Poll-Have you had the dreaded cam tower leak? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter 40Man
- Start date
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The leak is important to address because it is located directly above the exhaust manifolds. You will see smoke and a very bad smell, not sure if it would ever catch fire...
How much would the dealership charge to fix - anyone have any rough estimates?
2-3k depends on if you do the front cover and one or both sides of the engine.
I had all three of the above done and was just over 3k.
I had all three of the above done and was just over 3k.
Just a heads up for any of you experiencing this in your LC. There has been a lot of Tundra's that have experienced this leak issue and there is a lot of threads on the Tundra forums about it. Many of the victims have been able to get the extended platinum warranty from Toyota Corp for free after experiencing this issue. When I discovered it on my Tundra, I was at 48,000 miles. The repair was done for free at the local dealer as part of the 60,000 factory warranty. A few emails and phone calls to Toyota Corp resulted in $1,200 in credit towards future Toyota repairs or parts. They would not extend the platinum warranty to me as the truck was beyond the 36,000 miles. Still, a free repair and $1,200 in credit wasn't bad. If you're experiencing a similar leak, read up on what the Tundra guys are doing and reach out to Toyota to make it right.
Some of the leaks that are just from silicone gasket areas on Toyota's I have had decent success torqueing the bolts down tighter. But I have a good feel of an idea of what is tight and what isn't. If you don't then you could break bolts. On timing covers that are leaking I can often get 1/2 a turn on cover bolts. It only takes minutes to try if the bolts aren't too hard to access. Also depends on how old the motor is and the miles as to my success rate. Haven't tried it on cam towers yet. Valve covers would have to come off but I think that's it to access the tower bolts enough to torque them.
After having my Tundra for less than 36,000 miles, the service department recently reported to me the dreaded Cam Tower leak. I have always had my vehicle serviced by the same dealership and had noticed after a previous servicing, an burning oil smell. I looked under the vehicle frequently and found nothing then or in the following months until the next scheduled service when I received the report. Mind you, I'd had the vehicle for just about 5 years and had the low mileage. Of course, they told me it was out of warranty. The price I was quoted for repairs was over $3000.00. I felt this was a Toyota defect since this should not be happening on a vehicle with low mileage AND, Toyota's are supposed to be built tough. The sealer used to seal the Cam covers was defective. And while waiting for the current servicing to be completed, I googled this issue and found it was nothing new, especially for low mileage vehicles.
In any case, I wasn't going to get any help from the dealership OR Toyota Customer care. I refused to pay the $3000.00 to them and called around for quotes from other dealerships who were aware of the issue and was quoted prices between $2500.00 and $5500.00. What's even more concerning than the costs for repairs, is the total engine rebuild required to fix the issue. The water pump, and I 'm certain the timing belt, has to come off too. What's to say there wouldn't be additional problems and no recourse.
Anyway, I'm not a happy camper for having made such a huge investment. Deciding on next steps....and watching. I really would like to have the engine diagrams to further study the work to be performed.
In any case, I wasn't going to get any help from the dealership OR Toyota Customer care. I refused to pay the $3000.00 to them and called around for quotes from other dealerships who were aware of the issue and was quoted prices between $2500.00 and $5500.00. What's even more concerning than the costs for repairs, is the total engine rebuild required to fix the issue. The water pump, and I 'm certain the timing belt, has to come off too. What's to say there wouldn't be additional problems and no recourse.
Anyway, I'm not a happy camper for having made such a huge investment. Deciding on next steps....and watching. I really would like to have the engine diagrams to further study the work to be performed.
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
To help you out a bit on why it cost so much, it’s a lot of work, but it’s far from a rebuild.
Long story short, you have to take the all the accessories off the front of the motor, that’s where the water pump removal comes from along with anything else. Then you have room and the clearance to take off the timing chain cover. You don’t take your timing chain off. Then you have the stuff out of the way to take the valve train off, so that’s the cam towers and everything above it.
Clean up the mating surfaces absolutely spotless and use Toyota FPIK to seal it back up. Then put everything back on.
It’s a time consuming job, and your paying a guy at a Toyota for about 20 hours of work at $100-120/hour rates, plus all the replacement o-rings and premade gaskets. While the water pump is off and out, they are pretty cheap so I put a new one on.
As the story goes, some very light oil got on the matting surfaces at the factory (like wd-40 light), and that never let the gasket material adhere very good. Yeah it’s Toyota’s fault, but 3 years 36,000 miles is all you get unless you pay for more. $3000 is a good price for the work.
I did the job myself over two weekends and it cost me $410. It’s not hard, it’s simple unbolting. No timing to adjust or anything like that, but unless you are a proven guy that can clean and gasket things and don’t have leaks afterward, I’d let someone else do it.
There really is no way around this, outside of
1) deal with it and keep your oil topped off
2) fix it
3) play chemist inside your motor with some engine sealer that probably work work and mess with other commenters that it didn’t need to (not my recommendation for an expensive 200, but blue devil stuff is legit)
Sorry for being more blunt, I’m normally trying to give more options to people, but this is really a black and white issue. If you have leaks, Toyota isn’t paying for it outside of warranty, it’s a lot of work, and you have to decide if your going to pay money, or pay attention to your oil level more often then the normal every month.
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This thread convinced me to buy the Toyota Platinum extended warranty before my factory warranty expires at 36k or 3 years.
For $1,500 or so, it'll be insurance against a minimum 3k repair. Plus if I sell the LC it'll be worth more or easier to sell with that extended warranty.
Many of us could do this repair ourselves, but I'd rather have the dealer do it so the work is warrantied and in Toyota's service records.
For $1,500 or so, it'll be insurance against a minimum 3k repair. Plus if I sell the LC it'll be worth more or easier to sell with that extended warranty.
Many of us could do this repair ourselves, but I'd rather have the dealer do it so the work is warrantied and in Toyota's service records.
Which model years are effected? Pretty ridiculous if this is a common problem and they aren’t fixing it at no charge
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Looks like no reports on 2014 forward.
Hope they fixed it, my leak did not happen until 90k ish...
How could this not be addressed this is why we buy Toyota and Lexus is because of their engineering and follow through this is pretty much an easy one for them to fix
I miss the days when Toyota would replace head gaskets at 100k+ miles like they did on the 2nd gen 4Runners and T100s with the 3.0L V6. One of the reasons I bought my 3rd gen 4Runner was because I was convinced that any manufacturer which is willing to replace a non-safety part years past the warranty date was one I could trust.
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
I highly doubt it’s the head itself, which all things aside, is a good thing. If you had a cracked head, you would see some awesome colored smoke coming out your tail pipe.
Malleus
Far west of Siegen
Is this a typical truck/200 series problem, or is it confined to Tundras and Land Cruisers? Although there's not a lot more than whining there, I've checked the Lexus owner's forum and there doesn't seem to be the same frequency of occurrence. If this is an assembly process-related problem, it makes me wonder if the engines marked for the Lexus models are built separately. The reason I bring this up is that if this is the case, it would make the argument for searching for Lexus parts trucks to claim engines from, rather than the Tundra/Land Cruiser fleet.
