My engine was overheated a while ago and after replacing the radiator, I noticed there began to have drops of oil on the floor and I have to top up around 1/2 qt. engine oil in my 2004 LS430 every 6 months in between an oil change. Apart from that, the car runs well in every aspect.

The leakage has become more serious lately and I was advised by a mechanic to either replace the seals at a hefty cost or try the ATP Re-seal at a cost of $10 .Of course I am more inclined to spend only $10 on the job. However, some threads in this site suggest not to use it for our particular engine but without explanation while another owner of LS400 found it could stop the leaks in his engine. I am therefore wondering if anyone here has experience usiig ATP Re-seal on his engine and obtained satisfactory result. Any advice why ATP Re-seal should or should not be used on our engine will be appreciated.

 

What hefty seals are they saying to replace, the cam seals?

Keep in mind there are plastic shields under the vehicle, so to have anything appear on the floor, may mean the pan is holding much more.

There was recently a thread where someone feared cam seals, tore everything down, and if I recall, it was the valve cover gaskets (a lot of time once the problem is solved the thread ends and isn't clear what happened). He had pics of his engine and many said no way valve cover with that much oil, must be cam seals.

I seem to have a leak which I attribute to the valve cover gasket, and with skepticism I tightened the bolts which seemed loose. Yet I never have to add any oil (how can that be). I have seen posts here where that, cam seals, or power steering could be the culprit. Do you see oil on your engine?

It would seem that once we are talking about cam seals, it would be a timing belt/WP job, the valve cover gaskets, and the cam seals, and or junk yard lol. Doing only one job, risks redoing all of them.

Personally, I would only pour in some stop leak if I am ready to roll the dice and junk the vehicle. I have seen the ill effects of Bar's Leak, Stop Leak on a radiator. I guess cars are like humans, time is an enemy....good luck! We all want our cars to be perfect but at best they are 14.5 years old, many older than that. Seals can turn really hard in all that time...

edit: as far as why not to use $10 stuff, it would seem we go out of our way to run quality oil and filters, why pour some foreign substance in their rather than repair the issue properly? But if it's a $3500 car, and we're ready to part ways, then maybe pour it in...just that I would not

 

Find the source of the leak. Crank seal? Cam seal?
If you're planning to keep the car don't expect to find magic in a bottle.

 

Oil leaks should be isolated before you start throwing work at the car, gravity dictates that the highest place on the engine you find oil is where you start. Since it sounds like it has been leaking heavily and for a good while I would start with checking the valve covers since they will leak a large amount if very worn. Work down from there, if it is absolutely covered wash the engine first.

 

Find the leak first. There are too many possible places to guess. Repairing is always better than the $10 fix which could potentially ruin you engine. Let us know what you discover?

 

Thanks for all the views above which are all logical and helpful. Fyi, I was told it will be an over $1000 job and I intend to keep my car for another 2 years or so only and then change to another one. That is why I am more prepared to try to stop this small leak (which I can still live up with if it is too costly to fix right away) with a $10 fix which expert car mechanic Scotty Kilmer in Youtube claimed to have used successfully on hundreds of cars. If that fails, then I will consider to spend the $1000 later when the leak gets worse but then I'll have to keep the car longer.

However, I have yet to learn here the reasons WHY I should not try this Re-seal first when an expert mechanic said it works and another LS 400 owner has successfully used it and got it fixed. Is our engine very different to the LS 400 and what actual DAMAGES can this particular ATP Re-seal ( and not any other brands since their compositions are different) do to OUR engine? Any real life experience or further comment from our friends and experts here will be appreciated.

PS -- I have checked ATP Re-seal reviews and most indicate it works but nothing related to LS 430. That is why I ask here to see if anyone has used it before with success.

 

ATP reseal is for transmission, power steering and engine oil leaks. One solution for everything seems rather vague but I'm inclined to agree with original poster and give it a try. Most of these products soften hard seals, casing them to swell and stop leaks. Some have particulates in them to clog up the leaks. In the long run, they may cause some damage due to increased engine wear. This is an older car, no info on mileage or if the owner want to keep it for another 100,000 miles. I wouldn't continually use it in a car with 40,000 miles with hopes of keeping the car to 200,000 miles. BTW Scotty Kilmer is geared for people who have older cars and are looking to keep them running at low costs. If the product does work it's likely to only be temporary giving you time to get a better estimate of repair costs and look the engine over as suggested by others.

 

Thanks for the comment. My odometer reads just below 70,000 miles and I believe the present small leak (half a qt. for a period of 6 months) is the result of the engine overheat around a year ago. The car runs great everyday.

 

An option I'd consider is to do nothing (if the stop leak additive doesn't help). Check dipstick every gas fill up and add oil as needed. You did say it's worse lately but even a qt every gas fill up won't kill your engine. It will make a mess where you park it. Maybe get a different car sooner than 2 years, why spend $1000. With your suspicion of an overheating event causing the leak, maybe other damage is present but not obvious yet. You don't seem very attached to the car. Most of us here on the forum are attached and would do the repair. You could probably sell it for a decent price even with a small oil leak. I assume that even in Hong Kong there are people who love this year and model and would love to buy it especially with the low mileage.

 

Thanks for your view. Well, I am not detached to my car which I love to drive and maintain very much. However, I need to spend my money wisely. The car is close to timing belt and water pump change and if I can use the Re-seal to fix the leakage temporarily, then I can buy time to wait until then to overhaul the engine totally or sell it before that time. By so doing, I have not only saved money but opened more options. Even if i don't fix the leakage now but just top up oil periodically, the car will still run fine. I am therefore exploring options here to see if I can take better care of the car before the leakage gets worse and at a lower cost.

 

The LS is only the 2nd 15 year old car that I ever had, although my BMW is 13. What I've observed is that leaks seem to develop around this age. Heck, they are gaskets that become brittle. Knock on wood the BMW has no leaks and has been a reliable car purchased new. Scotty just used my car in his video slamming BMW (what a surprise, yet again, Toyota > BMW hahahahahahahahaha). He's a work of art--the way that he laughed at the BMW and treated it physically, shows me he has no respect for cars. I don't do that to rentals. ChrisFix > Scotty. At least one of them shows people in a sincere way how to fix cars, the other one's name beings with S!

Another observation of mine, a mess on the engine, doesn't translate either into the need to add much oil, not 1/2 quart. Ever spill 5 gal of a liquid? I have--that is a huge mess. So is 1/2 qt. My car doesn't need anything between changes. The reason I've never noticed before is a) never removed undercovers b) one can barely see anything at all when top covers in place. Not even that much with top covers off--need air boxes and stuff removed to actually see much of anything, and that's what I did to replace the pulleys last weekend (man they are silent now no more squeaking!).

edit p.s. from my Nissan, I found that leaking valve cover gaskets do make a serious mess. On the LS it seems tricky because there seems to be this on the one hand, cam seals last 500k by design, on the second hand, the area of the leak can be tough to diagnose. It looks as if the leak is in the front corner of the valve cover, it looks just like the cam seals and can't tell. When I think back to all the water pump/timing belt cam jobs on YouTube, I wonder why the engine was designed to need such a service every 90k. Again, this is the first/last car I'll get that has a timing belt, just seems totally 1980's lol

 

You are actually way past time for a belt since it's time limited not just miles. The sealer works by swelling the seals via degrading them and while it will seal it for a while in time everything will then leak like crazy.

 

Agree - Suggest the OP have the TB/WP service done now. Why wait? You are unlikely to drive enough miles to do it twice more given the car's age so go ahead and get the service done now and diagnose the and care of the leak(s) while the engine is open and accessible for the TB/WP service.

 

I hope I'm not thinking about this incorrectly, but I figure TB/WP is known to our cars, so no need to "avoid" the service. At the 180k, or 2nd, or 4th, that's when we can prepare for the "big one." That is valve cover gaskets, timing belt/wp, AND potentially cam seals.

It's when one doesn't need a timing belt job, then it's less practical to do the other services....like say one does the valve cover gaskets and leak still there.....

There are just so many YOuTubes with Toyota V8 cam seals that there's no way it's just some cars or an isolated repair....but let's hope it's a 200k+ mile interval, not 90 or 120....

 

Mine were fine on a 207k mile 02, but they were done anyway.......I think its overblown if you actually change the oil with good stuff on time