the runner is spitting oil...
 

yes its true. often when i leave from being parked, there are 3 collective spots of oil coming from the front end, not huge, probably the size of a half-dollar. after looking into it, it appears that the valve cover gaskets (and maybe more once those are taken off) are the culprit. not being an engine do-it-myselfer, my question is this: if it were you, would you take it to a local mechanic, someone who works on every brand of vehicle, or would you only trust this work to a toyota stealership? thanks in advance.

chris

For me, Local guys in a small to medium size town have the most to lose if they are even slightly dishonest. IF they are smart, they are not going to risk a bad reputation in a small town
1) ask around and go with someone you trust
2) trust your instincts (althogh instincts can be very wrong)
3) educate yourself on the issue (before you go to the shop) They'll think" he knows his stuff" but dosent have the time with messing around getting his hands dirty.(AND you may find you know more than the tech on what caused the issue.)
In my opinion "independant guys" are less likely to try "BS" with you..
No offence to anyone, yet I 'll take my car to a local independant shop (that knows there "stuff") any day of the week (and twice on sunday) over a dealership....That's just me and my own opinion as I don't trust some "service managers"

Yeah beware the Stealership !!
Though they can have good mechanics and care they are mostly concerned with getting it done as fast as possible , usually all about the money at the Stealership , I worked for a Stealership and they hated callbacks but they also hated to see you take your time and do it right !

Well my advice is to find a small local shop and go check it out.
1. Is it clean?
2. Is the mechanic/owner friendly and willing to talk to you?

Youll find that if you find a good local mechanic and you keep returning to him, then you will get a friendship going and eventually when you start going to him he will start to take care of you. Youll never get that at a dealership where the mechanic will throw stuff in for free and not charge you for small miscellaneous things. Also when youve got a friendship going with the guy, and he comes out and tells you he found something broke, you can rest assured that hes not ripping you off, and theres actually something wrong. Just my 2cents.

First off, congrats on looking around to see if you can figure out the problem on your own. Thats more than a lot of people do. You can go one step further by cleaning the entire engine with some engine degreaser and a hose with some good pressure. After you drive a couple days, inspect again and you will find the exact spot(s) that is (are) leaking. This way you will have a good idea whether the mechanic is telling you the truth.

Valve cover gaskets aren't difficult to change. Any mechanic can do it, Toyota specific or not.

Do you have any mechanically inclined friends? I would go this route first if possible. The gaskets aren't particularly expensive. You will learn a little about your engine in the process. Be sure to torque the valve cover gasket bolts properly to avoid overstressing the gasket.

theyre quite easy to do, 2-3 bucks at kragen or something, just be sure not to overtorque them. i got my grommets at kragen for 2.69 a piece.

i appreciate all the input guys. while i was waiting for posts, i priced changing them at my local dealer. they wanted like $350 to do it; $4 for the seals and the rest was labor. yikes! i have a pretty good relationship with a local mechanic and he is within walking distance to where i work, verses my local dealer who is some 30 miles away. i think i'll clean it up myself, then take it to him for the repair.

I just had my valve cover gaskets replaced on both sides. The passenger side of the engine was leaking a little more than the other side. I had my mechanic do the work for me and he charged $470 to do both sides (parts and labor). That included the intake manifold plenum gaskets (since you have to remove that anyway to get to the drivers side valve cover).

I would also beware of the dealership in the way of the $$ they may charge. If you can find a local honest mechanic you trust, that is well worth it.

I had the same problem about 2 years ago: valve cover gaskets were leaking.
After I saw what it was, I tightened bolts of the valve covers, not overtorque them, just tightened them. Some of them were very loose. And I think it was only one or maybe two bolts that I could not reach because they are under intake manifold.
I have done that about 2 years and 20K miles ago and my valve cover gaskets are still holding and I have no oil leaks.

Hope this info will help.

BTW: My 4 Runner is 1996, 3.4L 4x4 with 101 K miles

what year models and mileage are you guys looking at for valve cover seals? why are they going bad? overheat the motor any??

when mine went the first time, the motor had 225,000 miles on it, i think. then they went again like 1000 miles later cuz i overtorqued them. now they lasted up until maybe 2 weeks ago, probably from overtorquing. i have the day off, but im gonna go down to my shop later and put the new shocks on, and ill do the valve cover gaskets, and ill tell you guys how much torque they call for.

you really need to ad what kind of motor and year truck you have to your sig

and this gos for all new members who read this.

if you have a 22r or 22re the labor would come out to around 25$ a minute at 350$ total now if it is a V6 then I can see it costing that much it is a big pain to replace the passenger side valve cover seal.

sorry-i have a 97 SR5 3.4 V6 4x4 with 269,7xx miles and i'm 100% sure they have never been replaced before.


Cymon-that's something i never thought about, thanks.

mk-nope, temp gauge never goes beyond halfway (thankfully). another tid bit to this story is that the last time i took it to the dealer to have timing belt replaced, they didn't fully install the bottom half of the fan shroud. so 2 days later, i fire it up and it sounds like it is going to blow or something. i get it home, get to looking and the bottom part, which looks like a half-C or something, is laying on the bottom hoses, and has been beating up against the fan! friggin retards! i called them and they were like we're sorry about that bring it on over and we'll put that back on. i haven't taken it back yet, b/c i have to take off from work to do it and drive 30 miles. i've been watching the temp gauge very closely but it hasn't moved above half way yet. plus one of the teeth is broken off of the fan shroud piece now. great, guess i get to buy a new one!

oh you made it sound like you had less than 150k miles.. phew haha.. 270k is pretty damn good bossman.

hehe yessir i'll take it! still may try to crank down on those valve cover bolts to see if that helps. it can't hurt at this point i guess!

just dont over torque em. you dont want expensive damage done.

to follow up on this problem, as i haven't been on yotatech in awhile, it turns out that it wasn't only the valve cover gaskets. had those replaced at toyota, and it was still leaking. took it back over there and they diagnosed it as rear main seal. so, one week and $1150 later, i'm dry as a bone now. i think i'll replace the worn out oxygen sensor now. i'm tired of looking at the CEL.

I agree completetly with progress4m. When i was taking appart my engine i noticed that my Valve cover gaskets were also loose. Get a Inch lbs torque wrench and retorque--that is probably the problem.

.02$