Timing cover leak

Have you cleaned the EGR system yet?

 

We get cars in the shop all the time that other people have said need timing cover reseals. It’s never anything more than seepage. We fix hundreds of these cars and we have never actually resealed the timing cover. It seeps, not leaks, and is not a big deal at all.

We clean it off with some brake cleaner and typically we never see any seepage back there for a long time.

Don’t pay anybody to reseal it just drive the car!

 

Hey ASRDogman,

No I have not... we own a 2011 Liftback w/72k miles. and the 2012 V w/110k miles
and as much as I've seen folks talk about this here, it has never been mentioned or suggested by this dealership for either car.

I've actually been waiting to see if/when and have expecting them to tell me that I need to have this done... I've seen the same here with this same dealer on front end alignments.. (telling me the car is out of alignment and it's not) and air filters too.. (as others have noted) when I had just changed them myself weeks earlier..

As for the EGR system, I'm a little surprised they haven't mentioned that yet.

 

Hey Travis, thank you for the information and the note/suggestion.. I tend to agree, just drive the car..

Since being at the dealer this last time, I had a valve stem cap come up missing.. <sigh>
so I walked around and checked the other 3, and all 3 were loose.. a simple thing like that.. and they want to pull my engine?? NO WAY!!

 

Don’t wait on them; more info:

Bad Flywheel | PriusChat

 

thanks, I will check this out..

 

The dealer won't tell you about the EGR System, with a clogging cooler.
And if you have them do it, they will replace the cooler, intake manifold, and probably egr valve.
They usually don't do the cleaning, an indipendent shop might.

And waiting to clean the egr system is like waiting for the oil in the engine to fail before changing it.
You really want to change it before that happens!

 

Ah, WOW...
Okay.. I will dig into this one.. starting on the higher mileage car first..

Thank You

 

It's not really hard to do. Just follow nutzaoutbolts' videos and you'll be fine.
For the EGR Cooler, use a pressure washer to clear it out, then oven cleaner for a 1/2 hour
soaking then the pressure washer again. People us other stuff, but it takes HOURS to clean,
and you have to constantly change the stuff.
I have a spare cooler that's already clean and ready to install, but the first time I cleaned it
I got it off as fast as I could and sprayed it full of oven cleaner so it could soak.
With the intake manifold there are 4 hold below each intake port you need to clean with gunk and
a .22 gun bore brush in a drill. It will take about 5 seconds for each port.

Do NOT use the oven cleaner on the EGR Valve! It's aluminum and the oven cleaner is not good for it.
I would suggest all new gaskets, from Toyota. The cost is about the same as going somewhere else.
Except for the intake manifold gasket for some reason. I did purchase 2 from ebay a while back for less
than 1/2 of what Toyota sells them for. Usually they'll give you a 10% Veterans discount if you were in the military.

 

so is the “lifetime fluid” they say.

 

Oh Wow...

Thank you for the info and advise.. I'll need to check out the videos and get my stuff in order.. While I'm typically pretty good mechanically, I'm getting to the point of where I just don't have the time like I did as a kid.. older now, and a bit harder to get in there and after all this stuff.. Give me my 72 Nova SS back and I'd be happy.. (yea, rebuild that Holly dual feed, dual pump.. change the plugs, set those points no problem, oh and lets not forget the new clutch & pressure plate) lol

 

Well, I understand! I'm antique! But if I can do it, pretty much anyone can.
None of it is really "hard", some tight spots, and having specialty tools help.
I have a LOT of SnapOn, Mac, Matco, craftsman tools.....

First time I didn't the EGR system I have my MacBookPro on the passenger seat.
Went back and forth one section at a time. Had the wipers out in about 15-20 minutes.
There is a tight nut and stud under the cooler on the head that's a tight fit, but with the 1/4 inch
snap on swivel tools it was easy enough. And watch the gastets, the one where the cooler attaches
to the exhaust under the brake master cylinder tend to fall when removing and installing!

 

You can start by removing that nut (and the stud, if ambitious), before doing anything else. Nothing else needs removal for access. Well maybe a conduit or two might need shifting. But not the wipers and cowl.

When you get that off just leave it off. Forever.

 

Yeah, the time thing is huge. It's not about the work being harder, it's that when I was that kid with the car that needed plugs and points and timing and dwell adjustments and carburetor tweaks and valve adjustments and all every 15,000 miles or whatever, I was really hardly conscious of the amount of time I'd spend on it, and I was learning and it was fun.

Nowadays the time is what seems the scarce commodity.

 

Hey guys, I'm still reading this thread but was hoping you could help me out.
I just a quote from my dealership about the timing cover leak for 2200. I'm reading through the thread and it seems it may not be necessary. How can I know for sure?

My car has been parked a lot during the pandemic, and I don't see any oil on the ground. There's always a TON from the car next to me, that does have a leak of some sorts, but my spot is clean.

Here are the photos they sent me.

Is this urgent? What happens if I wait? Can I send the photos or show them to an independent shop for an accurate quote?

Also I got this car about a year ago and a half ago, at around 75k miles, and it took it to them for a pre-purchase inspection and they didn't mention this. Is that something that I should be suspect about, or could this have developed over the last year or so? Should I contact Toyota directly to see if they believe it should have been caught when I purchased the car and get some type of refund/coverage from Toyota directly? I doubt they will since I got it used though, but I did take it to them first.

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

It's slightly possible the timing cover could be leaking.
More likely oil spill from pouring oil in during an oil change, or a leaking oil filler cap.
The oil pressure switch could also be leaking.

The best thing to do is gunk it down, how it off and drive it and check it after each drive.
You should be able to see where the oil is starting to leak from.

If you also check the oil level as the pump is filling up the fuel tank, you'lll be able to know
if you're losing a lot of oil. The actual leak doesn't look too serious.

Either way, it's best to find out where the leak IS, rather than just "fixing" where the oil is.

 

And that is the air intake for the hybrid fan. It looks dirty. Fairly easy to clean that and the fan.
Then get these filters. You can go to lowes and get the window air conditioner filter. Les than $5, and you
cut it to fit.

It will keep 95% of the dirt and dust out. And it's easy to clean.

 

Thanks for the help, greatly appreciated, I was a little worried. I'll look on YouTube to see how to do this stuff, I feel a little stupid reading your posts but I'll learn! Just currently in the middle of my work day, but I'll do some more research on how to do what you've suggested. If you've got anything I should read or watch on YouTube, that'd be greatly appreciated, but still, thanks a lot for your help already.

 

nutzaboutbolts has pretty good videos.... he has a youtube page, but you can search for them on here also.

 

Watch the WeberAuto tutorials on the Prius. There excellent. Professor John Kelly. Sub it and lots of info on your car.

Here's one I just grabbed on a Prime for instance:.