Possible Oil Leak Found at 10k Service

Greetings,

Yesterday I had my 10k mile service and the service advisor told me that the tech may have found an oil leak on the engine. They put some dye in with the new oil and asked me to take it back to them after a little while so they can try to trace it.

Since they’re a little over 200 miles away it’s going to be some time before I can make it back there - likely a couple of months - so I want to try to keep an eye out for a leak myself. I park in a garage every day and there are no oil spots, but the advisor explained that the leak is onto the skid plate and that it was a very small amount, so that could explain that.

So the question - Has anyone else experienced leaks? Where are some problem areas to keep an eye on?

And by the way, I assume that this dye is safe, but I know nothing about it. Could that cause any issues that I need to be aware of?

Thanks for your time and consideration, folks.

 

This may be more of a nuisance issue for you than anything else. An ultraviolet dye is used, and a UV light will cause the indicator dye to fluoresce. You can get a UV flashlight, or woods lamp cheaply, and check this yourself. The issue is that if you don't go back soon, oil can end up all over the engine by getting blown about, and it will be impossible to detect the source. So do it yourself w the UV flashlight. Look higher rather than lower, as oil will drip down from the source. Try to find the area it shows up first, in the highest up part you can see, and of course, this will be able to be photographed but don't use a flash. UV light makes the dye fluoresce visibly, and a regular camera will be able to photo this fluorescence, but a flash will over power the fluorescence.
Again, more likely to be a nuisance to you than anything else. Just keep checking your oil level w every fill up or sooner and make sure you aren't leaving puddles around, or running out of oil.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply, @Opihi59. I’ll be sure to follow your advice, after I track down a UV light, of course...

 

I'm not stumping for any particular source, or vendor. But try the usual suspects: Amazon, ebay, etc.

 

Try this:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RV8PREI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We got that when we got our cat, but it should work here as well. Pretty cheap and quick delivery.

 

What Opihi59 said....

Might I also suggest removing the skid plate so you can crawl under and monitor it with your new Light..??

Good luck.... I've heard of timing cover leaks happening..

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/timing-cover-leaking-oil.484372/

Maybe give this thread a look. Myself and a fair few others have been diagnosed with leaky timing covers.

 

Update:

Looks like I’ll be the proud owner of a brand new head gasket soon!

Everything is being handled under warranty and they have to order parts. I’ll take a few more days off of work and drive up to Anchorage, where it will take a couple of days to make the repair. That’s got to be better than drive back to Homer (~220 miles) and back again in whatever loaner they give me, right?

 

Well, hopefully that solves the issue. Honestly, it seems rare to have a head gasket problem manifesting as an external oil leak. Generally I see blowout from the water jacket, burn-thru between 2 adjacent cylinders, oil in coolant, coolant in oil, abrupt and dramatic loss of compression......but not oil leaking externally. Of course, valve cover gasket leaks are common as dirt. I suppose if I were working on this, I'd replace valve cover gasket, clean off the engine, then test again. Maybe they found something though that neither of us know about in their evaluation that nailed this down as their assessment.
Good though, that a problem has been identified, and a solution offered under warranty, and I suppose you'll fill us all in on what they found and did once you get the work ticket.

 

On the parts list they gave me, there are 7 different gaskets, including these two:

11213-0P030 :GASKET, CYLINDER HEA
11214-0P010 :GASKET, CYLINDER HEA

Presumably, this means that nothing got lost in translation when they told me ‘head gasket,’ but I haven’t checked the parts list yet.

You bring up an excellent point: Should I have them look into the coolant system, as well?

 

Those are valve cover gaskets. You can probably match up the rest of the parts list on this diagram.

https://toyotaparts.toyotaofclermon...4__6786933/MANIFOLD-ENGINE-PARTS/8519175.html

 

I am sure they have looked it over thoroughly. They would desperately try to avoid pulling the head, so if they've committed to that, then they must be convinced beyond doubt that that is what is required. If a Dealership could simply replace a valve cover gasket rather than a head gasket, they would certainly do that. Don't let me undermine your confidence in the Dealership's assessment, I'm just sharing my experience, and certainly my experience is going to be less than that of a professional mechanic like they tend to employ.
Well, it does seem they are replacing BOTH head gaskets while they are in there. Goodness. There is a literal metric fukton of gaskets involved in this, and in the aftermarket world companies like Felpro sell head gasket sets for this type of thing, it's cheaper to buy them this way, and there are many more gaskets involved in this than simply a head gasket. The entire top end of the engine has to come off, as well as the front end, down to the short block. This is a real big job they're doing, and I don't envy them in this with all the timing chain complexity involved in dual overhead cams on 2 heads. Let alone all the other stuff involved. Wow.

But.......when I google the images of the part numbers you provided, those look like valve cover gaskets rather than head gaskets, even though the nomenclature is "head gasket." Make sure you send us all the part numbers of what they replace, it will be on the repair ticket.

Editing--I see crazy beat me to that conclusion, he types/googles faster I suppose.

 

Thank you both for clearing up the issue with parts, and especially @Opihi59 for providing such a detailed explanation of the process. Here is the complete parts list:



Based on that, does it look like the valve cover issue that many others have had?

 

Head gasket PN is 11116 0P020 best as I can tell. Really does look like they're replacing valve cover gasket, as well as timing cover, waterpump etc, so front end of engine, and valve covers. Not as big a job as a head gasket replacement. I'm not sure I understand their choice of nomenclature on this. Valve cover gasket completely different job from a head gasket job for certain.

 

Maybe the full title is gasket, cylinder head, valve cover? Similar to your typical military names for stuff - “truck, utility, cargo/troop....”.

 

I am unable to find it that way. But I do find head gasket proper as "engine cylinder head gasket" Who knows?

 

I haven't seen a 3.5 leaking from the head gasket. If it is that would be a very rare occurance. Most of the 3.5 leaks have been from the front timing cover. There wasn't enough sealant put on the timing cover during assembly. The leak occurs close to the head and will look like a head gasket failure. I would have them check it very carefully before they begin.

 

Small update.

Dealership got the parts in this week, so I took it up Thursday and dropped it off right before Service closed so they’d have all day Friday to work on it and I could drive home Saturday. It’s about a 4 hour drive 1 way and I stayed 2 nights with a friend to reduce travel costs.

Well 2 days wasn’t enough time. I stopped by this afternoon and the entire front end of the truck is torn apart. Both wheels off, entire front end of the engine off, entire bottom of the engine off, front differential off, just completely disassembled. I spoke with the tech and he told me 2 things. First, whoever told me it would only be a 1-day job had no idea what he was talking about. Second, given that neither he nor anybody at this dealership had done this job before, he learned that if it ever comes up again he’ll just take the engine out as it would be easier.

So now I’m back at home with a loaner - another Tacoma, surprisingly - and I’ll need to make the round trip again at the end of next week. Hopefully the truck will be done Monday or Tuesday and I want them to make absolutely sure that everything is back together and working correctly before I leave to go up there again. When I go back to pick it up, this will be my third 450-mile round trip since they identified the potential leak during the 10k service.

I’m glad they’re fixing it, but it’s beyond frustrating that I’m taking days off of work and spending so much time and money traveling to the dealership.

 

That sucks, hopefully the leak will be fixed for good.

 

You should make Toyota tow it there fix it and bring it back. If you have to take off work to fix their mistake, I would be pissed.