IndyRX300

Wife is about to go to work or I would search this. Appears to be coming from passenger side near the head light.

I am thinking water pump but hoping it is something not cooling related. Any quick ideas? It is freezing outside and I dont want her to drive my baby. It has a full tank that cost me $77 yesterday.


Just went out and checked on it. Looks like the front diff is leaking and I also noticed an oil leak at the timing belt cover.

Valve covers are looking a little on the weak side but she has not mentioned any smells of oil burning. I am confident on doing the valve cover gaskets. I need to look into the timing belt cover. Anything else I should consider replacing while the top of the motor is off? Intake gaskets????

God, I swear, I get one vehicle running and the other acts up. They are like 2 year olds. But I have to hand it to the Lexus. This is the first issue we have had since owning it besides the A/F meter and battery.

salimshah

When you have a leak, (unless it is fine leak) the easiest thing to help trace is check the various reservoirs. How low they are will tell you how much immediate attention they need. Most of the time the leaks do not need immediate attention but in some vehicles the leak may destroy another part [in SC ... power-steering leak destroys the alternator]

So start by checking current levels of

Engine Oil
transfluid
Power Steering
Coolant
Wiper-washer
brake fluid
[battery if applicable ... with care]


Then comes the tracing part. You need to start off by cleaning every thing ... [simple green solution] and then look for trail.

Timing Cover is just to keep the dust out. The only time they leak the oil out [assuming oil is coming out from the timing cover] is when your front bearing oil seal develops a leak, or the cam seal leak.. Cam seal leak if they happen typically leak at a low rate.

Take a deep breath and start investigating. Dont paint your self in the corner before doing the investigation. Usually in old cars the leak takes a time to show on the floor.

Salim

IndyRX300

Engine Oil - Posiive it is leaking at timing cover
transfluid - Front diff is very likely . Changing gaskets on both diffs this week along with drain and fill not flush) Will do the transmission again . Last done 6 months ago. Only doing this becuase we get a great deal on oil changes and fuild changes.
Power Steering - TBD
Coolant- TBD
Wiper-washer - Not possible. Need to replace oring at washer pump
brake fluid - Poddible
Battery replaced this week. The original was a trooper. Lasted 152k miles.

I will give the engine bay a nice degreasing and cleaning. I am going to go ahead and do the VCG and intake gaskets next weekend. I am having the valve covers sand blasted and powder coated to match the exterior paint. Could just go with a flat black or basic silver but the custom coats are only $8 more so why not.

I just know how the wife is when it comes to maintenance. If it is leaking coolant and it starts to overheat, she will assume it is ok to go ahead and drive it home. YIKES.

We are going out to dinner tonight and will be taking her vehicle. I always drive so I will monitor everything closely.

Thank you for your advice!

hypervish

The rear valve cover gasket is not fun, trust me. I changed both of my valve cover gaskets right before Christmas. Don't forget to re-attach the ground cable, trust me on that. lol
It was a long job, but it was nice to see that my engine was extremely clean under the valve covers (ie. no sludge). I know I should have taken pictures, but I didn't want to get my phone dirty. hahah < I know bad excuse.
Be sure to change the PCV valve while your already working in that area.

salimshah

So, is the engine oil low?

Gravity, surface tension and motion can make the oil accumulate and drip far from the leak.

Check out auto-rx ]disclaimer ... I have never used it].

Have you recently changed your oil type/grade?

Salim

hypervish

X2. I thought my leak was from the power steering pump but it was in fact leaking from my rear valve cover and making it's way down there.

Be sure to check thoroughly for the leak. I suggest cleaning it up first, and then look for where the leak is.

IndyRX300

For the 1 plus year we have owned it, we have ran nothing but M1 Syn. I know for a fact that the front diff is leaking. Previous owner did a shotty job on the valve covers. So shotty that I have no need to locate the torx bit as it is stuck on one of the valvle cover bolts..........


I do not know the history of the car so I am just going to go ahead and replace the mentioned gaskets as a measure or preventative maintenance.

It is also in need of exhaust from the manifold back. I think the flex pipe is shot, I know the gaskets are and the tension springs. I just keep putting it off. I am just wondering if the exhaust leak befor the second up stream sensor would cause a lean fuel trim?

Anyways I am straying off topic. The car just does not feel like a 225 hp 220lbs of torque. Hell it is only 2.1 seconds slower than my 540.

I have found most of the OEM parts needed on Amazon. Prices are very nice. They will be even better since I work there. I do appriciate all of your guys feedback.

IndyRX300

Well we went for dinner last night and of course, the car ran perfect. I did not detect any odor other than the once small ,but now massive exhaust leak.

Power steering was smooth and resevoir was full. I checked it the when the motor was cool and warmed up.

I still am suspicious of the breaks. How soft is your guys pedal when breaking? Brake light is not on but perhaps there is a air leak somewhere.

RandomTech

If you had a leak enough to get air into the brake system, you would have puked all your fluid on the ground by now.

In regards to your oil leaks, here are the list of items that leak on the 3.0 in order of frequency:

Valve covers
Sub-oil pan
Cam seals
Rear main

Oil out the diff is likely the rear main or passenger side axle seal. When you do the former you do the latter in conjunction because you have the diff out anyway. They should throw in a diff. extension housing seal as well for the same reason. Be prepared to be blown away at the cost of getting a rear main done (it's 11.3 hours of labor)

IndyRX300

I will be doing all the work myself. This of course will result in 18hrs , two full cuss jars , hands that will not be clean until 2014 and probably a panic thread or two on here the forums.

I as for the diff, I will take a picture of it and see what you guys think. I will go ahead and do the cam seals if they are able to be done with the valve covers off.

I am just not going to pay someone a 1/3 of the cost than the vehicle is worth to do the work. My father has a heated 3 car garage and a pole barn where I cando the work.

Granted that I have never done such an extensive job as far as a real main seal, the exeprience will be priceless when I complete the job. Thanks to the power of Google and forums like these, We are now able to avoid the dealership at all cost.

gazi001

Good luck Indy. Most probably the rear main seal. It's a long time job.

RandomTech

The rear main is a massive job, especially on a car with miles and rust. I hope you've got an engine hanging assembly, a very large transmission jack, and the experience to maneuver a 200+ transmission around without dropping it or breaking any of the electrical components.

On top of all that, the flex plate is sometimes rusted to the torque converter and requires finesse to separate without bending the flex plate or dumping the torque converter and destroying the trans input shaft seal.

It might be worth it to pay the $1400 for the dealer to do it and save yourself a weeks worth of mental and physical damage. An experienced tech can get one done in 5-6 hours.

I am not trying to scare you away, but this is a job only master techs/heavy line techs get for a reason.

hypervish

I had a rear main seal leak, or at least thought I did (still not sure to this day, if I did). The leak stopped by itself, within' a couple hundred miles. And, that happened at 145k miles, I'm now at 173k miles, and that leak hasn't ever returned.

IndyRX300

I think I will take your advice on that. I still have not got around to see where the leak is coming . It does not appear to be motor oil . It is way too thin. What ever it is, I need to stop procratinating before something major happens.