help identifying a missing part on my timing cover

I have a 2006 Tacoma 6 cylinder trd off road. 120000 miles
I have been dealing with a small oil leak for some time now and I just found out where it is coming from. There is a hole in my timing cover that looks like something was attached and fell off. I cleaned it to show what it looks like. Can anyone tell me was there something attached and is it a common problem that it would fall off?

 

That's broken.
There should be a boss there with the timing marks on it.

Never seen that broken off before, any recent work done?

 

^^^THIS ^^^

 

Should be timing mark.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/is-my-timing-chain-set-up-right.807747/

 

Yea it should look like this.

 

I had an alternator put on a year ago. And thats when I started having the oil leak. I brought it back to him and he thought it was coming from the value cover gasket so had it changed from a different mechanic. but still had a leak and then it looked like it was coming from the rack and had that changed. The 3rd mechanic that changed the rack last week found the hole and plugged it with jb weld epoxy until I have the money to put on a new cover. So you never herd of that coming off. do you think it might be a defect or the first mechanic probably broke it putting on the alternator.

 

It had to have been broken, it's part of the timing cover casting. It's not something that's just gona "fall off"
How one would break it changing an alternator is beyond me but the level of incompetent work I've seen other people produce never ceases to amaze

 

The new mechanic I am using now put over the hole jb weld epoxy do you think that will hold? He said it was a very expensive fix and to try the epoxy first. I am on a fixed income and already put a lot of money in the truck trying to fix the leak ,so I am hoping it will hold for a while.

 

Certainly worth a try, the timing cover is over $500 and pays 12hrs labor.

 

Thanks for your help Dm93

 

I'd bet you 20 bucks they managed to break it somehow doing the alternator, based on that lack of competency throwing parts at it for a pretty obvious oil leak. I would agree that your best bet is capping it with JB weld, RTV, basically anything before you fork out a bunch of money to replace that whole part. It should hold but just keep an eye on it and if you have to re seal it every year or so oh well.

 

I’ve had good luck using jb weld. If you don’t skimp on the cure time it might hold. Since the regular 2 part stuff is kinda runny it might need to be done in 2 or 3 steps to build it up.

 

JB steelstik and clean the area VERY well beforehand.

Too bad the original mechanic didn't fess up to that.