously suggest for them to replace the valve cover. Unless they super glued the sensor on. Other than a little sweat shortly after replaced cover and sensor I've since cleaned it dry and it has been spotless since. Even after hard mountain driving 1000kms and 2900kms since replacement.(other than sweat)


Evan

 

The cam housing needs to be replaced. Not the valve cover. The cam sensor bolts to the cam journal which develops a pin hole in the journal/bearing and oil runs up the threads and out thru the cam sensor.