CAM SHAFT TOWER SEAL LEAKING ** PLEASE READ***

No one pays for the repair. Labour cost is too high (all data time) it’s always warranty. Either factory or extended (it’s a bitch convincing the extended warranty companies to pay for it though)

 

I was curious and ask. Ya i was quoted just for one side $2500CAD

 

Its an expensive repair for sure, a lot to remove to get the towers out and then reinstall.

 

I did my buddies 5.7 for him. Told him 400 bucks and I tried it without removing the timing cover. It worked. And it’s been leak free for 1 year. I think it’s how I’ll tackle them if I get customer pay ones. I can cut the labor down at least.

still took damn near 6 hours. But way less stuff to remove

 

This is how the dealer did my truck, no timing cover removal either. I have watched a youtube video where a Toyota tech does them this way as well.

 

Nice!
All I can say is good job bro! Good techs like you is why I love my 5.7! And human hands will always do better job then freaking machines!!

 

That’s the video I was shown to try. And I did. Will do more that way likely.

 

I try to do my best! Lol

 

Well...in 20 years I've never kept a vehicle more than 4 or 5 years and I only drive 8-10K miles per year so this issue should be under warranty the entire time I own the vehicle and not really my problem.

 

Thanks

 

I’m sickened to have this be my first post. Although my 2013 is well past the 5 year warranty mark I only just turned 60,000 miles on my dream truck and have faulty seals on both sides. I was quoted $8,000 by our dealer. I filed a complaint with Toyota Corporate and more importantly with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). If any of you who’ve had this problem file we might be able to force a recall or at least an investigation. It would be a huge help for those of us out of warranty. Great community here, with a wealth of information by the way, thanks. Here’s the link. It only takes about 3 minutes. I stressed that the oil drips onto the exhaust and has potential to cause a fire.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

 

Welcome to the club. However, from what I understand, $8k is robbery for this repair. You should probably be paying half of that. I'd check with another dealer. Good luck.

 

What's the flash point of 0W-20 and what's the surface temperature of the heat shield at that location?

 

Thanks for the welcome. Totally agreed, unfortunately it’s the only dealer in our state, Alaska has pretty slim pickings. We’re looking at having an independent shop do our repair if Toyota won’t help cover the cost. It’s a crying shame on such a low mileage truck.

 

I would think it has a fairly low chance of it actually catching fire, but I’m hoping stressing the potential will help push some action on Toyota’s part or NHTSA.

 

Unfortunately, if no one has been able to convince Toyota to do anything about it in the last 13 years, it's unlikely they'll do anything now with a new Tundra most likely on the way in less than 2 years.

 

I think both sides are leaking on mine 2017 40k miles. What’s the next step?

 

Your passenger side will most likely be called a "weep", but your driver side looks like a leak due to it beading up. Next step is to get it into the dealer and have them get the process started with Toyota. Mine just said they'd do it and didn't mention asking Toyota at all, but other people say their dealers need "approval" from the mothership. Good luck!

 

I’d pay $26 at least they fixed it and barely any cost !

 

It won't. I've seen far, far worse oil leaks on autos sitting at a traffic light, they just smoke and smoke and smoke...

 

I do wonder if I didn't belong to a site like this and I hadn't read about the CAM tower leaks and I wasn't looking for it would this ever be noticed by me during my tenure of ownership? This could be very widespread but because it does not cause any obvious signs other than some disappearing oil and a smell a very low signal on Toyota's radar. The result being Toyota only has to fix a fraction of 5.7L engines for the small percentage of owners who actually notice. Or, it could be a truly very small percentage of engines with this issue. I'd be nice to know which...

 

Agreed it just smells bad and leaves spots on you drive log a dog marking it territory!

 

Well I've been blessed by the Toyota gods as well it turns out. I bought it 70k flat and done multiple oil changes since then. 2014 DC SR5 at 90k. Any input on how to remedy this situation at the lowest cost? I'd greatly appreciate it

 

I have a 2014 tundra with 135k miles, and I also have a cam tower leak . Since I don’t have a warranty anymore what are my options? Would it be worth buying a extended warranty ?

 

I may be ignorant, but I'd think any company selling warranties would want to do an inspection before giving a warranty. Honestly, unless it's leaking really bad and you're losing a lot of oil between changes, I'd just let it go. My 2018 was leaking at about 8,000 miles so I had it fixed under warranty, but they screwed something else up and bought it back. My 2010 is now also leaking but I'm not losing a noticeable amount of oil so I'm just gonna let it go until it gets worse. Really the only option outside of warranty is to fork over the few thousand dollars it costs to get it repaired.

 

Warranties typically will want inspections before you buy. And if you read small print typically won’t cover the leak unless it’s pouring out.

 

What did they screw up doing the cam tower job?

 

Not sure exactly. After the repair, it was making some whining noise under acceleration at a certain RPM. They opened it back up 2 more times and it was still making the noise, so I told them I didn't want the truck anymore. The next step was to get a Toyota engineer out there, but I don't think the dealer wanted to get involved with that since it was obviously their fault, so they bought the truck back essentially at what I would have received under a lemon law claim.

Here's some more info:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/acceleration-does-this-sound-normal.37378/

 

To check, are you guys looking from the top of the engine or going under the truck and looking up?

 

You can see cam tower leaks through the wheel well