nhuto

Hi folks,

Lexus 2014 RX350 69k miles. Last two pictures have oil build up on the steering boots. I checked and there were no tears on neither one of the boot. Then I looked up from the right boot and found oil leaking out of the oil cooler, 1st picture. What is going on here? I’m not sure if the oil leaked down to the boots or these are two separate issues. Showed the pictures to couple of my buddies and addmitted to them that instead of putting in the required 6.5 quarts of oil I put in 7 quarts every time. They said too much oil causes pressure inside your engine when it is hot. Over the long haul it will cause your engine gasket to fail prematurely. Just need some opinions and advice....

nhuto

I forgot to mention, I never saw any oil on my driveway, but I also just got home from a 1200 mile road trip.

salimshah

Maybe a nice cleanup [Simple Green or equivalent] is needed. Then look for the location of start of the oil leak. Highest and the most forward location where you see the oil is your culprit.

Salim

RX in NC

Unlikely that 7 quarts of engine oil caused your issue. You probably have a leak.

nhuto

Here is the dip stick when engine is cold. Second picture is the area I after I cleaned it, the plastic/rubber was loose when I touched it. Not sure if that is the fail gasket.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

Is that not a common point for the timing chain cover leak?

Nad1370

Your first pic looks like axle grease slinging on the block.
Check your passenger axle inboard boot for any grease leaking from the clamps.

Non

To me it looks like the oil was sprayed in the direction of the oil cooler, and not leaking out of it, because of the clean shadows behind the bolt heads.
I would spend more time looking around for any oil in the area around it.
Overfilling the oil is not a good idea, it's best not to do it in the future.

OG Member

iTrader: (1)

Agreed.

The substance appears thicker than engine oil for this generation RX, which is typically 0w-20 and is quite a 'thin' oil.

I had a similar sling pattern from my wife's '06 RX, and sure enough, her axle boot had torn and needed to be replaced.

If it is a torn axle boot, have it replaced sooner rather than later as the missing grease + water + dirt/debris can wear down the axle and result in a more costly repair.

Let us know what you uncover!

nhuto

I did check the axel boots and steering rack boots I couldn’t see any leaking of grease from these. Thanks guy for your your inputs.

nhuto

Ok guys after more looking this is what I found.


Passenger side, different angle of the oil cooler. You can see the spray, blue circle. The boot you see here is the steering boot, the axel is just right underneath it. I also realized that the oil build up on both steering boots are from the bottom and nothing from the the top so it’s not leaking from the oil cooler.


Here is a good look of the axel from the driver side, you can see the black oil line, it was dry on top of that, I couldn’t find any oil above where i wrote dry.


Driver side steering boot, no oil from top.

Passenger steering boot, also oil underneath, not on top.

Nad1370

Thats definitely axle grease.
Looks to me its seeping out of the clamps and inertia is causing it to sling out.

Non

I agree, try tightening the clamp.

The boot is still good, but the clamp is not sealing the grease anymore and it's spraying.

Or maybe get a new clamp.

May be a good idea to add grease to this axle.

nhuto

Thanks guys. I’m planning to bring it to my mechanic to have the car looked at on a lift, let’s hope it the CV axel grease like lot of you guys pointed out.

BTW I recently had the two front struts replaced, not sure doing it really loosened these clamps, there were a lot of wiggling and pulling stuff trying to remove/mount the the strut.

salimshah

Likelihood of loose clamp is remote and a rip in the boot is lot higher. It is bit tricky to see as the wheel hangs down when you lift and the boot opens up at the top. One has to rotate the wheel and observe from the top.

Salim