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

I need to look mine over, just in case. I really get allot out of this site. Thanks guys.

 

Well just got back from the dealer. Not Cam tower leak, BUT timing belt cover leak. Out of warranty truck here, 1800 + tax for the repair. Technician stated he has to reseal and replace every gasket needed, so cam towers should be done anyway unless he did the classic run around argument. Let's see if those mechanical breakdown insurances really work. My truck has one. However only just a few got luck of them paying for it. Please pray for me on this one.

 

Pretty sure the cam tower seals will not get done at that price. No need for them to come off for the timing cover leak. Hope your insurance will cover it!

 

If that's cam towers included in that price then that's pretty good from what I've seen online. How many miles on the truck? I have seen where people were able to get Toyota to cover out of warranty trucks and they just had to pay for the gaskets and sealant.

 

Well Insurance said dealer has to call them and they will state what is cover or not. I know I have to pay the sales tax since is not in the agreement. I spoke to the tech who checked the truck. He clarified some stuff since the SA was answering a lot of YES in some NOs LOL! Once thing the tech said is he wants a new water pump and since there's high hopes for the insurance he dropped it on the estimate.

Thank God Cam towers are not leaking (yet!) The truck is 2012 RWDC with 39k (Yes I don't drive that thing at all) The dealer called corporate (I was kind of surprised on this move and for Corporate to not be busy at all), explained the situation, and an hour later, no go for the timing cover warranty. Thank God for the third party mechanical insurance.

 

My concern is not only only the repair is done having the cam tower seal beginning to leak again but all the other seals that will ultimately be replaced as part of this repair. TRDlife, could you give us a little more insight on whether to be concerned say with timing chain seals, any contamination etc that will create problems in the future? Are all the other seals O ring style and less likely to have problems???? I was hoping to get 200k on this truck and already both cam towers are leaking at 8000 miles... its warranty yes but hearing about timing chain seals leaking and the longevity of this repair has had me very concerned... I guess Chevy and fords burn the oil, Toyota just leaks it.. hoping to be proven wrong once it goes under the knife..

 

Well guys I was just at the dealer dropping my truck off to get the cam towers done and I was pleasantly surprised while walking around waiting for the manager to come out I spotted a 2013 used crewmax with the 5.7L with 167k miles on it was told by the manager that was a recent trade in gentleman used it as a work truck and the best part he had the cam towers done at 47-49k miles guess he had all the service records with the trade in after looking over the truck not a drop of oil was spotted on the sides of the motor I know it definitely calmed me down after finding this out if I can get 150-200k miles out of this thing I will be a happy customer

 

This is the same type of concerns I have as well, so much has to be taken apart and reassembled. @trdlife has been a great resource for us regarding the issue.

Only problem with this assessment is you don't know what/if any issues the guy had from 49k-167k after the cam towers were done. Lots of vehicles can make that kind of mileage these days, having your engine tore down is a huge repair that just shouldn't be happening on these trucks with such low mileage.

 

Im simply going on the assumption of if this vehicle gave him a ton of problems and he used it for work use I doubt he keeps the truck to 167k miles and keeps paying out of pocket for repairs just my opinion I know once my transmission had to be replaced on my Acura tlx I was already looking at other options and I didn’t even pay for the repair fully covered under warranty

 

Gotcha, I see where your coming from now. Why dump the Acura after the trans replacement? I would be more ok with a trans going in then my engine torn down. I'm still not thrilled about the cam tower dilemma, I will see how the quality of the repair is and then determine if I will keep the truck or not.


Washed my truck today, applied my paint protection to the front fenders and emptied all my tools out of it so I can keep working while the truck is in repair. What a Pita it was to empty out all my tools, going to be a bummer working this week without my truck loaded up. Truck goes in tomorrow morning at 9am.

Ac91, when will you get your truck back? What was there method for repair, in truck or remove engine? Both or just one side?

 

Yeah that sucks man having to empty it out. I got rid of the tlx after reading on forums of people having to go in for 2nd and 3rd transmission replacements and once mine started to feel weird like it was slipping it was time for it go. I was told truck should be ready Thursday I demanded both sides done and Toyota approved I guess a 2018 coming in with a common problem they wanna nip it in the bud from the get go. I didn’t ask if they were gonna pull the motor or leave it in I will find out tomorrow hopefully

 

I'm supposed to get mine back on Thursday as well, I got no traction with trying to get them to repair the driver side as well. I'm going to talk to them about it tomorrow and see what happens. It only makes sense to do both sides, helps me as the customer avoid downtime. Which side on your truck was leaking?

 

Passenger side small drip didn’t even bother looking at the driver side. I would maybe ask the dealership how much it would cost out of pocket to repair the other side on your’s if it’s not outrageous amount I would personally just pay for it get rid of the headache of having to do it again possibly

 

Mine is passenger side as well. I thought about paying for the driverside to be done as well, but the fact I have to come out of pocket to correct Toyotas issue on a truck with less than 22kmiles just doesn't sit well with me. I will probably end up biting the bullet though because having my truck down for 4 days is a huge inconvenience for me and my livelihood as the truck is my business truck and I don't want to go through this again. Not to mention have the engine pulled twice.

 

That would be my thought as well no point in having the engine pulled twice for the same issue but I find it hard to believe Toyota is giving us owners crap over their mistake when I took my tlx in they knew there was a issue with the transmissions in the early models there was no questions asked they set me up with a loaner and scheduled the service

 

I am second owner of my 2013. It currently has about 39,000 miles. The cam tower leak was fixed by first owner when there were about 17,500 miles. No issues since then. You just can't trust a robot.

 

Sorry for the late reply I have been out of town this weekend. But as far as all the seals replaced. I really don’t foresee any problems. I have seen some of the ones I have previously done and monitored as the come thru for regular service and they are doing great. And inside the cover there are 2 orings that I replace just because I am already in there, and of course the fipg sealant. I don’t think contamination will be an issue either. Most if not all of these are done by a mastertech. On e we go in and do the cam tower repair it’s good to go.

 

Thanks for the compliment I try and help make things easier or at least understand.

 

Thanks TRDlife, your insight is helpful to us less mechanically inclined folks.. I go in for my 10k service in the next few weeks so I will post what the dealer wants to do with it...

 

Well just dropped off truck at the dealer, no dice on getting driver side repaired even if I pay out of my own pocket. Dealer said the tech doesn't want to touch it.

Good news is I am getting another pickup for my rental.

 

Wow that is the absolute craziest thing I have heard I didn’t realize the tech has a choice if you pay out of pocket for a repair? I would think twice about this tech that just seems like pure laziness on his part it’s probably a lot of work that he doesn’t want to have to do

 

get everything documented, It will probably leak on the other side before you are out of warranty and they will deal with it again. if they want to play that game, play it.

 

I don’t know about other states but I know in Texas if you have 2 repairs done in 24months that is a potential to cause fire the car can be lemon lawed maybe something you can look into or bring up to the dealer depending on your state laws and see if that changes their thinking on repairing the other side because last time I checked oil dripping on your exhaust can easily cause a fire

 

Got a call back this afternoon from Service advisor said the tech would not do more to the motor then necessary, even if I pay for the repair. Service advisor also said he looked perplexed that I was concerned the driver side would leak. Service advisor said this Tech just had his 35th anniversary with Toyota and is the shops lead guy so it seems like they have the right guy working on my truck. I'm thinking at this point they don't want to be liable if they take apart the driver side and then something happens to it or they just want to charge Toyota a second time for taking my whole truck apart when it leaks.

I will keep it documented but Honestly I never have luck with Toyota covering things and at this point I will probably trade this truck up before warranty is expired. If the driver side leaks there is no way I will have this thing torn down a second time, aluminum parts being assembled and reassembled multiple times is not a good mix.

Battling for all this is just tiresome and I'm just over it at this point, plus once you start getting after corporate they then get after the dealer who then isn't happy and are the people fixing your truck. In the end the consumer is the one at a loss here, Thanks Toyota.

I also don't understand how its not a recall, plenty of other manufacturers have had recalls for oil dripping onto the exhaust.

 

Forgot to add, when the advisor called me this afternoon he said the tech got a late start but I should have the truck back tomorrow. So maybe they decided against pulling the engine now, that's seems pretty quick to pull the motor, tear it down, fix, and install.

 

yeah should take about 2 days.

 

In the truck I can see 2 days, they were stuck on the engine is coming out and 2 days for that seems quick!

 

probably not coming out. Mine wasn't removed and it took 2 full days and I got it back on the 3rd

 

We shall see when I pick it up which route they took, they were very stern on the motor has to come out of the truck for the repair.

Were you able to get both sides done?


Maybe we should add to or start a thread compiling members info who had this done, like year, mileage, oil type, which side was the culprit etc.

 

yes both. Only one was leaking but they said "we might as well do both"...