That thing is a massive pain to remove without damaging it. I have the front differential out too. Besides cleaning everything up, anything else I should do while I have the pan off?
Had to remove the lower oil pan, anything else I should do while I have it off? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Hatsuwr
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awesomeissquid
SILVER Star
Do you have just the lower pan off or the upper one as well?
With just the lower I believe you only will see the oil pickup tube and there is not much else there.
With just the lower I believe you only will see the oil pickup tube and there is not much else there.
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- #3
Just the lower. Can see a lot, but can't do much unfortunately it seems. Can't even remove the pickup screen since one of its mounting bolts is blocked by the upper pan. I will vacuum the screen at least, since several of the holes are blocked. Can't tell if it's oil residue or gasket material though. Was also thinking of adding a magnet to the pan like the transmission has.
Curious what gave you trouble with removing the pan. It should just be remove the 20(?) bolts and it should drop right out. Unless you have the dip stick, which I've heard can be a pain to fenagle.
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- #5
I think mine had the original FIPG from the factory, and it was adhered pretty strongly to both sides. I tried a few things less likely to scratch the surfaces first, but ended up having to hammer a razor blade in between to get it started. The first few locations I tried seemed like they had too thin a gasket layer and I didn't make any progress, but I finally found one area with a bit more space. Once that was in it wasn't much trouble.
Ah right, I forgot about the fipg, especially on the earlier models. I think it's only used to help hold the gasket in place on later models.
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Something like this really helps on the liquid gasket oil pans. It's similar to the toyota SST in the FSM.
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- #8
Anyone have good results using a preformed gasket without RTV? RockAuto has four that seem to be rubber-coated fiber and come with RTV. There's a fifth from Apex that looks like uncoated fiber. A bit too late for me to try this time around, but maybe next time.
awesomeissquid
SILVER Star
No experience on the engine oil pan. I used fipg to keep OEM.
Not exactly the same, but I know newer 100 series transmissions use a gasket for their oil pan. Previous mechanic on my transmission used an aftermarket gasket instead of fipg and it leaked. I would trust OEM gasket more than aftermarket. Given the difficulty getting to the engine oil pan, I would recommend using fipg after cleaning it very well.
Not exactly the same, but I know newer 100 series transmissions use a gasket for their oil pan. Previous mechanic on my transmission used an aftermarket gasket instead of fipg and it leaked. I would trust OEM gasket more than aftermarket. Given the difficulty getting to the engine oil pan, I would recommend using fipg after cleaning it very well.
Lower pan on my 2001 LC is leaking. Do I need to lower the front diff or can I just remove the oil pan and clean and replace fipg?
- Thread starter
- #11
If it's like the 2004, the repair manual says to remove the engine. Some people do it by just lifting the engine or lowering the differential, but I'd say just remove the differential. It's not that much extra work, and it makes the work on the pan a lot easier.
Similar or same issue as @AARONTLC - get my oil changed at the Toyota garage, came back with a note this time that says 'FOUND LEAK FROM REAR MAIN AND OIL PAN SEAL $6154 PLUS TAX.' Of course I passed on their offer, but trying to educate myself to do the job. Any other good resources/write ups/videos that you guys have discovered?
I'll give ya a deal and do it for $5k!
Curious if the leak is from the upper or lower oil pan?
I believe lower, they 'rationalized' the price with 'we have to drop the diff to get to the pan.' Just another crazy day in the land of Amazon over here.
2001LC
SILVER Star
Not likely, the factory installed oil pan(s) leaking. In fact, I've never seen one leak.
Factory used a gray FIPG. Toyota parts FIPG 103 (oil pan FIPG) is black. Looking at color, is revealing.
It may be rear main oil leak:
More likely, it's the rear main & O-ring, than pans. Often the few times, we see these rear main leaks, the front O-ring is also leaking. In front O-ring, factory book method is remove engine. But if just rear main. We pull transmission, to get at rear main seal & O-ring, from back of engine. Oil pans are not removed.
Most times, leaks we see at rear:
Are actually from above, from head cover gaskets. Studying where oil is at bottom of engine and following wetness up engine.
- I would re torque the head cover bolts to 54 INCH-lbf. Making, 2 cross pattern passes.
- Replace PCV valve and both hose, if needed. If not doing its job, at reduce crankcase pressure, we get oil leaks.
- Degrease engine top to bottom. Repeat in ~1K miles, to remove residue creeping out from hinden location.
- Watch for recurrence of oil leak.
- If rear main. Use engine oil flush BG EPR (2 cans), then add 10 oz AT-205 to fresh synthetic oil. repat cleaning at 1k & 2 k miles. Monitor oil loss, with dipstick level. We do not use oil in the 4.7L, between %k miles changes. But the 5.7L uses a lot, which Toyota calls .6qt per 1K miles acceptable.
One other very common leak:
Is a weep, seen on LH side and rear of oil pans. Is dipstick O-ring. We see this in older high mileage engine. Because slow weep takes time to accumulate to be seen on pan, and with age rubber O-ring shrinks and the weep increases. Easy fix, replace O-ring, by remove 1 bolt hold dipstick tube.
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