Hi everyone, new member here. I bought a 2022 GX460 a week ago from Carmax, car has 65.000 miles on it, it rides good and looks amazing, love the vehicle, I recently took it to a Toyota dealer to have it inspected and also have them do a coolant flush, after the services were performed they told me that they were no visible leaks of any kind......Once I got home I pulled out my borescope camera and found what it seems to be a leaking timing chain valve cover, I have also noticed the coolant reservoir slowly goes down on a daily basis, needles to say the dealer did a very bad job at finding those leaks. While using my borescope I also found what appears to be cracks on the timing chain cover and maybe engine block.

I'm posting this to see is anybody has seen this before and can tell me if those are cracks or just aluminum casting marks, car is no dripping oil or coolant so I'm assuming I'm dealing with the dreaded coolant valley leak besides the timing chain cover leak, any help will be really appreciate it, thanks.

Dan







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What's the oil change history on this?
2022 is very young for the timing cover leak which makes me wonder if you could be battling elevated crankcase pressure due to a poor maintenance history (lax oil changes causing sticking rings/PCV valve).
This leak doesn't seem to show up until the 8-12 year normally mark due to FIPG aging.

The "cracks" just look like dirty oil/grime in casting veins, not cracks.

Personally I'd clean it up, change the PCV valve, go to a slightly heavier cleaning oil (Valvoline Restore & Protect 5W-30) and monitor for a few oil changes.
It may be a manageable weep that you can just keep an eye on over the next several years.

The timing cover reseal is about a 10 hour job at a shop, IIRC.

 

Carfax shows oil changes every 10k miles, I'm taking it to a Lexus dealer tomorrow to have them do a coolant pressure test on it, and also check the possibility of fixing the timing chain cover leak under Lexus powertrain warranty. Like I said the Toyota dealer did not put enough effort into finding the real issue here, hoping the Lexus dealer would.

 

BTW, thanks for the quick reply and clarifying that those are not cracks just dirty casting marks, I should ad that the car drives great, lots of power, no white smoke out of the exhaust, engine idles fine, no weird or tick noises, just the coolant going down and that suspicious oil leak.

 

The timing cover leak and coolant valley (heat exchanger) leak are the two main annoyances with these UR-family V8s.
Yours are just happening at a much younger vehicle age than normal.

If you can get it done under warranty jump on it, with good oil, coolant and transmission fluid maintenance your truck has a very long life ahead of it.

 

I have already done the transmission service, car shifts smooth, and yeah I know it's a great vehicle, I always wanted one and this one has everything I always wanted, I will update later in the week after my dealer visit, but I have a feeling the will brush it off since it's not actually leaking oil (no spots on floor) more like a seepage. I have the 30 day CarMax warranty and also bought the CarMax Maxcare warranty for two years/24k miles, it's just annoying having to check the coolant level on an almost daily basis.

 

After you have Lexus perform an inspection, take the results back to Carmax and see what they are willing to do. I purchased a used Lexus GS a few years ago from Carmax and when I took it to a Lexus dealer they found the front rotors and pads were nearly gone and the battery was end-of-life. I called Carmax and they paid Lexus directly to replace the pads/rotors and battery which was nice since I knew I would be getting OEM parts.

 

yeah, that’s what I’m planning on doing. I’ve heard that they warranty is one of the best and that they’re pretty good when it comes to paying for repairs.

 

Just to give an update, Took the vehicle to my local Lexus Dealer and they did cover the repair under the powertrain warranty, they kept the car for two weeks, the excuse was that only the Master Tech does the big job which made sense to me since they told me it was an 11Hr job. They did give me a Loaner vehicle for the duration of the repair, a 2026 NX , also I ask them to replace the Water Pump, Thermostat, PVC Valve and engine belt since they were working on the Timing Chain Cover. They also check for coolant leaks and they did not find any, apparently the system had air in it after the Toyota dealer replaced the coolant.

For reference, Car has 64.900 Miles, it's a 2022 Luxury and had a Timing Chain Cover Leak.

 

That is great they got it sorted, and hopefully that keeps it better for longer now.

 

Nice work. They usually push back on these things as toyota changed what is considered normal seepage vs warranty leakage.