Valve cover leak sanity check

Hi all,

I'm now the proud owner of my first valve cover leak on a 07 1GR-FE and I’m planning to fix it myself. In the attached images you can see the driver side valve cover looking great no leaks, but the passenger side shows plenty of oil creeping. Honestly, I have been putting this off since the leak has not affected oil levels between regular maintenance oil changes and the car runs great.




So far so good, I know this is quite common for these engines and I'm ordering the parts to repair both sides as well as a few other seals along the way.
The sanity check is needed after I saw a small oil spill on the floor beneath the car for the first time and got under it. I was surprised by the amount of oil on the driveshaft, skid and other components. I also attached a few pictures from underneath.

Can a valve cover leak accumulate this much oil that spreads out this far? Are there any other places I need to check? I cant see any obvious leaks besides the valve cover from the bay. The lower oil pan looks good (see picture). Rear main seal? I appreciate any advise as to how to debug this and If someone has had a similar experience.

Cheers!

 

Rear seal I would definitely check. Also while you are in there the timing cover. The timing cover also goes on the 1GR-FE

 

Does that engine havevthe half moon seals on the backnofvtge head you cant see? Because dealer replaced my gaskets without doing thosevthen hadvto do those.

 

It was like $800. and they did sonething to the exhaust manifold.

 

Thank you, I'll definitely check the timing cover as well. Am I missing something or does the 1GR-FE not have the halve moons? I know you should apply some RTV where the block meets the timing cover but haven't read anything about half moons in that engine?

 

Rear main seal, or possibly over-lubing the drive shafts and it's slinging it around.

 

Good thought, everything above that front U-Joint looks to be pretty clean, everything below it looks to be pretty dirty.

 

Just to update, it might be useful for others:
this turned out to be a leak by the differential, the axle seal had to be replaced.

Thanks everyone for the input!

 

Thats excactly what the shop manager tried to tell me where mine was leaking. "Its the axle seal". I said "No" its the valve cover leaking, so took it to the dealer and no leaks since.

 

Did it smell like a dead dinosaur?

 

In this case it was the axle, it was diff oil that leaked and the diff was about a quart low. I know I refilled it about 2 years ago to spec (until it overflows basically), so in my case this all checked out. The valve covers are seeping oil, but the oil that you can see on the images was all leaking from the diff.

Edit, yeah it smelled horrible

 

Rear main seal is what Id guess it’s coming from. But check everything as it will flow back as you drive

 

On the bright side it's oiled and you dont have to worry about rust?

 

I come from the school of leaks are SOMETIMES directly related to a clogged pcv valve. I know on my Honda Pilot forum this was broadly discussed as a main cause of leaks. I have 80k miles on my 22 4R and am changing the pcv valve this weekend. Its probably fine but for $15 it gives me piece of mind.