Timing Chain Cover Oil Leak 2013 Prius Plugin

There's been a few reports of the cover leaking, usually the bill is higher, $1700+. Not a fun job, in tight quarters. The Repair Manual shows the caulking sequence and torque spec's, seems crazy complicated.

 

Yep, I started one of those threads.

Timing cover oil leak | PriusChat

Mine was detected at 46k, but it was pretty minor. I was quoted the exact same amount, $1700 for the repair, before I reminded them that the car was still under the engine/powertrain warranty.

 

ouch, that would be a bitter out of warranty pill to swallow.

 

I noticed a slight seepage from the cover early on, but didn't pay much mind to it. Had it at the dealer a couple of years ago at 90 k and they said they would fix it. Would have been $1506 had I not had the extended warranty. But an example of a dealer being proactive, which on this site is uncommon.

I do not frequent this dealer anymore though ( they cracked the valve cover on the wife's 98 4Runner and I had to find it before driving off the lot).

 

sigh...looks just like mine. It's out of warranty and not a major oil leak so not paying for the repair. I suspect this is common on most since the area is very difficult to see. Wishful thinking this a design defect and/or assembly error that would trigger a recall? Guess we need to see the engine go up in flames from the leaking oil to get NHTSA's attention.

 

Wishful thinking. If Toyota says a quart of oil every 600 miles is ok, what's a little on the engine block?

A couple of months ago I had the "pleasure" of working on my old man's 96 GMC Sierra. Job was to replace the PCV valve. Popped the hood and every surface had oil on it. I asked if it always looked like this ( he's had it since 2004). The response was unfortunately yes.

So it could be worse. The breakdown on my invoice was $120 in parts and the remainder was labor. Probably a good multi day endeavor if you DIY. But that would be if the leak gets worse

 

My understanding is that the official procedure involves removing the engine/transaxle from the car (by removing the subframe), but some techs have found ways to perform the repair w/o removing the engine.

 

Considering this caulking instruction:



And then this torque sequence:


Engine removal's maybe not a bad idea. Crazy amount of labour though.

 

thank you so much

 

I was told that removing the front/rear mounts, the passenger side axle, oil filter housing and one other item, along with lifting the motor, will give you enough room (barely). When mine starts to leak, I plan to give this a try.

Toyota has a tendency to specify engine removal for a lot of jobs. Control arms and water pumps (on the early 2gr-fe) come to mind. But both can be done w/o engine removal by removing the motor mounts and carefully lifting the engine by a small amount.

 

I plan to give 0w30 a try

 

"Leaking oil through a porous sealant."

Damn. On a Prius that's only 3 years old?! And only 46K miles? This is really disturbing. Are there incidents like this on all Prius models? How common is it?

I had some kind of recall on my Camry... involving the camshaft bearing. And that's when they discovered leaking oil through the gaskets. I didn't believe it at first, but the service manager swore up and down, and said it's very common and he sees it all the time. He blames it on "human error", sloppy assembly, etc. He yelled at me, "ALL TOYOTA ENGINES LEAK OIL!" I WOULDN'T HAVE A JOB IF THEY DIDN'T!"

Are there any other Prius threads about leaking oil? I'd like to read more.

 

It's not common. But I've known people who had brand new cars fail. Anything can fail. As far as I've seen, Prius is one of the most reliable cars available. They are super reliable, and proven (except, the 2016 is all-new, but it's most likely even better). 46K is well within the drivetrain warranty, so if it's going to fail, that's a good time.

 

Just had this problem with my 2013 Prius with 85,000 miles on it. Took it to dealer for routine service and was told the engine needed to be removed to fix it and the price is $2500! Out of warranty. Should Toyota cover this type of recurring problem?

 

welcome!
i wouldn't bother fixing it, are you seeing oil where you park?

 

was your camry made in usa?

 

You're only 15,000 miles out of warranty so you should ask if you can get some goodwill coverage out of Toyota. The quotation is also outrageously high. The first post in this thread is someone who had a Toyota dealer do the exact same work for $1,350.

 

Yep. Assembled by those good, pot-smoking American workers. The Service Manager told me "every Toyota engine leaks (or will leak) oil due to sloppy human assembly." He then said he "wouldn't have a job" if they didn't leak oil! I couldn't believe the Service Manager would make those statements, especially in the waiting room full of customers.

So I emailed his comments to the head Sales Manager, and to the General Manager, to let them know how their Service Manager is bad-mouthing Toyota products. But then I said (sarcastically), "maybe he's the only honest service guy at Toyota? Maybe what he says is true, and he should get employee of the month!

 

we've had 7, up to 135,000 miles, with no leaking whatsoever. we treat our cars well, and don't abuse them. i always wonder how cars with problems are treated, but we'll never know. some people who abuse their cars don't even know that they're doing it.