jbobst

We have a 2001 RX300, which we only bought a few months ago. Our oil light came on yesterday, and it appears we were very low on oil. However, there is never an oil spot in our garage, so I have no idea where that much oil is going. I added oil, then crawled under the vehicle to check it out. The oil pan is very dirty with oil and road dirt. But, not enough oil to cause any dripping, so I am not sure how we lost so much oil out of the crankcase... Anyway, after closer inspection, the oil is leaking out of the oil pan seam/gasket. And, one of the front bolts that is holding the oil pan to the engine seems to be gone, or rather have a sheared off head. Since that bolt is no longer doing it's job of sealing that particular area on the oil pan gasket, it seems like that is where the main leak is. Has anyone else had this problem? I have no idea how an oil pan bolt head get's sheared off, but apparently, someone must have done some work on this in the past.

My plan is to go ahead and take off the oil pan and try to drill out the bolt. That is a scary undertaking, because if anything goes wrong and I can't get that bolt out, the car could be useless without an oil pan and oil! I ordered a replacement bolt from my local dealer today, and it will be here Monday. Should there be anything tricky about removing the oil pan, and assuming I can get the old bolt out, is there anything tricky about putting it back together? The Lexus parts guy just said to use some sort of liquid silicone gasket around the pan when I put it back together.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated!

dkurtz06

Question....Have you checked your oil level since you bought it? Notice any blue smoke when you start up or are driving?

jbobst

They guy I bought it from was a real car type of guy...had a bunch of older restore cars, does his own oil changes, etc. He said he always did oil changes with synthetic oil. But, once I bought the vehicle, I immediately did an oil change (with synthetic oil) and filter. Since then, I haven't bothered to check the oil unfortunately, but I didn't realize there was a leak, since there was never any indication on the driveway or garage. Never seen blue smoke, but there was a bunch of messy oil and grim on the oil pan area when I did the oil change. I figured that since the oil filter is such a difficult problem to take off, and since I made quite a mess of everything when I changed the oil, I just thought the mess was from the previous owner's oil changes (plus, when you refill the new oil, it can easily spill under the plastic "lexus" engine cover and drip down the engine un-noticed...since it's under the engine cover). After I did the initial oil change, I degreased all the undercarriage, just to make sure there wasn't a leak after I did the oil change. I checked if a few days later, and it still seemed clean. So, since there were no drip marks on the garage floor, I just forgot about it until the oil light came on yesterday.

Nad1370

JBob, If you are certain that the leak is coming from the oil pan. Then I would suggest on resealing it.
As for the sheared of bolt...in my opinion, if you are not experienced or not have the right tools, I would'nt worry about that one bolt.
Just clean off the pan and use genuine Toyota sealer P/N 00295-00102.
Let it cure for 24hrs and you should be good to go.
Make sure to go around the bolt holes on the pan as you put the FIPG seal.

On a side note* Take a closer look at the seal on the oil pan. Is it Grey in color or Black? Factory sealer is Grey. So maybe if it's a Black seal, means somebody had resealed it before and broke the bolt off.

salimshah

Bit late for you, but a buyer should crawl under and look for leaks.

When was the previous time you checked the oil? Few months ago when you bought it? You should reconcile the loss of oil with time.

If you have not had a pool of oil where you park and you have grime from a slow leak, your major source of problem is somewhere else. [like burning etc]. So I would investigate a bit more before going through the motion of installing the missing bolt.

My concern is that you are undertaking a DIY project where the repair is on a fixed part and you will be lying on your back with limited clearance. You will need some tools (bolt extractor, toque wrench, possibly an over-sized (from current) tap).

Not sure in RX oil pan. but some times the thread part goes through and through. In this case the tip of the bolt can be felt on the other side. If so then you can try grabbing the tip with locking pliers and spin it.

For the fix when you take the pan off, check the face is true. You can check with a straight edge and source of light behind it. Some times the over-tightening can bend the pan enough that on re-install it still leaks. Toyota-Lexus sells a product FIPg which is a paste which forms a gasket. Almost like a caulk with setting time and continues bead is required.

Salim

ps: NAD1370 posted a picture ... thanks.

jbobst

Yeah, I should have check underneath before I bought it. I just checked the engine compartment and did a quick underneath check. What I should have done is found this forum first and read all about the vehicle from owners! Great forum...and I'll be sure the do more due diligance next purchase. The wife just had to have an RX, so she was the one out looking and looking for one. I was kind of pressured to get this one, and on the surfaced it seemed alright. Thanks for all the advice so far!

By the way, in the picuture that Nad1370 posted, are there two separate items to buy, or is one of the items just the box that the tube came in?

I'll be jacking the car up tomorrow morning, cleaning the pan, and dropping it down to see exactly what I am up against with the broken bolt. I'll also check the color (grey or black) of the current gasket...and I would like to try and just re-seal the pan, without extracting the bolt if possible. I had a motorcycle last year that had the oil drain plug bolt with rounded off corners. I ended up having to buy an extractor, but I ended up breaking off two of the extractor screws IN the bolt! I was finally able to get the bolt out, but it was a mess.

jbobst

Salim, I changed the oil a few months back (October?) and like an idiot, haven't checked it since, until yesterday. So, with the loss of oil, should I assume that it's getting burned up or consumed in the engine? Obviously, since the oil pan is leaking, and since it's pretty grimmy with oil and dirt on the pan, there is some oil loss through the leak. But as you said, since there isn't any drip marks, there could be another problem. Do the first generation RX300's typically burn oil? The exhaust doesn't seem to ever be blue or noticable.

bob2200

How many miles on the RX? My impression is that low-mile RXs don't usually burn oil.

jbobst

119,000 when I bought it, around 123,000 now.

salimshah

A few people have reported oil consumption .... specially using thin oil and running at high rpm.

Normally you should only need the gasket. The FIPG is used instead of the gasket and is more forgiving when you have slightly bent pan.

My humble advice is still to look for the source of missing oil. The leak should be fixed but you might want to postpone and simply top up and explore. If you top up and loose a slight bit over couple of weeks, yes then it is the pan gasket leak.

Salim

code58

I agree with Nad, Bob & Salim. 1st., Nad's picture is the empty box and the tube that came out of it. Just one item there. He is right in directing you to the correct silicone. I don't think it has to be Toyota, just as long as it is SENSOR SAFE SILICONE GASKET MAKER. If regular silicone gasket maker is used, you take the chance if damaging some expensive sensors. I agree with cleaning it and drying it well, then using the silicone to seal the area WITHOUT bothering to remove the bolt at this time, seal it up so that you have no leak and go IN SEARCH OF WHERE THE OIL WENT. Though some have reported oil consumption, I would say it was not normal, especially with the use of Synthetic oil by the original owner. I would 1st. suspicion a sludged engine if the O.O. had not said he used synthetic, which should not sludge. I hope he was trustworthy, but I have been lied to by some people that I thought I could trust before, so who knows. My DIL's '99RX with 135-140k mi. and nothing but dino oil doesn't use any in 3k mi. changes (used to be 5k mi), so on general, it's not normal.

The oil pan is steel (but well built, no flex period!), but the bolt, I believe goes into the aluminum sub pan, which is like an extension down from the block. I would leave it, except for sealing externally.

jbobst

Just a quick update and question. The old gasket is grey, so that sounds like it's the factory stuff. Second, I drained the oil this morning, cleaned up everything, and took all the bolts off. However, the old gasket is really holding that oil pan on. Any advice on how to gently get the oil pan off without damaging anything? I have tapped it with a rubber mallet, but don't want to go to hard. The pan is really stuck on there!

Nad1370

I usually get a flat blade screwdriver (kinda sharpen the blade a bit).
Get in between the oil pan and the sub-pan and tap it lightly with a hammer from the back side of the pan.
Once the blade get in between. Get another flat head and work it around the pan till it comes off.
It might bend the pan lip some but you can always hammer it back down before install.

Be gentle and not be a hack.

JAB

I think that a putty knife would be preferable; much less likely to score the block or crease the pan.

salimshah

First put four bolts [one in the middle of each side] and let the heads stick down [do not tighten them, and keep them loose enough that the pan does not fall on ground once it is separated]. The weakest point is where the suspect leak is, but you dont want to make it any worse. Then pry from a corner with a putty knife or blunt chisel or old screwdriver. Too gentle will mar the surface and too harsh can destroy the seam. The gasket is supposed to come off the block, so wedge your knife above it. Also happy scraping off the gasket from the pan.

Only when the pan is separated should you remove the 4 supporting screws.

Salim