Highlander Oil Leak?

[diyjake]

I purchased this 2015 Highlander last fall with 69K miles, yesterday I went to changed the oil and saw this leak at the right rear side of the engine. Any idea what this might be coming from?

3.5L V6 AWD

 

[The Critic]

Inner CV Boot on the passenger side axle is slinging grease at the clamp. Very common on those vehicles. Remove the axle and reboot it. $40. Use a blunt air hammer tip on the intermediate bearing housing to release the axle.

But you may also have a small seep from the timing cover.

 

[Greasymechtech]

Common front timing chain cover leak
I'd also clean it off and make sure its just not sloppy tech spillage

Once in a blue moon, the oil pipe banjo o-ring leaks.

Degrease clean it off and inspect often until you find the source.

FIPG is pathetic.

Edit... didn't notice that last picture.... blown boot..... No thread needed. Fix the torn boot.

 

[diyjake]

I know boot is torn on the outer end but this is a separate issue from the boot. I ordered the boot last night and looking to take care of both issues.

 

[The Critic]

I know boot is torn on the outer end but this is a separate issue from the boot. I ordered the boot last night and looking to take care of both issues.

Take care of the boot and degrease the area while the axle is out.

Hope you have an air hammer....you will need it in order to remove the axle from that bearing cage.

 

[diyjake]

The torn boot is on the rack and pinion / inner tie rod end so I am going to try to avoid removing the axle.

 

[mattd]

That torn boot is the inner tie rod boot not the axle.
Clean it off and degrease and put some dye in it to see exactly where it’s starting from.

 

[The Critic]

That torn boot is the inner tie rod boot not the axle.
Clean it off and degrease and put some dye in it to see exactly where it’s starting from.

Tie rod boot might be torn, but that grease looks like axle grease.

 

[diyjake]

That torn boot is the inner tie rod boot not the axle.
Clean it off and degrease and put some dye in it to see exactly where it’s starting from.

I will definitely clean everything up, I can't stand having a mess like this on my cars.

I like the dye idea, how does that work?

 

[mattd]

I will definitely clean everything up, I can't stand having a mess like this on my cars.

I like the dye idea, how does that work?

put it in the engine oil. The Cummins dye works really well.

 

[diyjake]

Common front timing chain cover leak
I'd also clean it off and make sure its just not sloppy tech spillage

Once in a blue moon, the oil pipe banjo o-ring leaks.

Degrease clean it off and inspect often until you find the source.

FIPG is pathetic.

Edit... didn't notice that last picture.... blown boot..... No thread needed. Fix the torn boot.

Is the timing chain cover leak common on these Toyota's or did you mean in general?

 

[Greasymechtech]

FIPG leaks are common

They are so common, that Toyota has a FIPG compatibility test requirement for their oils. Why not replace the FIPG more compatible to all the oils out there?

 

[grjr]

I have the same situation happening on my '11 Sienna. The 2GR-FE is known to have problems with the timing cover leaking but to confirm the problem I added UV dye to my engine oil and cleaned up the area as best I could. It turns out that it is not my engine leaking oil but the inner CV boot that is leaking grease. After driving a couple hundred miles and reinspecting the leak I saw that there were droplets flung out all around on the engine, firewall, subframe, steering belows and stabilizer bar. The droplets helped identify that it wasn't engine oil since oil wouldn't have formed droplets like the grease from the CV joint does. I consider it lucky that it isn't the timing cover in my case. Haven't gotten around to fixing the problem though, eventually I will get to it.

 

[diyjake]

grjr - thanks for sharing! I will clean everything up, get some dye and go from there.

 

[grjr]

No problem, here's some pictures of what mine looks like for reference. The small cloth wrapped around the banjo fitting is there because I initially thought that was the source of my leak.