Oil leak on Toyota Camry 2.2 litre 5SFE engine

GLOBESON

MEMBER
1994 TOYOTA CAMRY
258,000 MILES

I bought the car with 255,000km only 5 months back. Driven it for only 5000km. Timing belt was changed by previous owner at 250000km(not sure if any of the oil seals were changed then).
Few weeks after buying the car, I found a oil leak at the base of oil filter which was dripping oil. I continued to use the car for 5 months by topping up oil every 2-3 weeks. Often car was running at medium to low oil level. I fixed that as a DIY job by replacing the O-ring and gasket under the oil filter only 2 weeks back.
However, I noticed that the oil seal/seals on the cam/crank end are also leaking. This, I believe is a bigger job and probably not a DIY item. What concerns me is that would there be some other problem with the engine that is causing all these oil seals to fail one by one. Like overheating of the engine that causes disintegration of the rubber seals? If that is the case, merely replacing seals is not a good idea. The engine appears to heat up if I drive a short distance. Like 5-7 kms, but heat sensor is only about 50%. Pls advise. The car still runs smooth and is very reliable, starts first time every time. So theres no obvious symptom of a engine problem. The car is not worth much at this age, so I dont intend to spend $400-500 in getting all that fixed.

3 Replies

ASEMASTER6371

MECHANIC
52,797 POSTS

Have the pcv valve checked. If it is bad. It will force oil out the seals as the engine is building up too much crankshaft pressure.

Roy

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Thursday, June 21st, 2012 AT 12:53 AM

GLOBESON

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Thanks for the comments. Had the leak inspected from a mechanic. He says it is a oil pump seal problem and needs to be replaced. Cost is upwards of $550 as he'd use a new complete timing belt kit.

I have few questions:

1. How is he sure it is oil pump seal as there are couple other seals there. Cam seal, etc? Exact leak will be known only after opening it up.

2. Since we are getting there, is it a good idea to replace timing belt etc as he has suggested. Note that timing belt was already replaced last year about 12000 kms before. I dont want to unnecessary increase the cost of this fix for "good to do" things.

3. Assuming it is oil pump seal problem, what are the minimum components that need to be replaced?. Like cam seal, crank seal? Gaskets? I want to avoid the cost of a complete timing kit which is $175+. At the same time don't want to save money on cheap items like seals and gaskets.

4. Lastly, found some DIY videos. I do not have such experience but am somewhat mechanical minded. Is a DIY advisable for this job, or is it too risky?