I was hoping some of you knowledgeable members could help me identify this hard gummy/gunky material apparently coming out of the engine of my 2013 Prius with 133K miles. Have you seen anything like this? Is it a melting seal or something? Nothing wrong with the car as far as I can tell, except for an occasional, very subtle chirpy noise under soft acceleration. I've owned it for less than 3 months and I am learning a lot on this forum. Thank you for your contributions.
Not sure I would say that is coming "out of the engine". A slightly wider shot to identify the surrounding area a little better might be helpful.
There's little dabs of sealant spec'd to be applied there: Basically because there's a 3-way junction there, between the head (on the right), the timing chain cover (on the left), and the valve cover (aka "cylinder head cover sub-assembly") (over). The little triangular "dart" is the valve cover gasket I believe. A pic of ours:
Sam and Mendel, thank you for your replies. Wow, Mendel, that area looks super clean compared to mine. I'm slightly embarrassed Would you say the seal in my car looks OK though? I'm just concerned it looks like it has melted a bit.
We're low miles, garage-stored, and I'm a little OCD about these things: hit the engine bay with a leaf blower (or wet/dry on blow) occasionally, in conjunction with a little brushing. Never sprayed water on it, can be a recipe for disaster. That's one thing I noticed, the blob on yours looks more generous. Could depend on the factory worker's attention/mood. If you've just acquired a 3rd gen it's good to be aware of issues, that unscrupulous sellers would not disclose. Head gasket failure is the main one (which "might" be the other reason for the more generous blob). Coolant loss would be one clue. Aforementioned water pump might be struggling due to head gasket sealant added to the coolant. On the other hand, those water pumps do have a high failure rate, best to replace before 150K. So maybe the sky is not falling, but keep your eyes open.
Thank you so much for your replies and suggestions! I am keeping an eye on coolant level as I did have to add some right after I got the car. No noticeable drop so far. And I will be replacing the water pump before 150k for sure.
EGR and intake manifold cleaning would be very timely, see my signature (on phone turn it landscape to see signature).
