Rear main seal failure/leak at < 70,000, what next?

Hello all,

I have a 2016 3rd gen with less than 70,000 miles on it and the rear main seal just went out. I wanted to know how many people have had a similar issue and help weighing the pros and cons of biting the bullet and fixing it with the hope that everything is good from there. Or, trading it in and saying goodbye to toyota for the time being. I would like to state that I have been a die hard toyota fan for most of my life, I have driven several toyotas with great reliability and even built up an old FJ-40 for crawling. However, it is so unacceptable for a rear main to go out this quickly and I have tried to talk to dealerships and toyota corporate but have really only received a middle finger. So I guess my main questions are has anybody had this happen and if so how did it look after that? Have you had anything else major happen? I want this to be a one off problem and fix it and move on but I am worried I will regret that decision when I actually start to get to higher mileage.

All thoughts and suggestions are welcome, thanks.

 

That sucks, sorry to hear it happened.
I've had my 2016 for 2 years now, i'm at 73K and just had my mechanic give a general inspection to everything on my oil change last month, no issues.
You don't have any extended warranty or powertrain warranty? Sorry i dont have any useful advice for you. I hope you get it resolved quickly.

 

What do you mean by it blew? Like its dumping oil or a small drip? Small drip shouldn't hurt anything other than being annoying.

 

My powertrain went out at 60,000 and im at 69,XXX. Didn't get an extended warranty because i've never needed it with Toyota . Watch for oil leaking out of the bottom of your bell housing, apparently they started putting different seals in around mid 2017 so I think they know theres an issue.

 

It's a small drip but I'm worried about it getting worse and regardless shouldn't be an issue at this mileage. Just used to higher quality from toyota.

 

It's a seal dude. They go out. Some last longer than others. It's not a reliability issue it just sucks that it's happening to you. I can understand being frustrated because you just want it to work without having to worry about it, but in reality as long as they're not going out every 5k it's nothing out of the normal for any vehicle.

 

If it's just a drip I wouldn't worry about it until it gets worse, which could take a long time.

Run a high mileage synthetic oil blend, might even stop the leak (additives that help swell old seals to prevent this sort of thing) for awhile.

 

I hear what youre saying, but for me if I have to replace a rear main every 70k thats a failure on the manufactures part. It isnt exactly an easy seal to replace and I dont currently have a set up to where I can do it myself so it will run somewhere in the 1k range to have a mechanic do it for me.

 

Thats a good idea, I'll look into the best oil for that stuff and maybe see if there are any extra additives.

 

I agree. It's disappointing and if you are unable to replace it yourself, it's kind of a big deal. That being said, I would get it fixed and not think twice about it.

 

Is your Tacoma a manual? Because it's pretty common to replace the rear main seal when doing the clutch, since the trans gets dropped to do the clutch anyway. If you can deal with a slow leak until then, assuming it doesn't get much worse.

If auto then, well I'd still just let it be for now and see if maybe a high mileage oil blend helps slow it down.

 

It's an auto but that would make a lot of since and I'll keep that in mind for my friends with manuals. While I hope I am just unlucky and am one of the only ones who got a bad seal I have a hard time believing thats the case.

 

Spot on brother I will echo this as well. Good Luck

 

Maybe change the thread title to Rear main seal "leak" at < 70,000, what next? "Blew" is misleading.

 

Good point, thanks.

 

OP,

I am curious ... did you get a cost to do the replacement? I don't have a sense of how much of a repair cost we are looking at here.

 

I’ve never bothered to fix a leaky oil seal in my life. The mild annoyance doesn’t seem worth the cost of replacing them, IMHO.

 

My guy quoted me at 1000-1100, I feel like I can reasonably trust him too. The repair will requiring dropping the trans and moving a lot of stuff out of the way to get the new seal in.

 

Interesting. I mean at 70K miles I think I would be annoyed by that, too. But I would probably spend the $1,000 and get it done right. Not sure we have seen that happen much here. Very sorry that happened to you!

Makes me think about getting the extended warranty when the time comes.

Good luck to you ... if you keep the truck for another 100K miles it will seem like a drop in the bucket. Painful now but not over the long term.

 

I think there was another post about this not too far back, but I'm not sure how common it is... What I can tell you is my research began.... a vast number of V6 rear main seal part numbers, dating all the way back to 1988 3.0L(!), supersede to the current 90311-A0027, which is installed in the 3rd Gen Taco 2GR FKS.

Many Lexus models with the 2GR FKS use part number 90311-92011... it's also used in the Prado 150 Land Cruiser w/ 7GR FKS. If you can hold tight for a bit, I'm in process of finding the best seal made for it... given the seal dimensions and vast applications, there could be dozens of various seal types available... or maybe the 90311-92011 is the best?