Oil droplets on backside of engine block?

I am taking it in tomorrow. No drops on ground yet.

 

Update: Just got back from the dealer. The service writer was receptive and wrote "possibly timing chain cover seal" on the paperwork. An hour later they could not be sure and had to put dye in. He asked me to drive the car during weekend and come back on Monday. I said I don't drive much during weekend and if needed I can come back later next week. He said he want it back soon.

So here is the question: what's the optimal mileage to drive between putting dye in and bringing the car back to find the source of the leak?

 

Good point! In my case which is a very slow leak it would need a lot of mileage then. Thanks!

 

If it's UV dye then without a black light it's impossible to see. Also apparently the timing chain cover is buried and hard to see to begin with.

 

Just got back from the dealer. About 150 miles since they put in the dye. They could not find the leak and said to drive more and come back. This wasn't unexpected. The young adviser who had insisted that I come back this early was conveniently not there today.

By the way just saw Patrick's comment from another thread:

This makes me wonder again whether I want to let the dealer tear the car apart just to fix this minuscule leak. Somehow I still think the factory is much better equipped than the dealer to put the car together "just right" - once the dealer takes it apart it will never be as good as before. Maybe I just worry too much?

 

Just a quick update that I washed the underside of the car (long overdue) without looking for the leak first. :doh: Now the area looks clean but I am not sure whether it is no leak or the leak was washed away. Back to square one...

 

More than 2000 miles after the dealer put dye in the oil and wiped everything clean:


The leak is really slow. I wonder if the dye still works after such a long time.

 

Update: dealer confirmed it's the seal of the timing chain cover. Will take the whole day today to repair. Hope they will do a good job. ray:

 

Yes that will be great but unfortunately I will not be at the dealer when they do the job.

 

Just came across an interview video with a Toyota master tech in this post:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...5953-cars-in-warranty-work-2.html#post1360035
Pretty scary story. According to the interviewee technicians don't get paid for diagnostic work and get paid less for warranty work - that may lead to corner cutting practices such as leaving bolts and brackets off or cutting and splicing wires that are supposed to have water tight sheaths.

Help praying for my car please! ray:

 

Just got the car back at the end of the day yesterday. While picking up the car I heard a brief conversation between the service writer and the technician about his paid hours for the job. See this post:
http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...w-car-technicians-get-paid-2.html#post1360643

I opened up the hood and saw nice new black FIPG (Form In Place Gasket) along the seam:


and not so nice new stains from coolant and some other fluids (oil?) all over this piece of hose:


Patrick and other gurus please advise what to check/watch out for possible screw ups or corner cutting practices related to this job. Thanks!

The oil was overfilled by 8 ~ 9 mm (above the "full" dimple on the dipstick). I usually keep it about 10 mm below the "full" dimple. I haven't notice a hit on the MPG though, unlike some had claimed. The oil looks clean. I may send it in to analyze anyway since Jayman used to tell horror stories about the dealer bulk oil.

A whopping 0.625 gallon of gas was burned during the service, presumably to run the engine in inspection mode to check for leaks after the new seal is done. This also left the car in record high temperatures. More on this later.

 

When I turned on the oven thermometer it read 52C, I thought the thermometer was broken but then my PriiDash display confirmed the high temperatures:


I parked the car in an office park on the way home to check if the inverter coolant pump was still working. When I opened the hood the engine compartment was like an oven. Seeing the warning label on the inverter coolant reservoir cap I was afraid of opening it. Fortunately the vigorous flow of the coolant could be seen from outside of the reservoir - no need to open the cap to confirm the pump was working fine. Everything was still hot hot hot:


Then I realized that the MGs have such high heat capacity that once they get hot it will take a long long time to cool them down. When the car was moving the inverter temperatures did come down:

but once the car stops the MGs would heat the coolant back up and the temperatures of the inverters went back up as well.

Here is the temperature record of that trip:


Compare to a normal trip of the same outside air temperature (actually slightly higher here):


Some observations:

• HV battery fan blows harder when the car slows down
• Outside air temperature sensor was bias high by the hot engine compartment
• The fan wasn't on when I opened the hood
• During the time when I stopped at the office park we can see the MGs and inverters gradually converge to the same temperature
• In a normal trip (local roads) the MGs do not reach steady state temperature even after one hour of driving
• Max charging current was reduced from 125 to 100 A for the higher HV battery temperatures
• Max discharging current of 105 A was not affected yet
• HV battery fan was not at highest speed yet