Dealer says timing cover is leaking oil, what should I do?

[bronsin]

Does anyone else see the mistake The op is making or am I the only one?

The OP has stated he sees in oil leak on his timing chain cover. But he also states it has been 1700 miles since the last oil change. The oil dipstick says full or even a little more than full. Therefore the leak is not significant enough to worry about.

BUT He is determined to jack up his car and go mucking about underneath the engine!

This may result in problems!

[RMcG]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Does anyone else see the mistake The op is making or am I the only one?

The OP has stated he sees in oil leak on his timing chain cover. But he also states it has been 1700 miles since the last oil change. The oil dipstick says full or even a little more than full. Therefore the leak is not significant enough to worry about.

BUT He is determined to jack up his car and go mucking about underneath the engine!

This may result in problems!

Thanks everybody for your input,

Bronsin I am aware there is the potential can of worms you are referring to that I do not want to open up. I will likely monitor the oil level and if it does not drop, I will probably do nothing for now, especially since it's starting to get cold.

On the other hand, if the oil level drops slowly, then I will likely look into jacking the car up eventually. Perhaps it might be just an issue of tightening a bolt or two to keep a gasket from leaking. Somebody else on the forum solved the problem just by tightening a bolt or two.

Aside from the cover on the timing belt, I was also interested in the respondents input on techniques for jacking up the car for the following reason. In the future, I will probably want to check the front differential oil, drive shaft boots and the ball joints and dust covers, rather than paying a dealer or Indie mechanic to do it. I like to do things myself: it's generally cheaper and gives me a sense of satisfaction.

The car is getting old: it's over 13 years old and has about 112K miles on it. I have never had the front differential oil, the drive shaft boots or the ball joints and dust covers checked since I bought the car, despite the fact the Toyota owner's Maintenance Guide suggested doing these things thousands of miles ago. This trip to the dealer is the first time I have had it done. I only took it to the dealer, because I am starting a new job and an Indie mechanic I asked about doing the check kind of balked at some of the items like "Tighten nuts and bolts on chassis" for driving on dusty and dirt roads. I did used to drive quite a bit on dusty and dirt roads, but never primarily.

Thanks,

R.

[tmontague]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Does anyone else see the mistake The op is making or am I the only one?

The OP has stated he sees in oil leak on his timing chain cover. But he also states it has been 1700 miles since the last oil change. The oil dipstick says full or even a little more than full. Therefore the leak is not significant enough to worry about.

BUT He is determined to jack up his car and go mucking about underneath the engine!

This may result in problems!

Some of us like to investigate things, learn more and keep our heads out of the sand.

Not sure how the OP is making a mistake here. Not inspecting the "leak" himself would be a mistake. So would replacing the timing cover seal only based off what the dealer said.

The OP didn't state he is going to replace anything, he simply wants to inspect it himself and is asking relevant question to do so in an appropriate manner. Good on him