Your 2007 RX is the 2nd gen RX and as mentioned above they have power steering pumps. You need to post in the 2nd generation RX forum.
To see the leak on a 3rd gen you have to remove the front passenger side tire and look through the wheel well area to the engine.

 

Bought a used 2015 RX350 with only 36k miles and it appears to have this leak (UV oil dye after 1 day driving pictured). Luckily it is still in return window at CarMax. This was my first Lexus and I bought it assuming it was bulletproof not full of widespread problems. I’ve driven my 2012 Honda Accord over 100k miles and the only thing I’ve done is brake pads and a battery. Can’t believe this car is supposed to be reliable but needs the engine taken apart at 36,000 miles to stop leaking oil. How did they get away with this?

 

No such animal as a completely bulletproof vehicle, and having had three different RXs in our stable during the past 20 years I can tell you that Lexus build quality is not what it used to be.

Most owners do not repair the timing cover issue because it usually is just a seep, not a leak. This is unfortunately a well-known problem with the 3.5 liter engine. Read this entire thread if you have not done so already.

If you are becoming more and more frustrated with your vehicle, return it while you can. Especially if you are not capable of doing the ongoing maintenance and repairs yourself.

 

Actually found this in the service history on the Lexus app of the used RX I bought. Is this the timing cover leak, or something else?

 

That is a Variable Valve Timing (VVT) solenoid gasket leak repair. Nothing to do with the infamous timing cover leak issue.

 

tldr - any low-cost successes in lessening or stopping the well-known timing cover leak?

My 2010 is now at 236K miles, having passed from wife's daily driver, to oldest through HS and college, to youngest through HS and now in college. It only gets used when she's home on breaks, and when I take it out every week or two to keep it active. It was bulletproof until an A/C compressor at 200K in mid-2019, but I think I've now hit the wall where everything is coming at once.

After youngest drove it around over Thanksgiving, I found oil leaks that never before been seen. And there were 5-6 small ones and then a fresh, decent sized one right where it was parked. Somehow having been served up the Car Care Nut's channel recently, I kind of knew what it was. Getting underneath - yep, oil all over the oil cooler hoses. Lexus has a 2-week lead-time for service, but Toyota just down the road had openings that day. I managed to work my way in back to talk to the tech after diagnosis - Yep, oil cooler lines were leaking, but also the timing cover, both known items. The oil cooler was ~$500 (after I had to show them the TSB and the $74 metal replacement kit, not the $400 replacement bad originals they quoted), but the timing cover was $4K. Or maybe $5K - doesn't matter, it wasn't going to happen.

The tech said he couldn't tell how much oil was coming from where. CCN seemed to say that the oil cooler was a "burst and empty your oil pan in a minute" type of risk, but the timing cover was "clean it up, check it in a month, see how bad it is, see if you want to just live with it" type of thing. So I had the oil cooler lines replaced.

Unfortunately, I'm still getting oil spots. I'll climb under tomorrow - hopefully it's a bad oil cooler install - 12 month warranty - but I don't know how I'll get Toyota service to not just tell me it's fine, I'm seeing oil from the timing cover.

The car already needs $1200 in body work to fix where kiddo hit a pole in a parking garage, to get past state inspection. WeBuyAnyCar won't even give a quote ("call us") and Edmunds says it's worth about $3,300. So throwing more money at it, with the possibility that it is the timing cover leaking much more then typical, doesn't seem to be worth it.

Before going to WBAC and just taking whatever they offer, I want to see if there are thoughts on slowing/temporarily fixing the leaks. The car only gets a few thousand miles a year, so just putting off end-of-life for a little bit could be useful.

Browsing various other forums, Project Farm, and others, I ordered some AT-205 Re-Seal, which always seems to come out on top in evaluations. It's also time for an oil change, so I ordered some higher viscosity 5W-30 high mileage oil (have been using 0w-20 high mileage). I'm hoping the two might have some effect. I'm not overly worried about any VVT issues with the heavier oil at this point in the vehicles life. And 5W-30 is in the owner's manual for the exact same 2GR-FE in Australia, where they don't need to thin it out to meet CAFE requirements.

Any other success stories, or thoughts on other low-cost actions that might carry it along another 5-10K miles? After 14 years, it served us well, so I'm ready to pack it in, but I'll give it one last shot at extending the life.

 

Some owners have tried meticulously cleaning the timing cover oil weep area and filling it with a high heat-grade RTV sealant. Sometimes that works, sometimes it does not.

Some owners have tried slightly tightening the timing cover bolts around the weep area. Again, sometimes that works and sometimes it does not.

No way would I pay Lexus $4,000 to $5,000 to pull the engine out of the vehicle to reseal the timing cover. I would just keep checking the weep area to see if it gets worse and at your mileage, I would eventually decide to get rid of the vehicle.

 

An engineer finds a cost effective way to the problem.

If you have put a cardboard underneath the vehicle in garage and never have a need to top up the lost oil, then save $5000.

You can try to tighten the screw/bolts but do not go beyond the spec. Use a degreaser and try the topical sealant and just keep an eye on the oil level [every other day, then weekly and then every month]. Change the cardboard frequently to track how much is being lost.

Salim

 

I also have a weeping front timing cover. I slowed my leak by cleaning the area and applying several layers of Permatex Spray sealant. You wait about a minute in between spraying new layers to create a nice thick coating. The oil will eventually find a way pass the spray sealant, but it will slow down the leak even more.

The only real fix is to reseal the front timing cover. However, if the leak is just some seepage over time that barely reduces the oil amount on the dipstick then I would just apply some spray sealant to add another barrier until you sell the vehicle or fix the timing cover.

My leaky timing cover sealed up with the Permatex spray sealant. It looks like shiny Vasoline when dry. So far so good. I focused a lot of sealant behind the VVT line bolt area where the timing cover tends to leak the most.

 

>>>> I focused a lot of sealant behind the oil cooler bolt area where the timing cover tends to leak the most

Just not to confuse anyone, your pic is of the bank 1 VVTi oil line on the timing cover, not the "oil cooler" which is connected to middle oil pan (not the timing cover)...

 

Your description of the problem is so vivid !

I think the majority of the leakage was from the oil cooler lines , get them replaced ASAP to avoid catastrophic engine failure, the timing cover leak might be just a seeping over time , clean and observe. Make no financial sense putting 5K in resealing the timing cover.

Keep the car as long as possible, just check oil frequently and if it needs a top up every week or so , it’s acceptable for a 14 year old car with 200k+ miles.

great suggestions from all members.

 

Good catch!!! I need to correct that post.

 

This is the correct answer for a vehicle with 200k+ miles. We have an BMW X5 w/ 100k miles that drips oil constantly but we never need to add oil between changes so we'll never fix the problem. Its just not worth the money to chase an oil leak that will likely never become catastrophic.

 

Thanks for the replies, and for linking this to the past thread I somehow couldn't find, with details/photos.

I put the AT-205 in and drove for an hour. Then my wife took it on a 6 hour round-trip to pick up in-laws for the holidays. As that had passed the specified 5 hour treatment time, I changed the oil so the additive wasn't just floating around in the crankcase. After 4-5 outings, followed by sitting for an extended period, no obvious oil on the ground. I'll crawl under and look in detail later, but I'm thinking/hoping it's good enough for now. In reality, I suspect the drops I saw after the oil cooler hose was replaced might have been oil from that leak that had sprayed around in nooks and crannies and was still working it's way out. The cover leak most likely was, and still is, a very slow seep that really won't be a problem.

As the cover leak is just an applied sealant rather than an actual rubber gasket or seal, I'm a bit doubtful that the AT-205 plasticizers would actually have an effect. But the engine is full of actual seals and gaskets, so a bit of treatment for all of them probably didn't hurt.

After a few more cycles, and when I get a free time, I'll put it up on stands again and take a look. I suspect I'll see the same remnants of a very slow, seeping/spitting "leak" from the cover, and I'll just get in the habit of giving it a good degreaser/cleaning each time I change the oil. With the photos provided here, I'm hoping to better locate the cover leak and might try spraying/applying some type of external sealant - couldn't hurt. Maybe that magical FlexSeal. Or not.

 

One additional follow-up. If I want to try to clean/Permatex the leaking area, how do I get to it?

The tech at the dealership had it up on a lift, with the covers off, and just kind of waved a flashlight at it. I've seen several close-ups of the leaking area, and the CCN video, so I can find it once in the vicinity. There was a post earlier that said you get to it by removing the right front wheel.

Is it best accessed from below, on jacks, or from the wheel well? From below, I've changed the oil/filter and inspected the oft-leaking oil cooler hoses, so that's my starting point. If from the wheel well, do inner liners need to come off? Images in posts 70, 89, 118, and 159 seem to be coming from the rear, slightly offset to the passenger side, rather than at a 90 degree angle that I would expect to see directly from the side. 159 looks like it might be from just under the driveshaft, inboard of the front passenger wheel hub. Anyone happen to have a zoomed out version of these images to provide a starting reference?

Also mentioned is tightening up the bolts holding on the cover - anyone happen to have torque specs?