Have spotted a puddle of red fluid on the front of the engine block. See below, wondering what the source could be so I can start gameplanning repair. First two images. Second image is zoomed in.
Identify this coolant and oil leak leak (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Poncherelli
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- #2
And thinking this next leak is an oil leak at the valve cover gasket? Both side of the block.
Pyrenees
SILVER Star
Looks like the first one is a coolant leak from the thermostat housing gasket, second one looks like valve cover gaskets. I'm new to the 100 series though so someone might want to back me up on this.
Mileage?
Mileage?
94SRUNNER
GOLD Star
The coolant leak appears to be coming from the thermostat housing. Pull the intake tube off too get a closer look.
As for the oil leak, it appears to be a very slight leak of the valve cover gasket.
As for the oil leak, it appears to be a very slight leak of the valve cover gasket.
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- #5
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- #6
After more investigating, the leak is from the back of the thermostat housing. I haven’t disassembled this part of the engine, but can someone help me understand if this would be related to the water pump, and if it’s worth repairing on its own, or as part of a timing belt service. You can see in the picture the red circles are where I see coolant pooled/dried.
Pyrenees
SILVER Star
I don't believe that you need to pull the WP to get that part off, but if you're about to do the TB then yeah it's going to come off again. If you're not planning on doing the TB soon just do the gasket.
PCValve by your oil fill tube is leaking- so if thats clogged and blowing by its gasket, that could create some other issues.
Are you doing the repair?
Replace PCV, clean area, retorque valve covers. See if it still leaks.
Find where on thermostat housing its leaking- most likely have to completely remove it: good time to replace thermostat, O rings, and reseal with correct Fipg ($$$) 1282B.
Are you doing the repair?
Replace PCV, clean area, retorque valve covers. See if it still leaks.
Find where on thermostat housing its leaking- most likely have to completely remove it: good time to replace thermostat, O rings, and reseal with correct Fipg ($$$) 1282B.
It does look like water inlet leak. These leaks are often from wrong assembled procedure during timing belt job.
Likely as @abuck99 said your PCV valve needs replacing. You also have a grommet that holds PCV valve in place, which likely needs replacing.
Torque head cover bolts to 53in-lbf (that is inch-lb, not pounds). The head cover bolts may be corroded in and need a little more than spec torque to get moving. Hopefully they're not frozen and snap. I'd pull coils/spark plugs first and look into spark plugs tubes for oil leak. If tube seal(s) leaking oil, you'll need to pull covers to reseal them.
Likely as @abuck99 said your PCV valve needs replacing. You also have a grommet that holds PCV valve in place, which likely needs replacing.
Torque head cover bolts to 53in-lbf (that is inch-lb, not pounds). The head cover bolts may be corroded in and need a little more than spec torque to get moving. Hopefully they're not frozen and snap. I'd pull coils/spark plugs first and look into spark plugs tubes for oil leak. If tube seal(s) leaking oil, you'll need to pull covers to reseal them.
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- #10
Thanks for the input. I replaced the PCV and grommet. The old PCV sounded fine when shaking - gave a little rattle...but I saw the oil spray so thought I'd change and the grommet was hardened so I figured it was time. I'm wondering now about changing the actual PCV oil line because it's hardened and doesn't create the tightest seal to the top of the PCV. Looking for that part number and a supplier.
Pulled spark plugs and they look oil free, so I'm just going to re-torque the Valve cover screws. about 1/2 of them easily turned 1/2-1 full turn. The other half didn't, maybe corroded in place but didn't want to snap them so didn't really test too hard.
For the coolant, it's clearly coming from the back of the water inlet assembly at the o-ring. There's plenty of dried coolant at that junction so I feel like a disassemble and repair is in my future. Will I need to drain the system at that repair, or just top up after? If full drain, I might as well do a timing belt change at the same time.
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- #11
PCV changed out along w grommet. Now, whats standard procedure to tell how old a timing belt is since I have just purchased this truck and no service records on timing belt? I'm debating a full tear down to do coolant leak repair, timing belt, and serpentine belt / idler / pulley repair so I'll have some access to timing belt area for inspection and don't really want to disassemble just a preventative if there's a way to tell how aged it might be.
If you've exhausted search for records form carfax and Toyota owners portal.
You can look at timing belt by pulling RH (PS) upper belt cover. But belts really hold up very well. It would have to be really high mi. to see much wear. Of more concern than belt are the pulleys and water pump. Those going bad take out the belt. Coolant at weep hole at bottom under harmonic balance can indicate water pump gone bad. But pulleys are near impossible to determine health, unless very noisy.
T-belt tensioner can be pulled and inspected easily. But that may or may not have been replaced with T-belt.
Clues belt has been done are:
You can look at timing belt by pulling RH (PS) upper belt cover. But belts really hold up very well. It would have to be really high mi. to see much wear. Of more concern than belt are the pulleys and water pump. Those going bad take out the belt. Coolant at weep hole at bottom under harmonic balance can indicate water pump gone bad. But pulleys are near impossible to determine health, unless very noisy.
T-belt tensioner can be pulled and inspected easily. But that may or may not have been replaced with T-belt.
Clues belt has been done are:
- Clips holding wires on LH (DS) upper belt cover. Shop break them very often.
- Marks on harmonic belt pulley groves. They get made from chain wrench use to hold it.
- Some times when belt job done. Shop put FIPG on large O-ring of water inlet. Bad idea, as this leads to leaks. Sometimes they lube with grease, seems to work, but not FSM procedure. Factory install would not have anything on it.
- Looking at harmonic bolt and others for wrench marks.
I'd use a 1/4" torque wrench
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- #15
Will do. thanks for the tip.
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- #16
There's a kind of sketchy carfax report for my truck...for instance, it goes "dark" for about 8 years. Then there's the Toyota service report that only shows one service and it's from this year for ignition lock cylinder housing replacement. Is there a way to find older Toyota records? Doubtful this is the only service at Toyota in 21 years. Otherwise, I'll do the checks you mentioned.
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- #18
negative.
Yes!
Call a Toyota dealer and ask service manager. If he can't find asked to speak with shop foreman. I don't know why but sometimes with the older rigs, history doesn't come up on the portal. On my 01LC a shop foreman pulled info for me, I couldn't get elsewhere!
With 00LX Lexus I had to go to parts department. They were able to get more detail (parts list) than available on the Lexus portal. It also had missing years. Which is because serviced outside USA. I need to call a Canadian Dealer to get the history and parts for those years.
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topping off will take no less than a gallon of coolant.
When I replaced my thermostat, I placed a rag under it to catch the spilled coolant, oh boy was I wrong!!!!
