Timing Cover Oil Leak

Sorry to read of your very bad luck, OP.
Mine has 11K miles on my V6 with about 1000 of them off-road - I can’t see any oil leaks yet... Im not sure if it’s behind the PS pump or where exactly the typical leak is comming from along the timing chain cover. In fact, I’m impressed how shiny the engine still looks. Anyone have a good link to an engine diagram or photo of where the issue is?

 

When I owned my GMC (from new) I ran into the same thing on the GMC forums. I didn't drink the GMC Koolaid, and I won't drink the Toyota Koolaid. It it's a great design, I'll be the first to admit it, likewise for a bad design.

 

@kimo These engines are still basically the same 3.5 Toyota has been using. It's a proven engine with some refinements.

 

When I changed my oil the other day I noticed my power steering pump was wet, wiped it all off and the PS Fluid Reservoir was full, guess I am going to have to double check for a timing cover leak.

 

Second gen had the same timing cover oil leak problem where it meets the head and block by the power steering pump. It was a casting defect that was quietly fixed by Toyota about half way through the generation.

And yes, with access to an engine hoist it's actually faster pulling the whole motor to fix that.

And whoever said you need to drop ththe front diff and pull steering rack for this job: NOPE! You're doing it all wrong

 

Y'all are lucky discovering this under warranty. I had to do it myself

 

That would have sucked. I was hoping it is just nothing more than a power steering leak from behind the pulley, but I am going to have to check everything over better to see what is going on.

 

Yeah no shit haha, not hard just time consuming. And this way I know it's done properly and the repair didn't cause other damage that's more likely when techs are pressed for time and rush the job.

Going by your pics I'm betting it's the timing cover leak. You can use a dye to pinpoint it but power steering fluid should be red, more like ATF than motor oil

 

it's the

 

At least you know yours was done correctly if you were able to take your time with it. I went outside to have a better look and I can see the corner of the cover is wet right behind the fan belt, definitely a timing cover leak.

 

Did you get this fixed?

 

I have been watching it to see if it gets any worse. I just changed the oil last week and see less leakage than before, dont wanna have major work done for a small leak but if it gets worse than I will have it done.

 

I understand your hesitation, but you might should get it taken care of sooner rather than later. You want to be sure it's a warranty repair and that they own it instead of blaming it on something else. And before it gets worse.

 

I hear ya. I might push for them cleaning it and documenting it wait two more years. But then if they fix it and something isn’t right a few months later I might be screwed since I’d be past 5 years. I do have the CPO warranty of 7/100k but ya know how it is after the real deal.

 

I recently discovered this leak in my 2016. Luckily 300 miles before my warranty expired.

 

Can we see pics of the rusted area?

 

I wonder if there is any common denominator in these cases? Like a certain brand of oil, or something. This is very troubling to have it start right around the time your warranty runs out. It's very troubling regardless of when your warranty runs out. Why is this even an issue in this day and age? Haven't gaskets been around since the dinosaurs?

 

Yea I’m not sure. Just started doing some research. It probably started as a minor leak that I didn’t notice before. It appears some have had this issue on earlier models as well.

 

Liquid gasket that is robot applied and didn't make it all the way around with 100% coverage is what I heard. They said mine was just grime and cleaned it off and added UV dye to the oil. We shall see

 

That's what I had heard as well, but I wonder why @TacoRed1 's leak wouldn't have shown up until his warranty was almost gone. Seems like if the seal didn't make it all the way around, it would have started leaking way earlier. Curious...