Front bottom of engine always looks wet..

Okay, to start, I've only had my truck a couple of months. Immediately after buying it I noticed there was only about an inch of coolant in the reservoir (don't know how I overlooked that). So, I decided to go ahead and drain the whole system, went ahead and installed new upper and lower hoses, and refilled with Pentofrost A4. After everything was burped it was filled to the correct level and I haven't noticed it go down any since then.

Fast forward to today, I decided to change the oil and filter early since the last person that changed it didn't use a crush washer and the drain plug had slight seepage. While I was under there I noticed everything forward of the oil pan looked wet, including the center of the steering rack. Not to the point of dripping, but still wet. The only thing I can figure out is either the water pump must be slightly leaking (I don't smell coolant), or the condensation is blowing off of the a/c lines and onto the everything behind them.

Does anyone else have that much condensation from their a/c lines?

 

Does your a/c work? A leaking water pump would leave a pink crystal looking film on the front of your engine and oil pan. If its wet with oil then in could be freon or motor oil. Depending on the source.

 

Oh yeah, a/c is on anytime I'm in it, it's hot and humid here.

 

First thing that comes to mind is oil seepage. Fairly common for oil seepage from the timing chain cover and/or front crankshaft seal. The crankshaft seal is pretty simple to replace.

 

Are those actual gaskets or rta type stuff? And how much does the dealer usually charge to fix it? I started using Maxlife today, so maybe I should wait and see if it stops? I think I'll get out there tomorrow and clean and degrease everything so I can better see what's going on.

Btw, I haven't noticed any stains on my garage floor so far, so I can't be leaking too bad.

 

I went out and looked around a bit more, and I do not see any oil anywhere around the power steering pump, so I guess it's likely not the timing chain cover. However I do see some oil below the crank pulley.

 

This is what mine looked like. Never any oil drops on the ground because it's a small amount and usually occurs more when driving. Plus your skid plate is there.

 

I removed the skid plate this morning and looked a bit closer. I think I have a crankshaft seal leak AND a slight water pump leak. I went ahead and ordered the parts from RockAuto and will get a local mechanic to replace them next week.

I didn't notice the timing chain cover leaking, but even if it is, it may have to stay that way.

 

This might be going on behind your wp pulley.............mine was making a stalagmite. Nothing visible, wet or hitting ground but always losing a bit from the overflow tank level.



If I were you I would get the oem wp. Every other one I saw comes with stupid paper gasket. I went back and got oem that comes with nice rubberized metal gasket. Wanted the new one to make 150k miles like the original did without having to mess with it again. Worth a few bucks more to me...........

 

I ordered a Beck-Arnley water pump. Personally I don't think the oem pumps are all that great, the one on my Tundra started leaking at 55k miles, and this one at 99k miles.

I do agree those Cardone ones at the parts stores are junk.

 

I've been driving/abusing Toyotas since the 70s and one thing has not changed.....There are some non-oem parts that they will eat for lunch that you will save money on but be dealing with more often. I'm fine with 150k not knowing if anti-freeze had ever been changed. doubting it since I bought it with 50k on it and was red oem stuff. I changed it and added flush/fill kit when changing wp recently. 99k out of one isn't awful but would expect more than 55k from any model Toyota wp's..............

 

I sell parts for a living and I have a high opinion of Beck Arnley. A lot of their parts are repackaged oem.

 

Yes, some are OK, some are caca..............tell me the ones that have AISIN stamped on them. Have not seen that on anything but oem personally. I have seen non-oem but with other Japanese names on them.

 

Just an update, I got my truck back today with new water pump and crankshaft seal. My mechanic didn't even charge for installing the seal since it's right next to the water pump.

 

im in the same area and always notice condensation dripping on the ground when my AC is on

 

The Beck-Arnley pump came with a rubberized metal gasket, just like oem.

 

Might want to check routing of the water drain tube. That should be the only place water leaks from AC

 

If you follow the ac lines you'll see there's a lot of it that's not insulated. In our humid climate down here they sweat really badly. I'm almost tempted to get some foam pipe insulation and wrap them, it would probably help the ac work better.

 

Not a bad idea at all, I'd be interested to see how that works out for you

 

For those of you who have changed out your own seal. How does the crank pulley come out? Is it a simple pull off or is it a press fit? My seal has been leaking for it seems like the last 30K, and I'm getting sick of it making all my other components a mess.