What is leaking here?

That’s a dealership that cares!
Keep that number!!!

 

Bingo. I think the gist is that the spot that leaks is where three surfaces meet: timing cover, head, block. It's been going on for as long as the 1GR-FE has been in production. I had the exact same leak on my '09 Tacoma that was fixed under warranty. The 1GR in the Tacoma didn't have dual VVTi, but the block construction is the same. Assuming oil levels aren't allowed to get too low, I don't think it's an issue that's known to cause catastrophic damage. For folks that are out of warranty, just monitoring oil levels frequently is usually good enough as opposed to paying a huge sum to fix the leak.

 

No guarantee it will not happen again. Infact it might even start leaking from other areas after the timing cover leak is rectified due to the invasive nature of the repair.
Get it repaired, sell it and buy another 4 runner.

 

Sell it just because of that?

I was going to talk to the guy and ask how and what are they going to do differently so it does not just happen again.

Sounds like just replacing the gasket it will just happen again.

I wanted to keep it for 20 years or 300k plus miles.

 

I think selling the vehicle because of one little oil leak is ridiculous. Get it fixed, continue to drive it, and just keep a close eye on things. I'll bet if the repair is done correctly, that'll be the end of the issue.

All mechanical stuff eventually breaks.

Remember... the advice from me, and the "sell it" guy is exactly worth what you paid for it!

 

Few things go wrong with a 4runner and a timing leak is one of that. If it was a 10 year old car I would not care but a new car like this, I don't want to deal with a leaking timing cover that was repaired. A repair is no guarantee it will not leak again.
Mine leaks a little I think , but I am over 200k, it's 15 year old and it does not mess with my skid plates. So I don't bother with it.

 

I got it back from the dealer Saturday it took them 4 days and it looks to be ok BUT i did find a hose that goes from the bottom of the radiator close to the drain peacock to the top that was not attached.

It attaches by two 10mm bolts one at the bottom and one at the top and one snap in piece in the middle of the radiator.

They had the 10mm bolts hand tight screwed in to the clips but it was not through the bracket that holds the hose to the radiator.

Stuff like that makes me question how good of a job they did.

 

half ass is the answer. NEVER go back there again.

 

Issue is this is the second dealer that i had went to, the first said there was no leak the second said there was and was covered by warranty.

This is exactly why i was questing taking it in.

Who knows what else they forgot.

Maybe the guy that said sell it had a bad experience like this.

 

I think it’s best that you treat the first few hundred miles as a shakedown run. It’s true, the dealer is responsible for returning it to you like new, but it was an invasive procedure, not done in factory conditions. If you saw what they had to remove and take apart to complete that job, you might have fainted lol.

But you didn’t really make a wrong decision anyway. Accepting a slow weep isn’t a wrong decision either. Keep an eye on it, and take it back if to them if you find more issues. Keep an eye on all fluid levels as well. Personally, I’d make an effort to put a few hundred miles on it sooner rather than later just so things are identified as soon as possible after they completed the work.

 

A month and a half in and now it's leaking oil somewhere. I have a small amount of oil on the shop floor. Hate to see what the skid plate is hiding.

I really don't even feel like looking to see where.

 

That sucks. Do you have a third dealership that you can take it to? Maybe they will actually know how to fix it correctly.

 

Not really without long travel time.

I've never had any issues with this dealership until this warranty work, as i understand it they don't make any money on warranty work so they probably do a shit job.

The warranty job has a warranty so you would think they would do it right so they don't have to do it twice!

 

^If a shop's work fails, you typically need to go back to the same shop to get the shop warranty honored. The shop would typically assign it to the same tech, so the tech is fixing his own mistake, so to speak.

Contrary to what @Lc200 says, 1GR timing chain cover re-seal is not invasive. It's a lot less work compared to the same job on the 2GR (on Lexus RX350 for example) which is typically an engine-out affair. You're expected to give the dealer another chance to fix their mistake.

 

They get paid from Toyota for warranty work.

 

At the same rate?

 

I think the manufacturers set a fixed price that they pay out for warranty repairs.