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Question About Changing The Two Camshaft Seal During The 90,000 Mile S


eddielasvegas

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Hello All,

I'm having the 90,000 mile service done today on my '98 LS 400 at an independent Lexus shop I like and trust. The owner gave me a quote for the service and I was clear about what I wanted done.

When I arrived this morning, he told me he can't replace the two camshaft seals because he has to pull the camshaft to replace those seals in a VVT engine.

I'm thinking we'll, it would have been nice to tell me before I dropped my car off.

Anyway, does anybody know how much extra time it adds to replace these seals?

Thank you.

Eddie

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Anyway, does anybody know how much extra time it adds to replace these seals?

Thank you.

Eddie

Hi Eddie,

I don't know how much time it would take someone but they have to completely dismantle the VVTI cam controller and remove the cam covers to get to the seals. I was contemplating doing this job, even bought the seals, but by the time I read the procedure I had chickened out.

Below is a picture of the camshaft seal position. The unfortunate thing is they are behind the VVTI camshaft timing unit and also under a large bearing cap, as seen in the pictures from the manual.

My advice is this job should only be attacked if leakage is actually seen from the seals. I would have to have a lot of trust in the shop before I would let them loose on something this complicated.

Can you give us some history on the car and why you are wanting this work done?

Thanks.

post-21092-1208900711_thumb.jpg

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Thanks for the reply and document Leadfoot. I suspected what my mechanic was telling me was right, but I'd just had to verify. He also said the non VVT engine camshaft seals are pretty easy to change.

I've had the car for 5,000 miles and it at 86,500 now. I've spent a fair amount of time (probably too much) researching what needs to be done for the 90,000 mile service. It's possible I confused or misread the camshaft seal work. I went back and referenced a service doc from Lexus and it makes no mention of the camshaft seals.

There was no leakage (other than the PS pump; it's being replaced) when the engine was up in the air.

Thanks again,

Eddie

Anyway, does anybody know how much extra time it adds to replace these seals?

Thank you.

Eddie

Hi Eddie,

I don't know how much time it would take someone but they have to completely dismantle the VVTI cam controller and remove the cam covers to get to the seals. I was contemplating doing this job, even bought the seals, but by the time I read the procedure I had chickened out.

Below is a picture of the camshaft seal position. The unfortunate thing is they are behind the VVTI camshaft timing unit and also under a large bearing cap, as seen in the pictures from the manual.

My advice is this job should only be attacked if leakage is actually seen from the seals. I would have to have a lot of trust in the shop before I would let them loose on something this complicated.

Can you give us some history on the car and why you are wanting this work done?

Thanks.

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I did the TB and WP on my 1997 LS in January, including cam and crank seals. It took about 10 minutes max on each one and required no special handling. There were no additional parts to remove to get to the old seals and replace them, except to pull the cam drive wheels (which the belt engages), and I was replacing both of them, anyway.

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I did the TB and WP on my 1997 LS in January, including cam and crank seals. It took about 10 minutes max on each one and required no special handling. There were no additional parts to remove to get to the old seals and replace them, except to pull the cam drive wheels (which the belt engages), and I was replacing both of them, anyway.

The '98 heads are completely different from the '97; the 1998 model year is when they added VVTi. So for '97, the job is easy once you are at the front of the cam, for '97, it's much more difficult.

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