Using at-205 to address a oil leak?

Not sure how well the leak prevent fluid will work. Temporary fix at best. Eventually seal should be replaced. For me it would take 10 or more hours. Might be worth paying to get it done.

 

Too, $2500 seems too high. IIRC from members here: highest was $1700, and one as low as $1200?

How minor, have you managed to see it yourself?

 

I'd be cautious about at-205. Product description on Amazon says "rejuvenates all rubber seals and gaskets". Does this mean it swells rubber? I'm not sure, am always reluctant to throw anything new into the engine.

Here's some info on that cover, and the byzantine amount of detail involved in laying the sealing beads, torque spec's.

My sense, if it's a minor leak, might be simpler/safer to just live with it, comparing through all the effort in outlined in the attachement, possibly mess something up further.

 

+1.

What kind of leak is it?
Enough to leave a puddle?

I'm VERY hesitant to throw $2500 on this kind of repair for several reasons, not the least of which involves mechanics who are highly incentivized to work quickly, ripping lots of things out of the engine bay and depending on them to put them all back....correctly.
No left-over parts.
No over or under torqued fasteners.
I wouldn't have this done personally if the car were still under warranty and it was free, but that's just me being me again.

I'd put the $2500 in the bank and monitor the weep rate.
A little oil might be seeping out of the engine, but nothing much is getting in.
If your leak rate reaches as much as a quart every 5K?
Verify it's leakage and reassess.
It's not like you couldn't replace the whole engine for the same $2500 in a few years, and if a cell phone queen or GPS jock turns you into a new car shopper in the next year or three you'll have an extra $2500 to throw down on a new car......

....if you're still able to drive one.

Good Luck!!!

 

Again, high water mark for prices incurred (as reported here) was $1700, IIRC.

Standing at front of car, facing engine bay, it's the left side of the engine with this cover. Maybe jack it up, remove passenger side wheel, have a look with good light, near the bottom of that side of engine. There's a plastic panel obscuring view from wheel well into engine bay, held on with plastic fasteners I believe. Maybe remove that too.

You can also look from above, though not sure how much you'd see there, the bottom would be the worst.

And if you have floor jack and safety stands (or ramps): raise the whole front end, remove engine under panel, check it for drippage, and have an even better look at the bottom of the engine at the timing cover end.

Are you noticing any oil consumption, on the dipstick? Don't believe this has been asked or addressed.

 

I would use thicker grade oil and ignore it

 

I believe Toyota mechanics do the reseal without removing the engine. Still, working in awkward close quarters like that, how good is their quality control, all those fiddly/specific applications of liguid gasket??

 

I think they remove the cover, but not the engine.

 

Check out a review of the at-205 review on Amazon in a CAmry. Reviewer said, the additive kinda dissolved the paint of the oil pan and clogged the oil intake for the oil pump. Looking at a new and used Prius oil pan on eBay, seemed it is also painted.

Reviewer said it fixed the leaking but with a bill and possible damage from running oil deprived.

 

I was looking for a good place to ask the question "Did my 2009 Prius come from the factory with a plug of silicone by the timing cover as shown below?" This is probably the good place to ask.

The "blue image" (done magically somehow) shows the location of a slow oil leak starting from where cylinder head, timing cover, and block meet. The leak was found by the good folks at Rod's in Bellingham, Washington when they we rebalancing my hybrid battery. I am one happy camper because the leak is going to be fix by Toyota under my extended warranty which expires in two weeks.

 

That looks very minor, if any. I would not do anything; they do not have factory skill level, and would be doing the reseal without engine removal.

 

Thank you for responding and sort of affirming my worst fears. I have an extended warranty which I paid good money for to cover these kinds of things and I would expect the dealer (1) to report a small leak TO ME when it is found during routine maintenance, (2) give ME the option to make repair decisions, and (3) to do the repair in a professional manner. I now believe #1 is not a good assumption and you are implying that #3 is not a good assumption which concur with I after finding the silicone (probably) hack repair. The car is almost 10 years old and has less than 13,000 miles on it. It is going into the dealer on Monday for a warranty "timing cover reseal." It should emerge all fixed on Thursday, Jan 31 and I will have until Feb 12 to file another claim with the warranty administrator if the leak is not all fixed or something else breaks.

Is there anything I can specifically ask of or say to the dealer that might facilitate a professionally done repair?

Thank you

 

I don't see a leak on your pictures, your engine looks very clean.

Many times when you address a non problem, a problem will magically appear later....when it's out of warranty

 

The seepage (slow leak) was described to me to be the brightest part of the blue image. A dye was added to the engine oil which shows up when a special light is shined on it. The brightest area is not next to the timing cover. The mystery silicone is next to the timing cover I think. Is that correct? I sure would like to know what how and when the silicone got there.



The oil Rod's technician initially saw is in the next photo. The seepage source was identified by the blue dye.



The technician at Rod's thinks the real seepage is from the head gasket but the dealer's technician "verified" the leak to be from the timing cover and the extended warranty repair was approved. I'm not sure the silicone thing can be seen in this picture but if you can see it would you point it out to me?

I am just not wired to let something like this go, so the dealer fix will happen next week and I will spend some money at Rod's and maybe a different dealer to verify the "verified" seepage is gone and nothing else is rotten in the state of Denmark (or whatever).

Thank you

 

Not necessarily. I'd suspect the car came from the factory with that sealant bead squeezing out like that. There are assembly instructions in the Repair Manual, that call for application of short bead of special sealant at a junction, a zone that's especially leak prone.



Bottom line: your pictures look very clean, slight/trivial oil at most. I would do nothing.

 

Thank you for the most useful information. I will trust the dealer again.

I understand that the leak or seepage is minimal but it was not visible 5 months ago. It is probably just getting going and I have 2 weeks left on an extended warranty. I sure do not want to be spending money getting this fixed in a year or two. It will not be any less dangerous for someone to muck with this stuff in the future; Only more expensive to me.

Is the short bead of special sealant visible in the picture with the red arrow? If it is can you point it out to me?

Is the head gasket visible in the picture with the red arrow? If it is can you point it out to me?

In the blue picture is the short bead of special sealant next to the timing cover? I think the timing cover is at the bottom of the blue picture.

Is the cylinder head visible in either of the pictures?

Sorry for all the stupid questions but I have two sets of pictures (and the blue picture) and I am having a hard time understanding how they fit together. I have to get comfortable with the fact that the head gasket has be verified by the dealer's technician as not leaking and the technician at Rod's thinks he sees seepage from the head gasket. Having some idea of how the parts are situated might make it easier to talk to the dealer folks. Can you point me to some website with simple pictures of the area in question. The search terms I have tried are not finding anything simple or useful.

Thank you for answering my original question.

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