Help - Timing Cover Reseal - Oil seeping from tensioner

Wallet-lightening scam.

 

Known issue. Many leak but $3,000 is highway robbery. It is a little difficult but most dealers would do it for $1,200. Not really necessary until and if you need a head gasket. Even a head gasket repair with a machined head along with the timing chain gasket would be less than $3,000.

 

Known issue, with no evidence of occurrence.

 

Take front passenger wheel off, pop out a few of the fasteners on the plastic shield at back of wheel well, and see for yourself how much it’s leaking. Take pics and post if you can.

Here’s the zone:



FWIW the going rate for this, if warranted, is $1500-2000, through dealerships.

 

Wouldn't the under engine cover catch the oil leaking from this area, so that none would make it to the pavement? Possibly a previous sloppy oil change left the Under Engine Cover wet with oil, which the dealer interpreted as a leak? (don't count on it though).

BTW: 99K: time to think about plug replacement and EGR + EGR Cooler+ Intake Manifold EGR passage cleaning.

Hopefully previous owner ignored the Toyota recommended 10K oil change interval, and changed it at 5K instead. This is a topic that folks debate around here. I am a firm believer in 5K oil changes as an Uber driver. My 2013 Prius V two has received 5K changes since I bought it with 22.5k in 2017. It turned 100k last weekend, and it consumed 0.25 Quart per 5k on a recent oil change. The plug condition at 95k verifies almost no oil consumption. The EGR was pretty plugged up, as was one of the four EGR passages on the Intake Manifold.

This said, I have noticed small oil spots on my driveway recently. I never got around to putting the under engine cover back on after performing my "major surgery". I should inspect that cover on my 2013 V.

 

Those of us who put 30k miles every year until 2020 have seen these kinds of issues years before most. My timing chain cover leaked from year three on until it was fixed as part of other work in 2020. It is common. The cover was oily but the leak was never strong enough to spot my garage floor.

Similar early discoveries were the engine's tendency to burn oil, a satellite antenna preamp failure under warranty that two dealers refused because they had no clue, a stranding inverter failure before it was covered around 140k miles, a brake booster failure before it was covered around 175k miles and wheel bearing failures before many have yet thought about the issue. The egr was completely clogged before it was a thing as well. Quality was not job one on gen3s.