New Owner found and cam tower leak

Hey guys! Excited to have finally found my “realistic” dream truck. After a lot of researching I decided to go with a 2015 sr5 trd with 95k miles. I am a big bass fisherman and routinely tow from PA to Florida and everywhere in between. Excited to have that 5.7 after coming from a gmc 5.3 with 220k miles. I did a lot of research before, apparently not enough though as I overlooked the cam tower leak issue. I went out and sure enough the drivers side is seeping. It’s not dripping by any means, I put it up on my lift and couldn’t find anywhere where it had dripped. Im very used to cars needing a little oil between changes, my gmc would take almost 3 quarts between oil changes. I obviously don’t have any warranty and I opted to not purchase. I felt 26k out the door was a solid deal for a super clean truck other than possibly this. Hoping someone can help ease my mind a little or if I should possibly take it back to the dealer. It actually came from a ford dealer but not opposed to having a Toyota dealer also check it out. I’m fairly mechanically inclined and gave the truck a close inspection before buying kinda kicking myself for overlooking this. Thanks guys super happy to finally own a tundra!

 

In general, a little seep is nothing to worry about.

I've had old cars that "seeped" for decades with no issues and never used any oil including engine, transfer case, rear diff and transaxle seeps on different cars. I don't like any seep in a new car but after 10 years I don't care if it's not dripping and if it's costly to fix I let it go and see what happens. I have an 18 years old SUV that seeps in 3 places now. The xfr case is the only spot that is more than a seep maybe a drop every 3-4 days if it's in the garage (I put a pan under to keep the garage clean) but every time I check the fluid levels it's full. Car is too old for me to dump any major $ in it.

Are you within the return period? or maybe get some sort of compensation since they didn't disclose. Most likely they didn't know either ... But I doubt they will pay for the repair cost. Go there and see what they say and then decide.

 

It’s likely considered “normal” by Toyota until it gets to the point of dripping. Mine was dripping onto the header shield, and could smell it. Many threads about this being “normal”. Sort of like you @dblaker I saw the leak when I bought mine but assumed it was the valve cover as I didn’t know about the Audi style cam riser at the time.

 

It’s not as big of a deal as it’s made out to be if it’s just a seep. I’ve had 2 5.7 trucks that have had it. The current one was fixed under warranty and started seeping again 15k miles later. Neither one dripped or lost oil between changes. If it’s not dripping on the exhaust, it’s not worth worrying about. Try running 5w30 instead of 0w20. I think it’s preferable anyway.

 

The scapegoat never left the company so they are blaming the robots
Damn computers. I hate it when I can't turn off my lights when I want it and there is a 10 sec delay

 

My 2008 been seeping since 100k miles, Now at 215k, it’s still seeping but I add 1/2 quart of oil at 3000 miles in between my 5000 mile oil changes.