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

I thought the timing chain cover only had to come off of both sides were being done. But I could be wrong about that.

 

You are likely correct, but I kept hearing that its removal was part of the repair process and I wondered if the new way to fix this issue didn't require it having to be taken off

 

Well, I am at 26000 miles on my 2017 crewmax and still love the truck! She has been leaking from the passenger side cam tower beginning at @6000 miles and finally got to the point where it started to smell and smoke occasionally so she went under the knife this week. I have delayed this repair as long as I could and have been extremely hesitant due to the invasiveness of this procedure but it needed to be repaired. It’s still in recovery and I pick it up Monday..When I dropped it off the other day they were great, the toyota supervisor is a quite, soft spoken guy, but extremely knowledgeable and after looking at it for less than 5 minutes with his light, he showed me both cam towers were leaking as well as the timing chain cover too and they would take care of it. He advised he sees way too many of these 3rd generations with this problem and they have repaired many(over 100 for small dealership). Appears that the sealant material for the timing cover is the same and leaks are common so be on the look out.....On a positive note, he has never had any come back after the repair..Toyota has not recalled this but has acknowledged the issue and is repairing.... Time will tell, pick it up next week but so far Toyota has been great on this issue. Wish me luck.

 

good luck! I haven’t decided if I’m going to do it yet or not.

 

Finally decided to drop mine off today to have passenger side cam tower and front cover resealed. Also at 26000 miles. Really didnt want to do it but it started to drip. Been visibly leaking since 4000 miles. Sucks that it is so invasive to fix a darn leak on a new truck.

 

Just got mine back today..all is good so far but time will tell.....

 

Which dealer?

 

I don’t see any signs of leak or residue but not sure I’m looking in the right spot. Does this look good to go?

 

Finally found the dreaded cam shaft tower leak. I have a 2012 w/69K on the odometer. Took it in today, Toyota offered $1300 towards the repair. Not bad considering I'm out of warranty by a few years. Hopefully have my truck back in a few days (although they gave me a 2020 Tundra to drive around).

 

I think it is preference. The guy that did mine tried without taking everything apart but said it was a pain so he took it apart to get the best seal he could (he is a tundra owner). 20K miles later and no issues yet. It sucked seeing a new truck torn apart but its over with now and I dont have to worry

 

From your pictures, I see no evidence of a leak.

 

I looked on my '20 with 3k miles, no signs. Clearly had it on my '18 that I traded.

 

I just picked up my '20. Not sure if anyone with a 2020 has reported a leak yet. Hopefully I don't end up with one but time will tell.

 

I do not see any evidence of a leak on my truck. Should I check it after drive or would it be visible after sitting in my drive way for a couple hours. I do get a whiff of what seems to be an oil burning smell occasionally while driving. Could that be because of this?

 

Check after both occasions, that way you're more certain to catch it if it is prone to leak.

 

Just to add to the discussion. I got mine back a week or so ago and the dealer ended up removing the cab to do both cam towers and timing cover...Seems pretty invasive but less time involved to lift the cab up than working around all the components and allows for better access for resealing. So far so good....

 

Wow, that is wild that they have to remove cab for seal. Did they take any pics with cab off for you?

I got mine back the other day too. Only did passenger side and used shortcut that didnt involve removing timing cover. Still have a wet spot on timing cover but will have it addressed at a later date.

 

There was another post earlier in this thread talking about cab off repair. Think they had pictures. Seems excessive but what do I know.

 

Here ya go... explanation I got and makes sense was since mine was leaking from both cam towers and timing cover,(at 26000 miles) best access to all 3 seals in order to get a good clean repair, the dealership prefers cab removal. I know everyone has an opinion, I trust the service manager, their repair background and history so who am I to criticize. Their opinion is they don’t want to see the same truck twice for the same issue, if any are weeping or show sign of failure they go after all of them....So far so good, time will tell..

 

This actually doesn’t look as invasive now that I see a picture of it. Makes a lot of sense to work on the motor like this.

 

As long as they don't have any bolts left over when they done...

 

Great pic.

 

Too bad I didn't see this sooner I could have told you the bed didn't have to come off, you can actually do it with just the cab off. JK It's a little tight though and you have to bungie cord some things to keep aligned. Save some $$ an time.

 

you can sneak the cam phasers off the cams and hold the chain tight with a bungee cord and the gears on. its a very tight fit, but it does allow the job to be done without the timing cover coming off. That cover is time consuming to take off. Removing the cab like above is a bit excessive. but seeing how we do frames it also does not take long at all to get a cab off...

 

Used to watch the SR-71 Habu's take off every late afternoon at Kadena AFB, Okinawa in 1980. The SR-71 hanger was next to ours. They'd taxi out past us and you could see fuel dripping from it. Awesome aircraft. No cam tower leak...heh...heh...

 

There’s some merit to that. I’d do it if warranty would cover it but I’d probably not if I had to pay for it - unless it was real bad. My Lexus RX350 has a very small leak near the rear seals - a couple drops a week and it’s out of warranty. Won’t bother to fix it.

 

Nice! When I was a kid, I lived at Edwards AFB in California and got to see the SR-71 fly a couple times. Was even able to meet a few pilots since my dad worked with them. I got the nick name Habu as a BMX racer because one of the popular brands at the time was mongoose. This brought back a flood of memories for some reason.
Oh yeah I think my truck had this leak, going to go drive it today for a bit and see if I can find the source of the burning oil smell.

 

Got my truck back on Friday. Repair complete, I'm out around $1K after Toyota chipped in $1.3K. On a brighter note, apparently some squirrels made a nice nest in my intake. I'm watching for them now. I'm going to start with spray and move up the ladder to more extreme methods.

 

What year is your truck? Why did you have to pay out of pocket?

 

My truck is a 2012 w/70K miles. I was pretty happy they paid what they did. The dealership didn't think they were going to offer anything at first.