Update: Leaking main seal 2200 miles

Indeed ! ..glad they took care of you quick

 

Small update, had my dealership appointment today (got it moved up). Showed the service manager the same pictures I posted here and they asked to have the pictures emailed to them because they would be contacting Toyota right away. Apparently they are talking to Toyota and need to remove the transmission first to determine where the leak is coming from. They said they are going to need to keep my truck for a while so I'm picking up a loaner tomorrow.

 

yup. sounds about right. my freeze plug was dripping oil right above rear main seal. they took video, sent to corporate and they approved a new short block

 

After driving around in a loaner Corolla for almost a week, I got my truck back today. Turns out it was the Rear Main Seal (RMS). Drove home, immediately went underneath to verify and so far it's dry.

 

Keep an eye on it after a week or so. They replaced my rear main seal also thinking that was the issue but it wasnt. Mine was a freeze plug on the block. Hopefully it is though so you dont have to go thru what i did....

 

I must have the worst luck. Look at this 'free gift' from the dealer while my truck was in for the rear main seal. The dealer at first denied being at fault. So together we looked at their camera footage (I took pictures of their screen) showing my truck with under 1500 miles going in was perfect, and when they brought it around to deliver it back to me, the passenger side bumper was damaged.

Obviously they are going to fix it, but I really rather give them a parts list and do it myself. Another reason why I try to never let anyone touch my truck!

I better not need a short block like @Esoto787 after all this.

 

Oh wow... This is crazy.

 

Thats obviously dealer fault. Someone either backed into it or tech hit something. Id be mad but at least they are fixing it. Ridiculous.

 

And mine is leaking again... just started but I look at it every day now.

Toyota might be monitoring the freeze plug situation because I got copies of the pictures that were taken by the dealership and sent to Toyota for warranty approval, and one is focused on the freeze plug (below), others are of the rear main seal.

I guess I'll get the front end damage fixed first, then go back to a different dealership for attempt #2 to fix this.

Updated (Jan 2) picture showing the leak is continuing, still waiting on body parts to be painted so I can install them before I go in for another attempt to get this fixed.

 

This thread gives me too much stress. Gonna sit on the 2016 a while longer.

 

My BIL is dealing with the same issue on his 2024 SR5 with 13k miles. He noticed the leak and took it in, dealer claimed that it was from the 10k oil change (never cleaned properly by the tech). He came back home and cleaned it more, drove 150 miles and it’s leaking again. He will be taking it back to dealership next week.

 

Update, my truck was dropped off at the dealer again a few days ago for the 2nd time. I just got a call from the dealer saying that Toyota approved a short block replacement under warranty at 1920 miles since they already did the rear main seal a few hundred miles prior and that did not fix the oil leak from the back of the engine.

 

They use loctite as a sealer when they press those rear plugs in at the factory. An oversized drilled hole is the reason for replacement.

 

Good to hear Toyota is taking care of this !

 

Kind of shocked they replace the whole short block for that. Why not just make an oversized plug and have tech install?

 

because this is probably the start of another engine debacle. The second poster having the same issue in his brothers truck makes me thing the 24+ is going to be having a new failure point.

 

It's nothing new, this was happening about 4 years ago. Evidently a machining issue but not sure of the cause. Could be a worn tool or machine that does this over time, but one would think they would have a handle on it by now.

 

Same happened to me. Havent had any issues since short block replacement. I must say the dealership did a pretty damn good job

 

Just a quick update, my BIL is also getting the short block replacement on his ‘24. Hopefully that will be it. He is definitely considering getting the extended warranty.

 

Best of luck for your BIL with it. I just got mine back after 10 days in the shop with a new short block. Hoping to be problem free now. I'm doing another engine break-in for the first 1000 miles on the new block and then another break-in oil change right after that.

The dealer confirmed that the oil gallery plug (picture below) was where the oil leak was coming from.

 

Wish I didn't have to post this but I still have an oil leak (and maybe a new one too) after the short block replacement. First picture is the rear main seal area about 100 miles after the short block was replaced. I took pictures of this same spot bone dry at the dealership when I picked it up. Yes I go underneath before I leave to check things out. The second picture is a new area where oil is seemingly leaking from front timing cover above the power steering rack near the FIPG sealer (red arrow). I have another appointment for fix attempt #3 next week. I really do like this truck but I'm losing confidence in it and I'm now hoping to get over the 20 days in the shop for a buy back (at up to 14 days currently, depending on how partial days are counted) so I don't take a bath on having to trade/sell it with a vehicle history report showing how much repair work has been done in its first 2K miles. I'm a Toyota fan with 4 prior Toyotas that have been great, but all had designs from 2010 or prior. Maybe that means I should be in a 2.5 gen Tundra with it's 2007 design quality and much easier to work on the 3UR-FE than the V35A-FTS.

 

That’s awful. Hoping you qualify for the buyback.

 

Dang. That's just gotta be disappointing at this point, I don't know if I'd even be mad, just defeated feeling. Is a complete replacement engine is the next step?

 

You're right, past mad and onto defeated now. I'll have to wait and see what the next steps are. Even if they offer a new engine, at this point there are so many other 'little things' that bother me like all the paint scratches around the grill, fenders, etc. due to all the work done in the engine bay. Frame coating scraped in spots that should be coated to prevent rust, etc) one spot pictured below. Not to mention the collision damage to the front end that happened during fix attempt #1. The truck was in perfect condition when it first went to the dealership, not even it's first scratch yet.

 

thats total shit, WTF.

give the guy a new truck

 

Yeah, the engine stuff sucks but its honestly a crap shoot at this point until Toyota gets its head out of its ass and just ships all new motors to these guys. But the complete disregard of this mans truck by his service department is NOT acceptable. I just went from disappointed to mad living vicariously through OP

 

ya, agreed.

it really shows the difference of a quality dealer, mine just takes care of everything with no BS at all. really lucky in that regard, not so much when I had my ram with the local ram dealer.

his service dept needs to step it up, looking at the pics I almost see too much squeeze sealer or gasket stuff in there, I wonder if they fucked up the install, hard to tell though.