Decided to bite the bullet and bring my 2002 into the dealership to have the leaking rear main seal and valve cover gaskets fixed. They did an inspection, said my assessment was right, and for $1300 theyd fix it. Picked the car up the following day, the repairs went without a hitch and I should be good. Fresh oil drips on the driveway the next day said otherwise... So back in it went. Got a call a few hours later saying the cam seals (half moon seals) need replaced. Apparently the folks on this forum are smarter than the toyota mechanics because why the hell it wasn't done the first time is beyond me.

Anyways, after my dad gives the manager an ear full, get told it will get took care of no problem. Pick it up the next day, hear I'm good to go, and bring her home. This time we wanted to make Damn sure we could tell if any new oil appeared, so me and my dad sprayed the whole underside plus parts around the engine with degreaser and then pressure washed it. And yesterday we found a bead of oil forming at the bottom of the bell house, where the tranny meets the engine.
Brought the car back in this morning and got a phone call a few hours ago saying they can't find an oil leak and everything looks clean.... So going back again tomorrow to have a little chat and see wtf is going on...

Is there some secret problem 1 out of every 1 million 4runners get that most mechanics won't catch or what? I guess my main point here is just to rant..

Those are relatively straightforward jobs, other than the part of having to take off the transmission to do the rear main.

Maybe the guy didnt drive the rear main seal in straight, or didnt apply RTV properly to the housing?

I take it you mean the half moon (semi circular plugs) were the culprit the second time? If you are seeing that much oil leak from them there is a big problem.

Possibly the cam seal plugs at the rear of each VC is the problem though I wouldn't be surprised if they were overtorqued and now one is cracked.

Keep us posted....

To see if you're still leaking on the back side of your heads either from the cam seals or the half moons, get yourself one of the those small telescoping inspection mirrors with a built-in light so you can see back there.

Here's a link to the one I bought from Sears:

Sears.com

Hearing stories like this over and over again and from my own personal experience, it's hard to find a mechanic/shop that's actually going to put as much attention to detail into your rig as you would yourself. Maybe use this as motivation to start learning to work on your truck.

Is it possible that the single oil drip was residual leak-oil that was left in the bell housing area?
Of course, your dealer service department might have crossed the line into corrupto-incompetent land (like mine did) in which case you may have trouble getting a straight explanation from them.

As someone about to buy his first runner and only a general knowledge of trucks how would I go about learning to work on my truck? Just keeping up with the forums?

Yes, and get a Haynes manual. Read that cover to cover a couple times. Then get the Service Manual CD from Toyota. All set.

Dude, in my opinion, I think most people can learn to wrench on their own vehicles if they're motivated and have some patience. Taking on a repair project can be intimidating, but once you have one success after another and learn it's really not that hard, you'll gain confidence to tackle more and more repairs/modifications. Granted, you'll probably find yourself investing in some tools that you need, like a torque wrench, hydraulic jack, jack stands, etc., but it's a great investment.

There is so much information out there for you to be successful. There's great write-ups on forums such as ours, and there's also YouTube videos that people were nice enough to take the time to share with the masses.

I own the 2 volume FSM set for my year truck. I found it to be an invaluable resource. I tried using the on-line version of the FSM but I found it a pain in the butt to use.

If I were you, I'd start off easy and work your way up to more involved jobs. Start with simple fluid changes like engine oil, transmission oils, transfer case oil, differential oils, and coolant. I'm actually going to make a video within the next month covering exactly that for our 3rd Gen 4runners.

Here's a link to my YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9E...y61kJ6hdXcbjxA

tear into it and fix your own stuff. that is how you learn. i started repairing stuff when i was kid with bikes. not many repair books in the 70's. you learn that way. take stuff apart, see how they work, etc. you will break/damage something along the way and that's part of it.

i do all the work on my truck unless i don't have equipment to do the job, like alignments. did valve cover gaskets, moons, tubes seals, pcv grommet, etc, no leaks. only leak is rear main, which i will address later. next oil change i will be replacing the oil cooler seals and coolant hoses for it.

I just had the dealer do my valve covers as well. 2 days later oil in the driveway, so I thought. Jumped under and found it was ATF from the steering rack boot. No biggie. Will replace the rack when it gets worse.

One really awesome thing about 4Runner owners is that there is such a plethora of information regarding repairs and mods out there. I recently replaced my front rotors/pads/calipers (Tundra upgrade) and rear shoes as well as both rear seals, AND replace front/rear/transfer differential fluid...all with the help of forums writeups and youtube...and I am NOT mechanically inclined.