I have a slow oil leak that is progressively getting worse. As best I can tell it is coming from the valve cover gasket. I picked up the part today at Toyota where I was told not to use a sealer on the gasket. True or false? Any other tips I should know about before doing this repair. Does anyone have specs on torque wrench setting for the bolts?

I have also noticed the engine making quite a bit of noise at idle. The car seems to be running fine but it sounds like something is rattling internally.

 

Use a section of hose as a stethoscope to narrow down the location of the noise.

When valve cover off inspect the valve train and check valve clearances.

Intake 0.007-0.011 in
Exhaust 0.011-0.015 in

Valve cover leaks are common. Toyota advises to spot seal on the corners where the outer bearing caps meet the head.

Some owners put sealant completely around the gasket perimeter.

Not required to put seal on the spark plug tube gaskets.

Torque the 4 large tube nuts to 33 ft-lb. Retorque until the reading stabilizes as the tube gaskets compress.

 

We used a stethoscope to isolate the noise. It is definitely coming from the water pump. Sounds like a bad bearing so I will be replacing the water pump very soon.

I did replaced the valve cover gasket (which had brittled and needed replacing) but the car is still leaking. As best I can tell the leak is coming for the front seal or the oil pump gasket.

 

Typical locations for oil leaks are cam, crank and oil pump seal.

If you are replacing the WP this is a good time to replace these seals.

The oil pump needs to be removed to replace the drive shaft seal. When picking up the shaft seal make sure you get the large formed O-ring seal that goes between the pump and the housing.

 

How hard are these seals to get to once the timing belt assembly is taken out? Would I need to lower the engine or can I get to them from the wheel well? I guess I should go ahead and replace all of these seals to avoid more leaks going forward.

Our local Toyota dealership quoted us $755 + tax for the water pump and seal (he said there are 4 although I do not remember them specifically) replacement.

 

Once all the timing items are removed the job is pretty straight forward. No need to lower the engine.

To replace the cam seal the pulley needs to be removed. Installing the new seal takes some patience as space is tight. Some owners have used a PVC plastic pipe reducer to aid in this job.

The reducer OD is large enough to guide the seal over bearing surface shoulder of the camshaft. The ID is large enough to slide over the cam snout that attaches to the pulley. Use a pry bar to push the seal on.

The oil pump seal requires removing the pump and oil pump drive shaft. If you have a few tools and perhaps a vice to hold the part this is a straight forward job. Be sure to pick up large O-ring that goes between the pump and front engine housing.

The pump gears have a dot on them, make sure the dots are facing the same direction.

Crank seal is straight forward.

 

The water pump finally gave way on my way down to work yesterday morning. I will start the repair tomorrow morning and let you guys know if I run into any other problems. I'm also going to replace the timing belt since it has about 50k miles on it. I'm hoping this job won't be too tough and will keep the car running for another 100k miles.

 

How do you check valve clearance?

 

We changed the timing belt, crank, cam, oil pump o-ring and seal and the car is still leaking. Any other ideas guys? I got underneath the engine after we degreased it earlier and the entire back of the motor just above the axel is damp with oil. Very slow trickle of oil coming down near the oil pan.

 

Check installed seals to make sure they are not leaking. On occasion the cam seal can leak if not correctly installed.

You replaced the valve cover.

On rare occasion the cam plugs can leak. There is a half round plug on each side of the cylinder head that fills up a space needed to machine the cam bearings.

If you remove the valve cover you should be able to see the top half of the plug. There is one on each side of the head (pulley and dist).

Are you sure it is motor oil and not trans fluid from the trans/diff or PS pump?

Back of motor on the passengers side?