Rear main seal leak after large service

Good morning, I had a large service done by a dealership. Timing belt, water pump, entire brake system (drum, calipers, pins, pad, brake flush), rear axel bearings and seals, differential flush. It was 5500$. I looked under the truck a week after and it's leaking oil. I took it back to them now they say the rear main seal needs to be replaced. Is there a chance their initial repairs caused this leak?

 

I don’t see how it could be. But I’ll ask: are you 100% sure it’s not the valve covers? So many people with leaks around the rear of the block due to the valve covers and/or half moon plugs. I could very well see a hasty technician conflating the two. We very rarely ever see RMS leaks on these trucks. In 5 years I can’t recall the last time on here, if ever. Always coming from the top of the heads somewhere.

There are products that aren’t a gimmick which you can trust to shore up an RMS leak, safely, like

$21 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205. It’s not a seal sweller, it’s a seal refresher.

 

I am depending on the dealers expertise. It's on the lift now. I can mention the valve covers I'll keep you posted.

 

I hate dealerships. At the very least I would have checked the bolts holding down the valve covers. There’s been a few instances where they’ve backed out enough to cause leaks

 

Another random fact. A LOT of dealerships are leaning on repairs right now since car sales are plummeting. During the pandemic cars were staying in the lot an average of 4-7days. At a cost of $100-$150 a day to keep a car that’s nothing if you sell the car at a crazy mark up. But NOW cars staying upwards to 75+ days. And dealerships are barely breaking even on the cars they have so they are REALLY pushing repairs to stay a float

 

They didn't acquire the name "stealership" for nothing. It's hard to find a legit one. I would NEVER pay a dealer for anything other than basic service unless there wasn't a Toyota specialist nearby. And I don't know many cities that don't have at least one honest former-dealership-mechanic that specializes in Toyota. Stealership service departments have the M.O. of giving you an already-high quote, marking up parts at or above MSRP, concatenating labor hours when they know damn well "they're already in there" and won't need the extra hours. Then, some of the worse ones will start getting into the repairs and suddenly "Oh no, found XYZ is messed up, it'll cost you another 25% of the original quote!". Sort of like what you're seeing now, with this supposed RMS leak they're saying exists.

 

Additionally, the original service inspection didn't find a problem with leaking oil. Days after the service I discovered it because I don't trust blindly any mechanic. I told them my suspicion is that something they did has caused this. They are discussing my options internally at this point.

 

Here is a picture of what I discovered

 

Is all across the board, not just the stealership but the independent shops start doing the same shit now days. I used to have this trusted independent small shop next to me and I would take my truck or SUV there for items that the stealership quoted thousands. But one day everything changed. I had to do my spark plugs and the indy quote was higher than the dealership. I was like WTF? Then it gets better. The dealership is asking me to replace both of my headlamps and quoted me $1600. I turn around and purchased 2 OEM headlamps for $300 and I ask my indy for the labor charges. The indy quoted me $460 for labor according to their BOOK, don't know what this magic book is? So I started to peal the onion a bit, did some research and realized that changing each headlamp is about 10-20 minutes max, 3 screws and 2 trim clips, unplug and plug the wires back into the headlamp. I confronted the indy to ask what their book is saying and they said is more than 1 hour per headlamp to change and then I asked for their hourly labor charge and things didn't add up to the $460 quote. I said fuck it, did myself and never went back for business to that indy shop.

So yes independent shops start doing pretty much the same

 

That's a pretty decent size leak to conveniently "miss".

 

what you needed to do what put this as a review on google. Have the owner’s name and tech’s name present in the review. Hold them accountable and make sure nobody else goes to them. That’s a full blown scam.
HIT’EM where it hurts. The $$$$

 

I haven't written my review yet waiting to see what they do. Before I questioned their install they wanted 2300$ to repair the RMS. This is a large dealership in the jax, fl area. 4.7 stars on Google reviews. I am an out of town subcontractor working on a project here. Driving a rental currently. Just a nightmare, I hope they make this right. 8k total for a repair seems unbelievable. I'm in shock a bit honestly.

 

I already did and I told the owner, I give you the business, but I TAKE you away the business. He ain't happy but I don't care. We all work for money.

 

$8k at a dealership shouldn’t be a shock. I’ve seen them charge over $100 for an air filter change. Ex was gonna get charged $750 to change the valve cover over her Buick. The valve cover cost $200 and there was only 8-10bolts holding it down. $550 in labor for that. I raised my voice in the room with all the other customers stating “you’re gonna charge me $550 in labor for 10 bolts?! You’re scamming people.” The tech just stood there and didn’t have anything to say but “yessir” f

fucking dweebs

 

If it is rear main, labor (according to all data) is 7.1 hrs. Part 90311-38051 $14.59. My shop (for example) has a door rate of $199.99 x 7.1 + $14.59 = $1434.51 before taxes and shop supplies. Well under the quote.

 

For those wondering how this turned out they said they will reduce the price for repair to 1300 from 2300. Mainly because they failed to find an issue initially.

 

Id throw in the “my time is $$” and if you have to return for any further repairs due to your dealership’s negligence everything will be done for free.

 

This looks suspiciously like they have been caught in a lie and they are backtracking to try to stave off additional investigation. I would take it to an independent shop and have all the work that they supposedly did verified. There should be witness marks on everything. In addition, I would have them confirm a RMS leak, or try to determine the cause of this mysterious leak. This whole thing sounds shady.

 

I have 6 vehicles and not one of them will ever go to a dealership. EVER. I don't trust any shop really. Having that many vehicles allows me to research problem, and tackle it myself without the "rush" of needing it to be able to drive. Most would be amazed at how "easy" most things are on a vehicle. I know having certain tools makes it easier and that is true, but I get to buy some "goodies" that I will probably use on the other vehicles I have as well. Still, outside of dumb engineering like starters under intakes, the ridiculousness of replacing heater cores now a days and straight up engine/trans work.. it's really not that bad.

 

i just had my truck up the lift and the mechanic said I also have a rear main leak. I’ll check my valve cover bolts to make sure it’s not that. But what are the half moon plugs? How do I check those?

And should I just add

$21 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205 now for good measure? That just goes in the oil filler cap?

 

Full bottle in the oil fill location. Drive around for 200-300 miles. Last report I heard from @Dakillacore it tightened his right up? RMS leaks are actually where I learned abotu the product.

Half moons .... look at this picture: https://tnstatic.net/attachments/upload_2024-10-21_17-52-18-png.1045671/

See those two arrows at the back of the head, toward the firewall? They're these things below. And there's a process to re-seal them over here in one of the first links. Or watch the video linked in that reply and watch a person do them proper.

Need to check if they're your leak source? Look at the back of your head for traces of oil, you may need a mirror. You can see where they are at the back of the engine.

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Yeah, my leak was cleaned up well so far with

$21 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205. I still check after a hundred miles or so.

 

Thanks for that insight, guys. I’m grateful for this knowledgeable community.

 

This is my before and after. It's not a perfect 100% fix as there is still some seepage. It'll need to be replaced at some point in time, but the

$21 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205 is giving me a lot more breathing room as to when I have to officially deal with this leak.

Before photo was taken about 500+ miles ago. I degreased it and cleaned it up after the photo. It was actually worse as I had multiple small areas where it was slowly dripping.

The after photo was taken just now (after a short drive to the store and going through a car wash). It's dramatically better, but not perfect.