Noob needs advice

So I was going to replace my passenger side LBJ when I came across this
and this
I honestly don't exactly know what I'm looking at. Could someone tell me what it is, what's wrong, and how serious it is?

 

The first picture is your sway bar link. It looks like it's missing the lower bolt or at least the nut. You should replace that. Your sway bar link bushing are shot though so I would order new sway bar links/bushings.

In the 2nd picture, that's the boot that covers your inner tie rod. Hard to say if you need just a new boot or if there is a bigger issue.

Have you identified the source of what appears to be a significant oil leak?

 

Looks like the nut fell off the stabilizer link. No biggie. Find the right size nut and lock washer and replace.

The dust boot you’ll have to order through Toyota. Check to make sure you’re not leaking steering fluid. A slow seep is okay.

It may a lot of fluid that leaked into the boot and caused it to fail by ripping under a compromised state. If that’s the case you’re probably looking at a new or rebuilt steering rack.

 

I'm thinking all the fluid came from up high, and is likely their valve covers or the half-moon knockout plug leaking oil onto everything below. If @Seethan can give us a picture of the last cylinder on the block, taken from about where the master cylinder is, with good lighting down the back of the engine, I think we can quickly tell if that's the case. I'm shocked he wasn't noticing any burning oil smell after substantial driving.

But yeah. Rest of it is easy-peasy.

 

The leak is from the power steering. I’ve had it “fixed” multiple times with no success. The fluid has been caked onto everything in the engine bay from leaking that went on for who knows how long. When I top it off, it leaks almost completely out within a week or so.

Would you be able to give me an example of what you want to see?

 

Example here, shoot from the (X), toward the star, so we can see the exhaust manifold, the last coil pack, and back of the engine block. (see more text after the pic).

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And I'm skeptical - unless your power steering rack is squirting fluid vertically, there's no reason your swaybar should be caked with wetness, and your bellhousing should be caked with wetness. I also highly doubt the RMS is leaking, but maybe it is, definitely doesn't look like a rack leak to me, except maybe where the boot is torn, but doubt it's causing everything above the yellow line here, and no way it's coating the back side of the swaybar like that.

This yellow line is at the highest point of everything power steering related unless I'm totally nuts. Look at all the fluid above the yellow line. That's coming from way up higher. If that's what you've been trying to repair working on your power steering, I think there's a reason it's not getting "fixed". Just look at all the fluid above the uppermost word "BELLHOUSING". That's at least 10" above the rack. Does your rack have arterial spray happening?

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He has the V6 so his picture of where to look may be slightly different for valve covers. Also, it looks more like engine oil than power steering fluid.

 

What a beautifully clean engine
Here’s mine
And here’s the picture (hopefully I got what you were looking for)
I agree, it’s coming from up high. This is the area that it emanates from, which is where the power steering fluid goes into. The leak at least comes from the passenger side, the driver side is completely dry.
Also, would any fluid leak from the torn boot?

 

I would just wipe it all down and look where it’s leaking after driving around the block. Looks like there’s enough fluid it should be easy to see.

 

Yup, if it was V8, the leaking from VC would be farther forward, in front of the xmember the rack is installed.

This ^^ is the next step

Took me about 45 minutes and some non-aggressive cleaner to get there. Some brushes etc. I think the cleaner cost like $10, I used the foaming GUNK brand. But I prefer the Griot's version, it's more-spendy. I prefer foaming so it can sit. And you need a decent brush.

Anyway, It's interesting it's casting car above the cap of the PS reservoir. Even on the side opposite the belt and pulley.

I'm curious to see if there's anything going on in this spot (one more pic and more text after the pic):

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But it would appear as if maybe the reservoir or its lines could be leaking onto its pulley, and the pulley is throwing it up. But I'm confused because it looks like the engine cover is set back. You'd really need to wipe it all down, throw the front of the truck up on jackstands so the front wheels are off the ground, fire it up, and turn the wheel lock to lock several times, then look for where the leaks are. It's possible someone used aftermarket lines, or one of the attached PS lines here aren't cinched down, or are potentially even the wrong thread (we've read a few threads where people used aftermarket and they totally didn't match the right threads as OEM)

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I wouldn’t be surprised if it is because of aftermarket lines. I also wouldn’t be surprised if all that leakage is from a while ago. We got this thing about 5 years (and 150000 miles) ago and all that gunk was already there. I really should clean it to see if it is still leaking. The only leak I know for sure is happening seems to be coming from the boot, but I’ll check to make sure. It may be a bit before I get to it, though, since tomorrow is supposed to bring bad weather and with christmas being this weekend. I’ll give an update once I get it done.

 

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And I'm skeptical - unless your power steering rack is squirting fluid vertically, there's no reason your swaybar should be caked with wetness, and your bellhousing should be caked with wetness. I also highly doubt the RMS is leaking, but maybe it is, definitely doesn't look like a rack leak to me, except maybe where the boot is torn, but doubt it's causing everything above the yellow line here, and no way it's coating the back side of the swaybar like that.

This yellow line is at the highest point of everything power steering related unless I'm totally nuts. Look at all the fluid above the yellow line. That's coming from way up higher. If that's what you've been trying to repair working on your power steering, I think there's a reason it's not getting "fixed". Just look at all the fluid above the uppermost word "BELLHOUSING". That's at least 10" above the rack. Does your rack have arterial spray happening?

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I'm not saying it definitely is the steering rack, but when my steering rack shit the bed, the entire bottom of the motor was covered in oil well above the steering rack. I was doing 80+ mph on the highway for hours, right before I discovered it, I'm sure that sort of wind pressure cause the oil to be blown up above the rack...it's very turbulent under there.

 

Looks like you need a new rack, tie rods, and valve cover gaskets. Your lines look good from what I can see, possibly they changed them and missed a small o ring or something though. I know on the rack side they have them. Give it a good thorough cleaning as others have suggested, to be sure. I like using foaming stuff like shiftster mentioned, or even simple green works. Spray it all over the engine and under it, and then drive to a DIY carwash that has the hot water pressure washers. Those carwash's are designed to catch and separate oil and even metal's, will keep it off your driveway and out of the ground. The hot water does wonders getting all that crap off with the help of a soft brush. Post us an update, we love this stuff

 

Agree w/ Shifty. Get some engine cleaner and clean up the PS reservoir, lines and pump so you can see where it’s leaking. My 2000 was leaking at both hoses attached to the reservoir. One hose was available from Toyota but the other they wanted to sell me the entire hardline with hose attached so I bought one off RockAuto to cannabilize just the rubber part and tossed the metal line in the recycle bin.

 

Gotta be careful with the green colored Simple Green. It's corrosive to some alloys, for example, but generally bad for a few different kinds of metal, as it says on the bottle. It'll strip anodizing off aluminum, leaving it exposed to the elements. US Dept. of Interior banned it from aircraft use back in 2000. You basically can't let it sit on affected metals and soak, you need to quickly and completely rinse, but it's tough to fully rinse to the degree required inside an engine bay. There's a full list of impacted metals on the package - it's worth reading the label - I didn't believe it the first time I heard it.

The purple colored Simple Green (HD) isn't quite as effective, but is metal-safe. I've switched to using purple vs. green unless it's something I know won't get screwed up.

 

Damn, I’ve used simple green on all my wheel’s forever.

 

Ditto. Fortunately, nearly all of mine were clearcoated alloys. If you have straight ano'd alloy, you'll notice pitting eventually.

I can post pics what it'll do to straight ano'd alloy when I finally get my shop back in order. I've had it perma-screwup an old Nervar BMX crankset, and I've bought a few Stronglight alloy cranksets where they were pitted to high hell, but the bike didn't hang outside. It's really bad on boat aluminum, for canopies, will pit them all to hell.

 

On the Porsche forum, simple green ist verboten motoren zu zaubern

 

Yeah, I should have put a disclaimer. I am well aware of the metal issue's, but have never had a problem. I use the foam degreaser before I drive to the car wash and bring simple green with me. I use it with a long handled soft brush and SG after first spray down, and then spray it down an additional time. Honestly use whatever you want, but the heated water is a game changer.

 

Did you fix it?

 

I might get flamed for this, but my sequoia engine looks the same with oil everywhere. It's not enough that I have to add oil between changes so I'm going to let it keep leaking. I do spray it off with degreaser every once in while so I can feel like I made a little bit of effort

For the steering rack boot get OEM. I bought a napa one and it lasted all of 5,000 miles. Also they are side specific (I learned that they hard way)

 

You're not gonna get shit from me. My truck is absolutely covered underneath. Oil, trans juice, diff juice, coolant, I got all of em everywhere. It's not worth it trying to clean it. I'd have to pull the motor to clean it all.

 

It seems that it’s only leaking out of the boot, or more seeping… Nothing coming from above.

 

get a bigger dishwasher.