Valve/oil Fill Cover Corrosion - Any Significance?

[Gary R.]

Hi All:

I've been looking at some '94 & '95 es300s, and have noticed what looks like corrosion on the valve cover/oil fill covers, just forward of the oil fill plug. When I pointed this out to two different dealers, they both shrugged it off as being of no significance (big surprise huh?). It almost looks like it could have been a bad casting, but I can't see Toyota using a defective mold. Has anyone noticed this before and am I worried about nothing? I noticed it on a '94 with 70K miles and also on a '95 with 90K miles. Thanks.

[monarch]

The valve covers are aluminum so don't corrode. Even if they did have some surface corrosion it would not ever affect the reliability and durability of the engine.

If you want to find a reliable and durable ES300 then you need to research the maintenance requirements of this car and then locate the service records of the car to verify whether or not the services were carried out on time or if some or alot were skipped or stretched out. Many of the best maintained cars will be for sale by private owner rather than car dealers. Dealers get alot of abusively driven and sporadically maintained trade ins.

"Dealer Certified" is nothing more than a very effective marketing gimmick that

subtly fools alot of buyers into thinking the car has little mechanical wear or tear. But the truth is only a car that received all its required preventive maintenance on time and was not driven wildly and abusively will have little mechanical wear and tear.