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Gasket Time, Please Advise


nicecar

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Hello everyone, 96 es300, noticed a few drops of oil on the garage floor few days ago, checked carefully, found some oil around the oil pan and on the side of valve cover (the one closer to the firewall behind the intake and throttle body), like to get an idea about how much it cost to fix it parts and labor, dealer or non-dealer, or any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.

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Generally they change the valve cover gasket when there is oil leakage, but sometimes you can get away from doing that by tightening the bolts on the valve cover. The oil near the oil pan could be from the leaking valve cover that drips oil down to the oil pan, and it looks like the oil pan gasket is leaking when in reality it isn't.

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Generally they change the valve cover gasket when there is oil leakage, but sometimes you can get away from doing that by tightening the bolts on the valve cover. The oil near the oil pan could be from the leaking valve cover that drips oil down to the oil pan, and it looks like the oil pan gasket is leaking when in reality it isn't.

There valve cover gaskets are bad and tend leak all the time. No, You can't tighten these bolts and hope it wouldn't leak again. The dealership would charge around 3-3.5hr to replace these gaskets.

JPI

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but sometimes you can get away from doing that by tightening the bolts on the valve cover.

JPI, When I worked as a mechanic for the Cadillac Motor Car Corporation we received many complaints about oil leaking from the valve cover gaskets. We were able to stop these leaks by tightening the valve cover bolts. Why is the Lexus's any different?

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ok, I will try tighten the bolts and see, only if my tool can reach to them, they looked pretty hard to get to without removing some stuff above the valve cover though. I guess it's not a good solution to add a bottle of those "guaranteed stop leak" thing?!

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I guess it's not a good solution to add a bottle of those "guaranteed stop leak" thing?!

I don't suggest putting in any kind of stop leak stuff in the engine. If tightening the bolts don't help than change the gaskets. ;)

P.S. The cars that I worked on used cork gasket material, but the Lexus's probably use some other type of material. I would give this a shot first, otherwise get the new gasket material from Lexus parts and replace them. You could always give your Lexus dealer a call and ask this question.

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Overtime the gasket will become deteriorate. When the gaskets are harden They won't seal period. No mater how much you tighten them down to. PLus you have to take the intake manifold out, the gasket cost only $10. What cost is the Labor! It wouldn't be wise trying to save a $10 part and ended up doing job the over again. Time is money.

AMF all cars are different, some methods will work on GM but don't work on Lexus.

JPI

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