'04 Camry Oil Leak from crank seal???

[browneyes316]

I was told by a repair shop that I had a "possible" oil leak from the crank seal on 2004 Camry. I am a bit skeptical about this. What would be the signs of such a leak? 51,000 miles on car.

[jdmccright]

[NOTE: I moved this to a new thread since it was originally posted to a very old albeit relevant thread.]

There are a number of seals that could leak oil on the passenger side of the engine. They are all covered by the black timing chain cover and should have a rubber seal to keep dust, water and grime out of the chain:

Two camshaft seals (topmost)
Oil pump shaft seal
Crankshaft seal (bottommost)

These usually start to leak due to age and/or wear. For your car, I really can't see how either of these fits your situation....very low miles would rule out wear and 8 years old is well seasoned but not aged.

But when they do leak, it usually shows up as oil seeping out between the cover and the engine, and the surfaces under that cover are wetted with oil when they should be dry. If the leak is severe enough, the adjacent accessory belts can become wet with oil too as well as the underbody directly behind there due to blowback from the car moving through the air at highway speeds.

The upper half of the cover should be removable to inspect the camshaft seals and possibly the oil pump seal but they woud have to do some work to get the lower half off to confirm the crankshaft seal as the origin.

Overall, if the shop is reputable and you've gone to them for many years then I'd give them the benefit of doubt to at least check it out and show you the problem. If it's a shop running an oil/lube special that you did and this is what they found with their "free" inspection, then take it to another shop for a second opinion.

Good luck!

[browneyes316]

Thank you for your reply. This was the first time I had used this shop. And, yes, the inspection was part of their "oil change package" I've been scammed before by repair shops trying to "upsell". I know all about that tactic. That's why I was skeptical of this. About 15 months ago, I was told by Jiffy Lube mechanics (went there for a routine oil change) that my serpentine belt was "going and almost gone." I drove the car for 15 months with no problems. Now, last week, this shop that told me I had this "oil leak" also claimed they inspected that belt and it was fine. Go figure!!! Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am an elderly woman??? Perhaps auto shops have visions of dollar signs when they see an older woman walk into the shop alone. It infuriates me!!

[Mike Gerber]

"Could it have anything to do with the fact that I am an elderly woman???"

In my opinion yes. There are too many unethical and/or incompetent mechanics out there who take advantage of the elderly. I went through the same thing repeatly with my father-in-law with his 2001 Camry. He repeatly went to the same Toyota dealership that is known for the same sort of thing. I would definitely get another opinion from someone you can trust. Ask friends, neighbors and relatives for a trustworthy mechanic. If you can not get a good referal that way, go to the Car Talk website (cartalk.com) and go to their "mechanix" files. Car Talk is a site of 2 brothers who do a call in talk radio show about cars and car repair on public radio every Saturday morning. They have been doing this show for over 25 years. Many of their listeners have contributed to these Mechanix Files. They are a list of trusted mechanics as reported by their listeners.

Mike

[browneyes316]

Thank you for your reply, Mike. It makes me sick that some shops do this kind of thing to elderly people.