Hello,

I was told by the Toyota dealer that I have a "severe" timing chain leak and that it would cost around $4k to fix. My 5th gen is a 2010 with 175k miles.

However... I haven't seen a drop of oil on my driveway. No weird noises. Nothing seems amiss. I'd expect some amount of oil under my car if there was a leak. So, is this a real problem? I've found one other post here in the 5th gens forum that highlighted this issue. It seems very uncommon.

Is this something I can just add a bit of oil here and there to fix? If I do this, where the heck is the oil even going!? It's not on my driveway as far as I can tell.

The car is obviously pretty old (13 years, in the rust belt). I'd consider a new car, but dealers are marking up by a minimum of $6k over MSRP in my area, so I'd rather run this car into the ground.

What oil change intervals do you follow and how much oil does it eat in between them?

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I change the oil about once a year (~5k miles), but I'm not sure how much oil is consumed between changes :|

I would get a second opinion by a quality independent shop. Might not even be necessary. Might be a lesser repair.

1) If you don't see drips 2) Can't see oil all over the front and bottom of your engine-wet 3) are not losing significant oil between changes-1+qts, there is no need to fix anything. Toyotas are notorious for timing cover leaks. My wifes 05 Corolla has had one since about 2007. 215K miles later its a tad worse-1-2 drops per week. No way I would spend any money on fixing it because it doesn't impede the use of the vehicle in any way other than dripping a little. I put a oil carpet under her parking spot in the garage and check oil level about 4x a year-never moves.

These leak fixes are massive money makers for dealers.

My process for leaks is-clean off by soaking with degreaser then spray off clean. Monitor next few months, note the rate. Few drops a week, or heck day, not getting fixed unless it's easy-oil pan, trans pan, etc.

There have been threads in the past about timing chain cover leaks. They involve a minor seeping around the gasket that collects some dirt and looks worse than it is. I'd first verify you really have a "leak" and if minor, just watch it. I wouldn't spend 4K on it no matter how bad it is!

If you don't have a drip, it isn't severe, in fact I've never seen a severe timing cover leak on a 1gr. Mine's been leaking for over 200k miles and I have no plans to fix it until such time as I need to tear down the front of, or remove the engine for other reasons.

Leaks in that area are also sometimes caused by pinholes in the casting of the VVTI oil hardline. This is a very easy and cheap fix and worth a shot before resealing the timing cover.

My other 4runner (2007) has a weeping sort of leak around the timing chain cover. I was also quoted about the same to fix it, but a different shop said that since the area isn't under pressure that it's probably something that won't be an issue. They went on to say that if I wanted to swap out the timing chain and tensioners at around 250-300k that would be the time to do it all at once.