Timing Cover Gasket replacement

It's a reasonable price for a dealer to fix that. An independent garage can usually do it for about 2/3rds or less.

Thing is, you probably don't need to fix it at all. It is a fairly common leak point on this model, but nobody ever lost much oil through it. It's just not a big deal for most.

The oil loss rate is not likely to increase over the remaining useful lifespan of the car. Wait until yours proves itself different with a puddle.

 

^ That.

The fact that the dealer is trying to get you submit your car to nearly $4,000 worth of open heart surgery to fix a minor oil weep is telling.

-what it would be telling ME is that the 'change dealer' light just illuminated..........

 

Sounds like the dealer is pulling the engine to change the timing cover gasket.

I would get a second and third opinion until you found a price less than $1200. If not live with it but check the oil every two fill ups like your wallet and engine depended on it.

 

Before doing anything I'd want to see for myself. The "timing cover gasket" is more succinctly termed "timing chain cover gasket", and the gasket is a bead of specific goop, sometimes called form-in-place gasket. It's on the "front" of the engine, which is the end with the pulleys and belts, the passenger side.

You can get a half decent view from above. Better would be to jack up the right/front corner (or the whole front end with a floor jack), remove the right/front wheel, disconnect and flex back any plastic panel, and have a look.

FWIW, I recall gen 3 owners getting this done, at dealership, for $1700 USD.

Also, apart from cosmetics, it's not that serious, especially if it's a minor leak.

Attached is gen 2 timing chain info, from Repair Manual. Prius c should be similar. It does not appear to require engine removal.

 

The real downside of an oil leak is if you forget to check your oil and cause the "no oil" light to flash. That can take out the engine. Another downside is oil covering everything making other problems harder to find and work on.

At some point oil gets on the catalytic converter and starts smoking.

A timing cover oil leak does not simply drip down. Instead it gets thrown everywhere as you drive making pinpointing the exact location difficult unless you clean everything perfectly, run it without driving for a few minutes and then inspect. Even then some angles are tough to see without a good mirror or camera.

Leak on cleaned timing chain cover after 2 minute initial startup. Oil is flowing from left to right on lower section of cover facing firewall.