canucklehe

my 93 es300 is leaking oil onto hot exhaust. stinks inside vehicle, quite annoying. I notice some oil at front of engine on valve cover. not sure if that is prone to leaking, to the point of dripping on exhaust. No oil stains on floor, only smell it driving.

my 2000 camry also has similar irritating leak, but I know that one is rear valve cover, which that car/engine is prone to.

so any common possibilities to narrow down my oil leak hunt on this Lexus?

thanks

LeX2K

Most common leak is the valve cover gaskets, and the oil filter adapter O-ring. The O-ring leak especially likes to drip onto the exhaust, to replace it you have to remove the Y-pipe.

canucklehe

great info, thanks guys. I hate trying to isolate oil leaks. It's hard to find the source, easy to find the sloppy, oily mess all over the place. even cleaning off the mess to find the leak is a PITA.

what's the Y pipe like to remove? I just changed the oil and found the oil filter difficult to get at (to get a filter wrench on it).

maybe I should start with valve cover gasket as I can definitely see oil up front and on top, then take it from there.

where is a good/cheap seller of OEM Lexus parts, or decent after market parts?

morphh

you mostly likely have oil running out of the oil filter trying to get it out, it happens to me too, it should go away or burn off all the left over oil,

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

OEM - Sewell Lexus; don't expect super cheap... even after CL discount.
A/M - Rockauto

There was another Toyota parts site, but i forget what it is, was cheaper than Sewell

canucklehe

morphh, it was smelly before I did oil change. maybe a bit worse from my spillage doing filter change.

i will check sewell lexus, or any good toyota discounter others can share.

canucklehe

so now I'm poking around for gaskets (smell is driving me nuts). They seem to sell a variety of options including new spark plug seals, "tubes" (??), etc... I'm sure the valve cover hasn't been off since 60K miles (when timing belt was done).

so what do I actually need? Prices vary, and I only want to fix what I need to.

is oil filter bracket o-ring/gasket available after-market?

LeX2K

Get a valve cover gasket set, which comes with the tube seals, gaskets, and PCV valve grommet. Replace the PCV valve while you're at it. I don't know if the adapter O-ring is available in after market, but the price at a dealer will be minimal. You will also need the two exhaust downpipe gaskets.

canucklehe

I hear rear gasket is a crappy job. must be similar to my 2000 camry because I have a leak on that rear valve cover aswell, and also hear it is not a fun repair.

canucklehe

I can see oil on the front valve cover area. maybe i'll try to post a pic.

canucklehe

here are some pics. upon closer inspection, I can see the rear exhaust pipe has had oil drip on it and burn off, quite stained. Here are some pics. the front is easier to see. aside from the rear pipe being stained, I can't see the leak. might also explain why it will be so much fun to replace the gasket.

how many hours should a shop charge to do front/rear valve cover gaskets?

here are some pics. the first two are the front valve cover area. to the right in pics (driver's side), it is darker. I also wiped some off the valve cover.you can see the smear.





this is closer pic of front leak, different angle:


this last one shows the rear, and in the middle you can see oil stained pipe, just below the thinner rubber hose:

RocketmAAn

Try using can of engine degreaser or perhaps better, the electrical (brake?) cleaner stuff that is "sensor safe" (green can, the 1 of 2 that is sensor safe) because you'll surely hit stuff and not get it rinsed off or get water in old electrical connections. The latter won't require rinsing off. I drove to car wash, waited until it cooled off, then did the job.

Can also clean up and put leak detector in oil and then look with black light bulb in your trouble light at night.

Had the oil filter extension O-ring gasket problem.
(wife's 93 ES300, 167K) I could tell it was hitting the exhaust heat shield in the middle (and visible from the front), but couldn't be sure exactly where it was coming from. Did the piece of custom galvanized tin shield until could do the fix. After clean up, could tell it was O-ring. Tried tightening bolts, but couldn't find a tool to do anything to the bottom bolt. ?Would have to be something exotic like open end wrench with bend offset? That's why you have to get exhaust pipe out of way to replace gasket. For some reason I had to take off the back pipe connection as well with help from several socket extensions, breaker bar and some pentrating oil (may also have used electrical impact wrench I originally bought for the 150ft-lb wheel lugs on my E350 van)
Replaced both "doughnut" exhaust gaskets figuring they would leak if I didn't. Old gaskets actually did break up when I did the job

Found a couple discount OEM/GENUINE parts sources online (including eBay) when I did an A/C compressor+condensor+drier+O-rings job (R-12), but think I had to get O-ring from Toyota.

canucklehe

i can see the rear pipe or exhaust manifold is covered in burnt/stained oil. it is hard to see in my pic. really hard to get the right angle to see it. so I don't think dye would help me trace that leak. I am taking it to mechanic tomorrow for VC gaskets. Normally I do all this stuff myself, but decided to pass on this one.

if I still have issue after, I will take closer look at the oil bracket gasket.

thanks for your help rocketmaan

canucklehe

got the job done today. the odor is better, but I'm still catching a whiff when stopped/idling. Mechanic told me it will take awhile to burn off, and that rear had been leaking badly. I am also slow leaking PS fluid, but that doesn't hit the exhaust pipe or manifold.

throttle body was very sooty and that was cleaned. also cleaned EGR and replaced plugs. Parts & labor was $340. Pretty reasonable I thought.

i'll give it a few days and see if smell goes away. if not, may also be replacing the oil filter bracket o-ring.

a vacuum line on some sort of vacuum module broke (under the first cover you remove). I'll see if I can replace with a used one.

EEngineer

it's almost always the oil filter adapter o-ring