Possible Oil Leak Found at 10k Service

An extended warranty at the least and hopefully reimbursement for travel based on their estimated completion timeline being completely wrong.

 

Common sense says yes but reality says no.

 

I'm not trying to get anything for free here, guys, just share my experience and vent frustration.

That said, I think that given the extent of the work being done and the simple fact that the dealership shouldn't have had to do it dictates that Toyota provide an extended warranty. As skilled as I'm sure the mechanics are, there's a very good chance that something won't be exactly the same as before the truck was taken apart. Given my luck with the last two vehicles I've owned, I'm not really counting on any improvements...

 

Wow, hope they get your truck fixed up quickly for you, and that it runs better than new.

 

looks like your timing cover is leaking judging by that parts list.. the old 3.5s had that issue on a select few engines, not common, but a known possible issue especially with higher mileage. I would just keep any eye on it after the repair for a while because last one we had at the dealer ended up being a head machined wrong, but that was a non direct injection highlander 3.5

 

Wow OP, I would at least push for free gas that you’re paying for to travel back and forth. Com’on poindexter, stand up for yourself.. I mean 400 miles round trip isn’t a joke.... at ~$3/ gal in AK and it’ll take roughly 20-22 gallons if loaner truck gets 20 mpg, that’s a $60-$70 you have to pony up for this, not including cost of food, time, etc.

 

You seem to have a pretty severe case of sitting behind a computer and not knowing who the fuck you’re talking to.

Go think about what you want to say and how to say it in a respectful manner. Otherwise, I’ll just ignore you and you can go call someone else names.

 

I'm sure they will get your truck squared away. Quite a few Tundras have had a tower leak problem due to robots not putting enough RTV sealant on them. Owners of these trucks have had good luck getting Toyota corporate to give them extended warranties for free. I suggest you reach out to corporate and push for a free extended powertrain warranty. Read through the threat on tundratalk.net, search cam tower thread to see how they got the extra protection. Maybe some good can come out of you having to deal with the issue.

The Cam Towers are located under the valve covers on these trucks. From the factory, Toyota uses a gray silicone-like RTV sealant instead of a real gasket. This sealant eventually gives up and starts leaking from the REAR of the cam towers because the engine is slanted down in the back. The reason you never see any oil leaking on the ground is because it lands on the exhaust manifold and burns off. The only way to see this is to remove the flaps behind the upper control arms and look or peer in with a flash light. The driver side is much harder to see due to some lines being in the way. You will see in my pictures below where to look. When doing all my research and checking other trucks I’ve seen, the responses from the dealers are anywhere from, “We’ve never seen this before” to “Well I’m not going to say we’ve never seen this before”. The problem can occur on both the 5.7L and 4.6L trucks and on both the Tundra and Sequoia. This is a huge issue that Toyota corporate and dealerships need to become aware of so that a recall or TSB can be issued. One dealership I spoke with was honest and said, the reason that Toyota corporate isn’t doing anything about it is because not enough of the trucks are getting recognized as having the issue yet and I can tell you from personal experience that either the dealers aren’t checking or don’t want to check because it’s such a big job. The smarter dealers also push the warranty department to have both sides fixed at once even if one is not leaking because so much of the engine has to come apart to do just one side. I have personally found 7 out of 9 trucks leaking that I checked and the only one below a 2011, (with 90k miles, a 2010 Rock Warrior), wasn’t leaking. Also, a 2015 TRD SR5 with 16k miles was bone dry. Doing an internet search on the issue shows people with as little as 8k miles having the issue. The rest are as follows (All these trucks were in CT except for the 2015 which was in Virginia):

 

That gives you warm fuzzies............

 

Hey TW Team,

Turns out the problem was with the timing chain cover. Total labor was billed to Toyota for 15.6 hours, but I’d be surprised if that was ALL of the time they spent on it.

As a side note, the transmission is running hotter than it used to. Before this repair, which required removal of the transmission and refilling the transmission oil, it would run between 145F and 150F. Now it’s running at 185F to 190F. The dealership says that it’s under the 230F specification but I still wonder what the change is and whether it’s a negative thing. What do you think?

 

Called it! I was fairly sure it was the front cover. The robot at the factory wasn't putting on enough sealant. Why did they take the transmission off? The motor does have to come out but the tranny stays in place. I'm kind of wondering about the ability of the technician you had working on it.

 

From what I saw on day 2 of the repair, they tried to get to the problem part with the engine in place. Since they had never done it before, they did quite a bit of trail and error that must have led to doing things that weren’t strictly necessary.

Tomorrow I’ll upload photos of the service report for future reference. Maybe that’ll answer some questions about the whys and the hows.

 

You can get good UV lights from Amazon for cheap. Get a bigger one though. The bigger ones are used for checking hotel rooms and for pet piss. Cost like 15 bucks max. I would say 50ish LED's or so.

The smaller ones work too, but for what you're doing, you may want more light.

 

Well at least they found the leak before they started tearing the heads off.

 

When I saw that the heads were still on when they took me back to see the truck in the service bay, I literally let out a sigh of relief.

 

Oh one other thing - I actually have quite a bit of confidence in the tech that was working on it. The service advisor said that he was one of their most experienced techs and he was able to explain things to me very clearly. His workstation was also kept very organized and having once been an engineer on a ship, it looked to me like he was taking the time to do things right. A man with dirty hands and a deliberate manner is exactly what you want to see in a shop like that.

 

I just don't have the same confidence in the tech as you do. First he should have been able to see that the leak wasn't from the heads. Second most who work in the field know this is an issue and to look at the cover closely. Third, he could have contacted etas if he wasn't sure and they would have steered him in the right direction and fourth there was no reason to take the tranny off.

As for your warm transmission. Have them verify the level.

 

That’s a perfectly fair response.

 

I mean no disrespect by what I am about to say. I don't think this truck is ever going to be the same after tearing everything apart like this.

I'd trade it in and start over.

 

Im following as I am dealing with this process right now. I took my 2018 into the dealership after starting to smell "burning" oil. My truck is a 2018 TRD Sport 4x4 with less then 4k miles. The only thing the dealership told me so far was that they see a drop of oil every 3-5 minutes land on the manifold and thats is causing the burning oil smell. The have replaced something plastic on top of the engine and it is still leaking as of today. Forgive me for not knowing the name of what they replaced. This does not give me any warm and fuzzies as stated before. Will keep you guys informed. As the dealership stated they have never seen this before.