'17 Highlander oil leak (either gear or engine oil)

S

Soobs

Joined
Aug 15, 2009
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509
Location
Colorado
Well looks like I've got myself subtle leak. It's not dripping on the concrete and I only noticed when I recently did an oil change. Oil is accumulating on the bottom of transfer case and transmission. I can't tell where it's coming from, but curious if any of you have seen this before on this year/make/model? I took off a little panel in the second pic below to try and see if I could find the leak source, but no luck. I've cleaned it all off with brake clean twice and it's come back twice. I changed the transfer gear oil about 25,000 miles ago. No leaks from any drain or fill plug areas. I'm taking it to Toyota next month for an ATF fluid change anyway so I suppose they'll be repairing this too. Would be nice to know the leak source though.

2017 Toyota Highlander XLE AWD, 3.5L 2GR-FKS, 82,000 miles

IMG_7038.jpg
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Smelling it might help, or clean it up again and add dye to the engine oil. If you see dye with the black light it's oil, if not then it's gear oil. I seriously doubt it's transmission fluid based on color, but dye can rule that out too.
 
demarpaint said:
Smelling it might help, or clean it up again and add dye to the engine oil. If you see dye with the black light it's oil, if not then it's gear oil. I seriously doubt it's transmission fluid based on color, but dye can rule that out too.
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Yeah it's definitely not ATF fluid. I'm more inclined to think it's gear oil seeping from a seal, but I just can't get a visual on it.
 
Soobs said:
Yeah it's definitely not ATF fluid. I'm more inclined to think it's gear oil seeping from a seal, but I just can't get a visual on it.
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That's why I said smell, ATF has the color, gear oil looks like oil [sometimes when it leaks] but it stinks. LOL You can add dye to gear oil, clean everything first. Occasionally you might think it's a transfer case seal leak and it could be a hairline cracked housing. I've seen a few of those over the years, but it's rare. A dye might help.
 
demarpaint said:
That's why I said smell, ATF has the color, gear oil looks like oil [sometimes when it leaks] but it stinks. LOL You can add dye to gear oil, clean everything first. Occasionally you might think it's a transfer case seal leak and it could be a hairline cracked housing. I've seen a few of those over the years, but it's rare. A dye might help.
Click to expand...

The Car Care Nut talks about this. At 13:19 of the video.

 
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Stupid question but you checked the oil filter and drain plug... oil can end up in odd places under a vehicle.
 
Silver said:
Stupid question but you checked the oil filter and drain plug... oil can end up in odd places under a vehicle.
Click to expand...
Oh how true this is! My mechanic had to disconnect my power steering pump hose (never mind the long story) and I "thought" I had an oil leak on the drivers side of my SUV. He said it was power steering oil,...How can that be??,..power steering is on the right??!! Yeah well some of it dripped down through the cradle and ended up on my garage floor on the drivers side.:mad: I thought I had a leak somewhere,...odd stuff does happen!

Power steering oil looks like plain old cooking oil and has no smell,...yeah I know what that is too.
 
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