Forrestb

Hey guys im new to the lexus community and to the forum i have an almost stock gs300 99 and it has an oil leak. Now im not sure if its leaking from the cam seal or the vvti oring. How can you guys spot the difference without taking it completely apart?
I took off the cover and it doesnt seem like there is oil begind that metal plate and no oil on the exhaust cam gear. I wanna say that oil leaks and spits everywhere cause my bay is covered in oil. Any help on deciding between the 2 on which one is leaking? I was gonna order the oring from a site i cant remember at the moment. Any help would be appriciated.

KyleH

iTrader: (1)

You will likely need to disassemble a lot to determine the source. But if I were you, I'd just replace them all while you're in there if it hasn't been done in a 100k or so miles. For me when I found the seals on the cams were leaking, it was very evident after removing the cam gears and the black metal plate behind the cam gears.

Forrestb

Well ****. Anyone else?
For those that have done both are they hard?

dreamcar88

iTrader: (1)

My 01 300 was leaking from what I thought was the cam seals. After more research i ordered the vvti oring rebuild kit, cam seals, front main seals, timing belt, valve cover gaskets ,intake gaskets. After taking off that pulley it was pouring from that location. Good idea to just replace it all. I got lucky and got all the parts under 150. My buddy is a bmw tech so he charged me 500 to do the entire job. Have to remove basically the whole front end. Took me longer to get parts than the job from jeff tsai.. I went to a couple shops and they quoted me 1700$ to just do the cam seals lol which If i just did them it still would have been leaking.

bruceb58

How many miles on your car? If close to 90K or multiples of that, time to do a timing belt anyway and then change the cam seals. It's very easy when you have everything off while doing the belt. I always change the cam seals and the crank seal among other things.

Mcon

iTrader: (1)

Forrestb,

First, Welcome to the club and forum.

Second, My recommendation to you is, clean your engine and tracking the oil leak after you cleaned the engine. So that way, you know or you can see it where really is the leak, before you spend extra money and waste of time.