Nutz About Bolts Prius Maintenance Videos

At least you caught it! Did you have to do all 4? Or just the one.

 

I did all 4, took me 20-30 mins, wasn’t too bad. the other 3 wasn’t too obvious besides the right front one, which became flat at around 20psi or so. It was a slow leak that wasn’t obvious to the naked eye.

it’s fixed now so it’s good to go.

 

Just finished resealing my timing cover leak. Going to recheck in 10k miles to see if it’s still leaking or not.

 

What did you use?

 

what do you mean?

 

What form-in-place gasket?

 

Toyota’s FIPG. It’s the white tube. This time I let it cure for 24 hrs before I put in the oil and I added more fipg at the leak spot lol.

 

Guess it was the timing cover then.... Bummer!
I remember when I did mine, I read where each bolt when, and which one to put in first.
I read several times, just to be careful. Guess I did good, because it's not leaking!

 

I think I didn’t put enough fipg at that area. Everywhere else was fine besides that spot by the timing chain tensioner for some reason. I’m gonna recheck in 10k miles and see if it’s still seeping out from there. Overall my car isn’t burning oil, it was just seeping from that spot. So losing 1 1/4 quart of oil is pretty good within 10k miles with a seepage.

 

I think Toyota says to put a larger amount in the area where the head meets the block.
I'm sure you'll be fine, no more leaks....

 

yeah but that’s the thing, it wasn’t that area… it was right below the timing chain tensioner where the 14mm #2 bolt was at on the timing cover. I added an extra dab around the bolt hole and underneath it as well since it was leaking from there.

 

Toyota recommends a horizontal bead of sealant at each of the engine seams. My take: apply the regular bead to the timing chain cover, and apply those horizontal beads directly on the seams, on the engine face.

They also show a thickening of the regular bead, at certain points, and while they don’t clarify, it looks to be at those seams. Just saying to thicken the reg beads at the horizontal engine seams would be simpler, compared to the dimension laden drawings they provide. (See attached)

Gasket Masters was using and advocating Permatex Ultra Black. Compared to what Toyota specs in Repair Manual, it has a much longer cure time, maybe better for DIY.

If you google the above name the AI summary is interesting, saying in part:

Usage Instructions

1. Prepare: Ensure surfaces are clean, dry, and free of oil/grease.
2. Apply: Apply a continuous, uniform bead to one surface, surrounding all bolt holes.
3. Assemble: Assemble parts immediately while the silicone is still wet.
4. Tighten: Finger-tighten until material begins to seep out, then let it set for two hours before re-torquing.

 

Maybe some dirt got in there when you put the cover on, or maybe when installing it you
accidentally removed some of the sealer. It's easy to do. I was worried about it when I installed
the cover. Not much room to do it.
Main thing is you found it and fixed it.