Darn good point!

RTV is not rubber, therefore ATP AT-205 will not work on it. I generally use AT-205 in older transmissions and gear boxes to plump up old rubber seals. I never considered it useful for pan and cover gaskets, but I forgot that most OEM gaskets are formed from RTV so it would be a waste of time anyway.

 

Agreed, as I noted
But
For $20, I think it was worth it.

 

Here's a (hopefully) final update.

For some reason, as I was going through this, it hit me that some leak tracing dye and a UV black light might come in handy, so I bought this from Amazon.

I let all the above repairs cure, took it for a drive and....oil. I cleaned up again, put the dye in, and drove again. Another oil stain, but the UV light showed nothing from the timing cover. And the stain was right under the oil cooler lines, so I made an appointment to take it back to the Toyota dealership that did the work.

To be sure, I cleaned everything, took it for a drive, and pulled the undertray to get a good look at the oil cooler with the UV light. Nothing. So I got back under the car, put a flat-ended flashlight right where the oil was, looked up to where it was shining, and saw what I had seen before, what I had presumed a low point where the oil pooled before dripping on the ground.




But this time I poked around some more, and found this behind it.




That's a leaking oil pressure sender. $150 at the Lexus dealer, including the $60 part, and I've had no leaks after several drives. And a UV light scan underneath is clean.

Interestingly, the pressure sensor is directly below the oil cooler line mounting point. And I had no visible/accumulating leaks before the oil cooler lines went. And there was oil right under the car when I picked it up. "Cars move around all the time, it could be from anywhere, and there's a 1 year warranty, so bring it back if there's a problem"

I'm pretty certain the Toyota tech gave the sensor a good whack and cracked it while replacing the oil cooler lines. And I'm equally certain, given the ethics I found at the Toyota dealership, that there's no way they would agree and cover it under the repair warranty. So I spent an hour at Lexus and got it done.

There a a few dried orange spatters underneath, presumably from the last leaks - I'll check them periodically for anything new, but the lack of oil on the ground means, at worst, I'm back to the extremely slow seepage of the timing cover, and likely completely sealed.

For those who may tackle this, hopefully the photos were helpful for orientation. I'd suggest the dye and UV light before even starting the work. If I had done so, I imagine I could have better located the timing cover leak, avoiding more than a foot of sealant and just focusing on the actual leak. And I probably could have found the actual cause more quickly.

With that taken care of, I can tackle a couple other items, as the odometer just flipped to 240,000 today.

 

Well done. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I basically done the same thing on my RX with a leaking timing cover, but used Permatex Spray sealant and it slowed my leak to just minor seeping at the bottom of the cover area where I do not spray the sealant very well. I clean the area and reapplied a new layer of spray sealant including covering the bottom area of the cover where the oil seeps out to hopefully completely stop the weeping.

Before I used the spray sealant the oil from the timing cover used to ooze onto the oil pan every oil change, but never dripped on the floor. The oil pan is now dry when I check it.

If the RTV do not work; try Permatex spray sealant. You will need to apply about 6-7 layers with about a minute of wait time between layers to really get a good seal. The sealant is basically clear when it dries and will show the oil underneath, but be dry to the touch.


The spray sealant looks like Vaseline and give the coated area a sheen. You can see the oil, but it is dry to the touch.

 

I actually applied the Permatex spray sealant over top of the gasket material. Belt and suspenders. I think I put a good 10 coats on.

At one point, after putting in the dye, I saw just a faint glow under the light. I touched it and apparently popped a spray-sealent bubble - capturing what got by where I missed the gasket material (the banjo bolt is hard to completely cover). I cleaned up and applied both to that area again - so far so good..

 

You may have done this already, but the key to making a good strong coating is to wait over a minute between spraying the coating(or until the previous coat cures). If you spray the layers of sealant too soon; most of sealant just runs like water and do not actually make a strong coating.

My spray sealant layers seem to be very thick and rubbery. I added an additional layer in the pic. It may take up to about 20 layers for really bad leaks or layers added over time like in my case. It has been about a year so far without any major leaking; just some seepage like mentioned earlier.

 

Can someone confirm that 9043016016 is the part number for the banjo bolt washer.

Thanks

 

I used 90430-16016 and it was the same as stock, so yes can confirm

 

Thanks. Do you remember what the torque value for that bolt is?

 

 

Love this guy!!

 

on my wife's 2010, I use engine cleaner to spray and clean the oil out every few months from the bottom of the left wheel wall. In my case, no oil drip on the floor.