Oil leaking from somewhere- 2000 2.7 Prerunner

So my 2000 prerunner has 178,xxx miles on it and has been the best truck ever....never left me stranded, just basic maintenance to date and no major problems

Noticed recently some oil on the skidplate and under the truck on the passenger side (it seems to coat the underside at speed, which is why I think its down low on the engine because it gets blown towards the back of the truck)......have not seen any spots or leaks on the ground under it yet......check the dipstick each time I fill up with gas and it never seems to lose any (always on the full mark)

Im guessing its either the oil pan gasket seal or the valve cover......it doesn't seem to get worse, its just always there

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

 

Valve cover gaskets are easy and cheap. Oil pan gaskets not so much. Before buying any parts try torqueing the valve cover bolts. Sometimes they loosen a little over the years and allow the gasket to leak. Just don't over tighten them, I would recommend using a 1/4" drive ratchet if you have one.

 

I have the same leak on my 2002. I think it is coming from the oil pan gasket but I'm not 100% sure. Even though it's leaking I've never noticed that I've lost any oil between oil changes. It's not urgent but I would also like to know where mine is coming from.

 

It could be from the flux capacitor.

No, seriously, without pictures we can't tell you a definitive answer.

 

I had the same thing on my 2001 2.7 prerunner, I did the oil pan gasket with RTV, it still leaks, just not as much!

 

Well at least I know I'm not the only one with this problem

 

a place to check: the oil filter perch, right where it meets the block...mine was leaking there and it got oil everywhere. its a really easy seal to replace if that is it. don't forget to check there.

for the longest time i thought my oil pan gasket was leaking but no

 

After hearing everyone's advice on what my leak could be, I got under the hood and truck on saturday and starting looking really hard to try and find this problem

I found that about half of the valve cover bolts were about 1 1/2 turns loose (tightened those) and also found a couple of the oil pan bolts were also a tad loose, so after getting all that fixed, I took the skidplates to the car wash and washed them and the underside off very well, so hopefully I can see if that helped

 

Timing chain cover? That's what my 97 was and sounds similar

 

Well it looks like it is the timing chain cover......crawled under it while running and could see oil seeping out.....how difficult is this to fix? Im very mechanical minded .....does the head need to be pulled to take the cover off?