Oil Pan Gasket, leaking, again.

Hey all, and Happy Halloween-

I had my '03 in for its annual state inspection here in PA, nothing crazy needed just usual maintenance stuff. However the shop found that my oil pan was leaking, minorly in the front.

Back in 2021, I had my entire oil pan replaced. The original pan had rusted through, and leaked like crazy. After getting it replaced entirely, I never noticed anything else and was happy with the work. Over the summer I noticed a few minor oil spots on my driveway, but I equated it to Jiffy Lube made a mess when doing my oil change.

After the inspection last week, the inspection shop went through and showed me where it was leaking and why. The original shop that fixed the truck utilized the cork gasket which I guess came in the kit with the pan, and sealant. Essentially making a sealant-cork-sealant sandwich. The shop manager told me its pretty standard to see these things leak when the cork gasket is installed like that, and he would've probably recommended NOT using a gasket and just sealant. Since the cork tends to leak.

Oil leaking near cork gasket, note that this image is AFTER the shop cleaned any oil from around the pan.



After spending $1,300 two year ago on a job that's a pretty big undertaking, which includes either pulling the engine or dropping the front diff in order to even get the pan, its kind of annoying to be back in the same boat. While I will at least try to do most jobs on my truck, this ones out of my wheelhouse and I just do not have time to take care of it myself.

I am dropping my truck off back off at the original shop to see if they'll work with me to get this resolved. I personally don't think its acceptable for a seal to leak after 2 years at most, maybe sooner considering that the trucks original seal lasted 17 years. Who knows what'll happen, I am trying to not get too angry beforehand.

Does anyone have tips on how to handle this situation or what the proper fix would be? I have seen several forums stating FIPG is the way to go, and some stating to just use the seal and be careful with torqueing the bolts.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

 

Yeah a cork gasket is absolutely the wrong way to go. Toyota calls for just FIPG on the oil pan and its hard to mess up. I would definitely be having a conversation with the shop about that. I've heard oil pans on 4x4 is a b*tch of a job, on the prerunner it was an hour job including wedging the pan off.

Saying that, it looks like your timing cover or oil pump cover/gasket is seeping oil?

 

Yeah that was my inclination as well, do you know if there was a TSB on that, or have the FSM excerpt? The shop I had it inspected by said that FIPG is the only appropriate way to do it.

I am not sure if its there is a timing cover or oil pump cover gasket leak, I am not well versed in it. But I do agree something leaked there at some point, although it doesn't look super fresh. The shop that I took it to for inspection cleaned that area and did a road test to locate the oil leak at the pan, so I am guessing they'd probably identify other leaks as well... Thank you for the catch on that.

 

Took another picture of the area, seems like the only real leak is from the oil pan

 

Tomorrow morning I can pull out the FSM bible and try and find it, if I do I'll scan that page and post it. When I pulled my pan during the timing cover replacement, some idiot put FIPG, cork, and more FIPG on mine. Obviously it leaked and it was horrible to clean. It looks like they might have done the same? I see that cork and sealant hanging off.

Looking at your picture, it looks like the oil pump over gasket is weeping. On the 2.7 its a pretty simple job but honestly if its just weeping, I'd leave it.

 

That would be super helpful, I really appreciate it. I dropped it off last night. Yeah from what I see they basically sandwiched the cork between FIPG. Not sure how that makes any sense lol.

Yeah it does kinda look like the oil pump is weeping. I'll prob leave it alone for now.

Thanks,
Tom

 

Cork gasket under $8, possibility of a future leak, 100%

FIPG ~ $20, possibility of a future leak, 0%. I have seen trucks 20+ years old with zero pan to block leaks.

 

Agreed with the FIPG Black Toyota stuff, when done right its not going to leak. Had to do this myself (twice) recently as I messed up putting the FIPG bead where it needed to go. As you already mentioned the bear of this is having to pull the diff out to get to the pan but other than that its not too bad.

 

Definitely don't mess with the oil pump if it isn't a significant leak. It can very easily be removed incorrectly, resulting in stripping the mounting screws and requiring it to be broken off the truck. I had a Toyota dealer do that. The screws are JIS philips, not a normal philips style screw. They also need to be removed with a hammer impact driver, which involves removing the radiator and potentially the AC condensor.

 

Straight from the horses mouth

 

Thank you. This is incredibly helpful, the shop stated that they retorqued the bolts to specification, I am going to go pick the truck up and try to talk to them again and explain that the fix that was done was incorrect.