Origin of oil leaks as per pictures? (2 Viewers)

[Broski]

IMO The pressure washer has no business in an engine bay.

 

[jeanbono]

IME regular car wash soap works well (enough). Already mentioned but FWIW some of the super detergents can damage paint, rubber, harnesses, etc if applied too concentrated. Be careful if using a pressure washer, it's (too) easy to blast things apart in half a second, IME.
FWIW

even for the undercarriage? Obviously won’t touch anything under bonnet with a pressure washer. was thinking to get a can of motortech degreaser and pressure wash underneath just so they are happy during inspection.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Thinking to try another mechanic and hope they can give me the paper,

Degrease it first, take it looking as clean as you can get it.

Some of these inspection guys see one thing wrong, they'll start looking for more and more problems. It's like they get off on failing a vehicle.
I've told them to stop and driven away mid inspection in the past, told them i was obnoxious in the wrong place, a mechanic around the corner passed the same vehicle in minutes

 

[mudgudgeon]

NSW

Where? What town?

 

[mudgudgeon]

IMO The pressure washer has no business in an engine bay.

Yeah, it's pushing your luck. Water in one connector can play havoc with the EFI

 

[mudgudgeon]

even for the undercarriage? Obviously won’t touch anything under bonnet with a pressure washer. was thinking to get a can of motortech degreaser and pressure wash underneath just so they are happy during inspection.

Underneath you're pretty safe, just avoid using it around the engine bay. EFI connections are supposed to be water tight, but 30year old electrical harness seals get hard and crack

 

[jeanbono]

Hi all,

How easy to access the upper pan arch seal once the tranny is out and we have the RMS in front of us? Is it just a couple of bolts?

 

[jeanbono]

While he’s in there replacing the RMS might as well deal with the upper pan arch seal (that light brown silicone that’s popping out and just below the RMS I suppose?) and re seal it properly. That’s why I wondered how easy to access from this point.

 

[AussieHJCruza]

I would do it while you're at it, but it's not necessarily any easier with the transmission out

 

[JDUBinCO]

I don’t think anyone mentioned the oil sensor o ring. Easy to replace and was a big leaker.
My oil pump was leaking a lot too. I did all the easy gaskets 2 years ago and only get the occasional drip from the rear main.

 

[Augustiron]

Caveat to the RMS vs oil pan arch work....

If you have your trans off to do the RMS, I can't see how you could easily jack/support the engine alone to disconnect the engine mounts to lift the engine to get the oil pan off....

Having the transmission sitting happily on its cross member allows you to disconnect the engine mounts to lift the front of the engine to get the oil pans off.
I'm sure there is a way to rig it up with the transmission off, but it would take some careful rigging.

 

[AussieHJCruza]

Caveat to the RMS vs oil pan arch work....

If you have your trans off to do the RMS, I can't see how you could easily jack/support the engine alone to disconnect the engine mounts to lift the engine to get the oil pan off....

Having the transmission sitting happily on its cross member allows you to disconnect the engine mounts to lift the front of the engine to get the oil pans off.
I'm sure there is a way to rig it up with the transmission off, but it would take some careful rigging.

EDIT: Thinking of 1HD-T, nevermind

 

[Augustiron]

If what's up on a hoist, the whole car?
No
You have to raise the engine about 2" above the resting point on the motor mounts to get the upper oil pan off due to interference between the pan and the frame when sliding it out.

Doesn't matter if you are laying on the ground under ramps or 6' in the air on a lift, you have to lift the engine up off the frame/motor mounts a bit to get the upper pan off.

 

[jeanbono]

DRAMA

Ok, got back from the mechanics…it looks like a transmission line is gone and it’s leaking ATF on the ground. He was pretty honest about it and said he had to take the exhaust down and will fix it. Pretty annoying but what can I do anyway, maybe it was that old it broke when he pulled the tranny out.

Now what concerns me more is that although the truck seems to be shifting gears nicely when driving, the gear shift lever feels different than before and makes a pretty loud rubbing sound when shifting gears. I showed him and he said this was just the plastic rubbing against each other but it was never making this sound before and the reason it does now makes me think it’s not engaging gears as smoothly down the tranny.

I’m pretty desperate after spending all that money to find my rig like this. Do you think the leak of ATF could be making this sound and make the shifting a bit rubbery (although car drives ok), or is there something that’s not properly put back in place down the tranny…

Really appreciate your help with this, wish I could send a video of that sound

 

[jeanbono]

other than the gear shift lever feeling/sounding like this I can’t really hear any sound coming from the transmission itself and it really drives normally.

 

[BTLSHP]

I am a bit lost. To my relatively junior eye, your initial photos suggest fairly routine oil leaks by both the fluid color and and location. You most recent photo is of red transmission fluid. There are transmission fluid lines that emerge in the engine bay roughly by the starter along the driver's side to an area below the left headlamp and then to the cooler on the bottom of the radiator. I replaced all the rubber bits as part of a rehab last year though there were not serious leaks an nothing that would create the mess under your engine. There are also transmission hard lines by the exhaust area.

Mine had most of the common leaks yours has. It had excellent routine maintenance by mechanics that were indifferent to an oily mess. Addressing these takes a systematic approach beginning with the idea that oil works its way down and then is blown back. I started with TSP (now I get the environmental issue) and hot water in a pump sprayer. Going forward I will dilute Simple Green in boiling water for roughly the same effect. Then track your leaks carefully. My last one was a bad crimp seal on a non-Toyota pressure sender. To conclude this, I had to rule out the valve cover gasket and the oil cooler (fortunately). I am still left with a possible weep at the timing cover but when the too tight pressure sender came off the defects were clear.

I am left with the lightest weep at the upper arch area and I will ignore it for now. Your photos are forward of this area and have me thinking front main and oil pump seals.

Things like the distributor o-ring and dip stick o-ring are easily spotted.

 

[Kernal]

@jeanbono : it's a bit hard to follow, can you give us more information?

Which transmission line was damaged: location, hard line (pipe) or soft line (rubber), on the right side of the transmission (A442F) or??

Was the transmission pulled from the vehicle?

How was the line damaged??

In post #34 what are you trying to show us (maybe take a photo from further back)?

About the noise, does the noise occur in all gears or just when you first move the shift lever out of Park?
Can you describe the noise; scraping, squeaking, squawking, rattling---??

Does the noise occur when you shift back into Park (or any other gear)??

 

[jeanbono]

Apologies for the confusion and thanks for asking:

-rear main seal was leaking so mechanic dropped transmission and replaced seal
-when I got the car back he told me a transmission ATF leak had developed. He said it was from a transmission line and he just needed to remove the exhaust to fix it but only next week as super busy. I unfortunately don’t have more info regarding what’s causing the ATF leak but he seemed confident it would be an easy fix, it’s dropping from that spot I posted a picture above, right over the exhaust line, I will send a few more pics.

-regarding the noise, I have uploaded a video on reddit (not sure how else I could share here):



The sound occurs for them all. I dont hear a sound coming from the transmission itself (grinding etc) but just shifting gear with the lever makes this sound and feels a bit sluggish (still shifts fast, just never made that sound). Is this related to the ATF leak or something bigger. Because we made sure the level of ATF was full before I left the garage to drive 15km and it was already making the sound

 

[jeanbono]

Apologies for the confusion

I am a bit lost. To my relatively junior eye, your initial photos suggest fairly routine oil leaks by both the fluid color and and location. You most recent photo is of red transmission fluid. There are transmission fluid lines that emerge in the engine bay roughly by the starter along the driver's side to an area below the left headlamp and then to the cooler on the bottom of the radiator. I replaced all the rubber bits as part of a rehab last year though there were not serious leaks an nothing that would create the mess under your engine. There are also transmission hard lines by the exhaust area.

Mine had most of the common leaks yours has. It had excellent routine maintenance by mechanics that were indifferent to an oily mess. Addressing these takes a systematic approach beginning with the idea that oil works its way down and then is blown back. I started with TSP (now I get the environmental issue) and hot water in a pump sprayer. Going forward I will dilute Simple Green in boiling water for roughly the same effect. Then track your leaks carefully. My last one was a bad crimp seal on a non-Toyota pressure sender. To conclude this, I had to rule out the valve cover gasket and the oil cooler (fortunately). I am still left with a possible weep at the timing cover but when the too tight pressure sender came off the defects were clear.

I am left with the lightest weep at the upper arch area and I will ignore it for now. Your photos are forward of this area and have me thinking front main and oil pump seals.

Things like the distributor o-ring and dip stick o-ring are easily spotted.

hey mate, definitely a hard line, it was right over the exhaust. Sorry it was not clear. He said he most likely needed to order the part to replace.

 

[jeanbono]

Took another picture from further away.
Most concerning thing for me in that shift lever feels/sound honestly.