Cam Boxes the feared leak (1 Viewer)

[jblatl]

I dropped my 2011 Land Cruiser off today and have been told that my front cover is leaking badly and one of the cam boxes is seeping.

After some research, this is becoming a fairly common issue, especially after visiting the Tundra forum!

They are taking it apart today, I will take some pictures tomorrow when the truck is all the way torn down.

This is a 95k service as I see it, we are going to do spark plugs, hoses, tensioner, rollers, belts, water pump, hoses, radiator, and all fluids while we are in there.

No starter, because it is on the side of the engine and the intake manifold stays in place when it goes bad, unlike my old 100 series.

Picture to come tomorrow of the inside of the cam box.

 

[jblatl]

Teaser photo!!!

 

[TonyP]

You'd think there would be a TSB about this. It's super common.

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

My buddy who still works at a Toyota dealership and worked up to manager asked toyota what was up. Corporate told him that a very light oil got on the cam towers (like wd-40 weight kinda light) and that is what didn't let the RTV adhere good enough.

My '11 had both towers and timing chain cover leaking. Thank god I did the work myself, the dealerships where I live wanted $3k

 

[jblatl]

Just the reseal is going to run $2,700, I have added all new parts in addition to that for the reassembly.

Thank goodness for the warranty that runs out at 100k!

 

[mcgaskins]

Wow that is wild! It does seem to be fairly common, but IIRC most appear to be 2008-2011. Is anyone aware if the 2013+ are affected as much?

 

[TonyP]

Wow that is wild! It does seem to be fairly common, but IIRC most appear to be 2008-2011. Is anyone aware if the 2013+ are affected as much?

May be anecdotal but my 200 is a '13 and had it.

 

[jblatl]

All the way down!

 

[jblatl]

One more side to remove!!!

 

[jblatl]

The offending part!

 

[mark71]

View attachment 1421337 View attachment 1421338 The offending part!

I'd appreciate hearing about the whole nasty process in detail.

Will help me feel better about giving the dealer all that money to fix it!

 

[LCHardriver_02]

Forgive me for being a little dense, but I wish the above pictures had an up arrow... I keep rotating my head around trying to figure out what I'm looking at...

 

[M1911]

Forgive me for being a little dense, but I wish the above pictures had an up arrow... I keep rotating my head around trying to figure out what I'm looking at...

I think the top one is upside down.

 

[jblatl]

Sorry about that, was a little freaked out seeing my motor in so many parts.

They were very nice to me allowing me in their shop to look...

The front cover was the worst leaking part, the radiator needed to come out to remove all of the accessories and the cover with the chain, I asked the mechanic why the head is split for the cams, he said the only reason he could see was if you trashed a cam you could replace the cam and cam box without removing the head. The intake manifold and fuel system is the only thing left on the top.

There are people here with much more knowledge on this than me but there are no real pictures of the cam box and overhead view of the valve train with tha cams removed.

This is a very expensive and time consuming repair!!!

I am having replaced everything I can think of while they are in there, even the silly heater t's. They most likely think I am nuts.

 

[TonyP]

That's an interesting cam cap design. Stout stuff. It makes the M30B34 that I rebuilt in my 535is look very simplistic.

 

[LCHardriver_02]

When I picked my 2010 LX up last night, I found out that the timing chain cover was where one (well, two) of my leaks were. The driver's side leak was worse than the passenger's side.

The gasket was fixed under warranty, but the warranty cost ended up being around $3300. The dealer said that this was NOT retail, as the warranty company caps their costs for both parts and labor and that it would be quite a bit more had I paid retail. I don't have my paperwork here at work, but I'll post up info later this weekend on the total of this repair ended up being.