I would personally have the dealer look at that anyway. Perhaps yours is not coming from where you think. On a vehicle under warranty, I wouldn't wait - just my personal opinion. My limited now has about 27k miles on it (2010) and I've seen no evidence of any leaking at all.

as all leaks, they only get worse in time but have seen peole go 15,000 miles with out a problem. theres no oil jets that spray besides below the pistons on these motors. only slinging oil from the chain itself. just keep an eye on oil level monthly between oil changes and you should be fine letting it go for a little while.

If I want to be sure that I do not have this issue- where exactly should I be looking after I open the hood?

best going under the vehicle and tilt your front shield down as if you are doing an oil change and look up by the power steering pump.

try and refer to the drawing witht he suspect leak sourse i posted early to get you an idea of wheres it at

Yeah I'll just keep an eye on it and see how long I can go. I do have warranty for 5yr or 125,000 miles so I'm not too worried. Its just that the last time I had a car (08 Nissan Altima) in for major repairs it was a disaster and I hate to go through all that again, if it was something little I would take it right away.

i feel you on that. i work at lexus and i really hold back on taking my cars in to toyota for warranty work. i obviously trust my own work. it just worries me by not knowing who will be working on my car. i see other people around my shop and they scare me and im sure its the same at toyota. i have 6 years 125,000 extended with toyota too so once it goes out of factory warranty, i can work on it myself

Lovely.

100 % agree.

Also, as a side note:as "diehard" Toyota owner it is very upsetting to see this… especially knowing that this oil leak was obviously acknowledge by Toyota in TSB since 2003, but was not fixed/corrected when they released updated V6 in 5 gen 4Runners in 2010…
This is getting very close to what other car manufactures would do in similar situation…

sad to see it practically go away in 07 and then come back now lol

I think this thread has probably had the equivalent as a punch in the gut for a few folks here as most have the opinion that these 4runner beasts have been and continue to be bulletproof. I'm one of them and am doing my best to not have my faith shaken. Maybe if we don't post anymore in this thread it will quietly join the other no longer updated threads and fall into obscurity. But then again it will no doubt show up on some search. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Unfortunately sometimes it can hurt you too.

I definitely agree with you on that… it hurts…


I would recommend the opposite: for anyone with this issue to contact Toyota and complain. Obviously there is no way to know if Toyota will do anything about it, but I still think it is better than just keep it quiet.

Did you even look up or read the TSB?? TSB EG049-07
Production change means they had a fix for it either in different parts/different machining of parts or materials and give the VIN's affected.

This is the first one I've seen or heard of it lately and I'm on the FJ forum too all the time where they use the same 1GR-FE dual vvt-i engine. The sky is not falling and this is hopefully just a one off case. We are almost 2 1/2 years into production since the 1GR-FE redesign with the new dual vvt-i head design,new block and different timing covers.

Liquid silicone sealant doesn't stick to oily or greasy parts that need to be sealed so they MUST be cleaned with a solvent or a adhesion promoter first.Most likely somebody didn't clean it good or missed it before installing the sealant ,rather then a design flaw.Too much Saki??

The "maybe if don't post anymore in this thread and it will go away" comment was said "tongue in cheek". Of course if you are experiencing this problem you should pay your dealer a visit. I do however remember worrying, as it turns out needlessly when I had my 2nd gen T4R years ago and I kept reading about all of the head gasket problems with the V6. I put 200k mi on that vehicle and the head gasket never did give me any problems. So, I've found that worrying really does work. 90% of what I worry about never happens !!

Yes, I had read this TSB… I am not sure where and how you come up with “sky is falling” from my post..?? Chill pill or drink maybe?

In my point of view it is just sad to see Toyota is making the same mistake with new generation as they had with previous one… epically considering that engine was redesigned… at least top end of it.

i agree. we need compain to get things changed,

as much as we shouldnt dog toyota on here. we need to be aware of the number of occurances. i have personally seen two leak on 5th gens. hearing cmills being the 3rd. all under 30,000 miles. very premature.


i think we under stand that the sealing surface needs to be dry before applying the form in place gasket but remember a brand new engine being built at the factory has no oil in it until its completly together ready for start up. i dont really see that a improperly cleaned or oily sealing surface being the root cause of this. we may not see a TSB show up for this problem if the numbers are low enough or not enough people complain if they actually need this repair made. TSB or not, the repair will be made under warranty no matter what