Advice on Timing Chain Cover leak

Very good thought.

It still comes down to this: if the oil level is not dropping between oil changes, leave it alone. And don't give a dealership the opportunity to muck things up.

 

I'm with ETCSS and SageBrush. There's a lot of stuff, some very critical, that needs to come out to get the seal replaced. When and if you get this done, your "girl" may come out a bit "different" from before she had the surgery.

 

The timing chain cover is "glued" to the engine block wit an RTV (room temperature vulcanizing" silicone rubber compound at the factory. This seal rarely develops a leak over the life of the engine.

I have replaced many timing belts in the past 45 years that I have been working on cars. The offending parts that cause the oil leak is "weeping" crankshaft seal.

In most cars, there are at least one to thee belts, since the air conditioning compressor, water pump and power steering pump are driven off of the crankshaft pulley attached to the harmonic balancer.

On the Gen III Prius, there are NO belts.

That makes this seal much easer to replace. Basically, it's removing the engine undercover, removing the harmonic balance retaining bolt, pulling the harmonic balancer, prying off the old seal, and installing he new seal and replacing everything in the reverse order.

The crankshaft seal is Toyota part #9008031049. It lists for $7.87 MSRP.

The job would take 1-2 hours of labor.

$1100-1300 is ridiculous.

 

$1700 for this job in Bellevue WA. They did it because I was using a couple of quarts of oil between 5K checks.. But it didn't change the oil consumption at all! So they kept my $1700 and said I was burning the oil. Frustrating to say the least!

 

So likely just a shot in the dark. Did they say they'd seen leakage from the cover?

 

Hello, I got the same diagnosis from the one time I took my prius to the dealer for an oil change: leaky timing chain cover, about $980 to repair due to labor involved. However, I never lost oil and there was no oil on my driveway; the dealer saw "lots of oil on the side of the engine." (Side note: I wish I had asked them to wipe it clean so I could monitor for new leaks)

I'm so grateful for PriusChat as I was able to research the problem while I was sitting at the dealer and found that this diagnosis happens frequently after a transmission fluid change, which I recently had. I can't remember the reason but perhaps the ATF was over serviced or vented and can be mistaken for engine oil when it sticks on the side of the engine.

Dr. McNeil, had you recently serviced the transmission fluid?

 

Got mine changed last week actually. Found it odd, especially at 71,000 miles, did see a leak but same thing not bad enough to hit ground. Very concerning. Is this a common issue? My warranty covered cost.

 

Must be a moneymaker for the dealerships.

There's an incredible amount of (delicate and intracate) labour involved, in accomplishing this with the engine installed, or the alternate: pulling the engine. I assume they don't do the latter. I would be concerned, that they are doing it to spec. A few excerpts from regular Prius Repair Manual, and bear in mind you would not have a view like this working with the installed engine:

 

The more I look at details D and E, the goofier it seems: preposterous to instruct such accuracy in applying a bead of sealant, in tight, barely reachable quarters. Pretty much a design fail: requires engine removal, to even get close to correct.

 

Looking at the pictures, without the prose, I am assuming the first one is beads you apply on the engine itself (in the tight quarters) at the parting lines of the head to valve cover and block, and block to "oil pan #1". Even that could be a challenge ....

I assume the second picture is of beads you apply on the timing cover itself, and I'd assume with enough finagling you can sneak that cover out of the engine bay to clean it and apply those beads under good light on the bench. That could make it achievable, with a bit of practice.

Not shown in the pictures, but covered in the prose: you have a matter of minutes to get all these beads of FIPG correctly applied, the timing cover finagled back into the engine bay (without knocking the freshly-beaded edges on anything or getting any contaminants on them), lined up with the engine, pressed straight on against it in the proper position in one try, and at least snugged in place with most of the bolts.

Beat the clock, or pull it back out, scrape everything off, and start over.

-Chap

 

I'd be inclined to let it leak, unless it got real bad.

 

My 2012 Prius V is in the shop for the $1100 leaking Time gasket! The leak was pointed out to me three months ago but no oil leaks so I kept driving. Last night the oil lamp flashed once and went out, when I rounded a curve it blinked, again if this had not been at night I would not have seen the red flash. When I got home I parked the car and checked the oil this AM, nothing on the dip stick, I mean NOTHING. I grabbed a quart of oil and added it and the very tip was wet, I drove to the dealership for an oil change and they came out and said the car only had 2.5 quarts of oil in it and that the gasket was leaking very badly. Why would the oil pressure light not come on if I only had 1.5 quarts in the car. I drove with the added single quart, now according to them 2.5 quarts to the dealership 20 miles away still no oil light. This is the second $1000 repair on my Toyota, 115000 miles. This is not the Toyota I once knew. They also started the repair and called three hours later to let me know they did not have all the "gaskets" and would not have them until Monday. I really am not feeling good about my car/dealership.

 

When I bought my 2011 gen3 Prius it already had wasabout 100k miles on it but everything was good and it appeared that the seller had taken good care of the car.
Much to my disbeleif , about 6000 miles later on my second Dealer oil change I was told I had a "Timing Belt Cover Leak, the quote was over $2200. I couldn't afford to have it repaired, and the dealer didn't stress a sense of urgency.
Well the other day , about 1000 miles later, I pull out the dipstick to check the oil and it was showing no oil.
Mind you over the course of 16 Months I have been smelling burnt oil and black resedue build up on my rear bumper

 

Hey guys, I have a person that works at a Toyota dealership on the side. Anyone with head gasket leaks he's able to do a lot cheaper than what the dealership charges. He's located south Orange California so the areas of northern San Diego, Temecula, Orange county. If you're interested in getting any work done just let me know or p.m.

 

Check the severity of the timing chain cover leak for yourself, before committing to anything. You can look from above, down the passenger side end of the engine. Better look is by removing the front passenger wheel, and partially disconnecting the plastic panel at the back of the wheel well, just enough that you can flex the plastic out of the way. If the leak is minor I would just live with it. FWIW dealership were quoting $1700 in the States, mentioned here at Priuschat in past, so maybe shop around. Or just talk to them.

You've got to stay on top of monitoring the oil, keeping it topped up, and keep records to work out the oil consumption per mile. I'd doubt it's the leaking timing chain cover, but I think you're at the same conclusion, with the observation about soot around the tail pipe. It could be stuck piston rings? Look into compression and leak-down tests, and maybe boroscope through the spark plug holes.

Is the engine coolant level steady?

Exhaust Gas Recirculation circuit, AND the intake manifold, are both prone to clog up with carbon, which can in turn cause a lot of other problems: the engine will tend to run hotter once the clogging is well along, and it's pretty much inevitable, with third gen EGR design. The Positive Crankcase Ventilation circuit also dumps a lot of crud into the intake manifold.

 

That is what I'm thinking. Why is everyone being quoted so much because they're being told you have to remove the engine to do it? Did I miss something or can you do it how you just described in this post?

 

It could be the crankshaft seal, but at least as often it seems to be somewhere along the perimeter of the timing chain cover. Removing the latter is more involved.

 

I'm hoping a stop leak will keep things under control for the next couple of months. I'm going to proceed and replace gasket for timing cover and crankshaft.

 

I'm considering buying a 2014 Prius Plug-in. Looking at the left side of the motor, I see oil covering a part, close to the timing cover. See

After I pointed it out, the owner had it looked by a mechanic. The mechanic said it's a timing cover seepage and not a big deal. If it gets worse, at $1700+ to repair, I would think otherwise.

Mendel, do you think this could be a crankshaft leak?

 

Hopefully, here's the picture:

IMG_20200202_133259 by Jeanlucbr posted Feb 8, 2020 at 8:51 PM