Toyota Avalon leaking oil

[ShiningArcanine]

My mother is giving me her 1995 Toyota Avalon when she buys a new car next year. I have been using it for 25,000 miles and I have been maintaining it for the last 15,000 miles. It currently has 87,000 miles on it. During its lifetime, it had always run on Castro GTX until 15,000 miles ago, when I tried switching to Mobil 1 synthetic oil because I read that it was superior. This caused an oil leak and I switched back to Castro GTX a few hundred miles after switching to Mobil 1. 15,000 miles later and after a few gasket changes at the dealership, it still has a small leak.

Is there anything that I can do to fix the leak? Also, could anyone explain why I had the leakage problem after I put Mobil 1 into it? I read online that many people switched to Mobil 1 from regular oil without a problem so I am a bit confused as to what went wrong.

 

[dave1251]

Go to our site sponser part of the forum. Read up on Auto-Rx. If you want to try it follow the directions to the T. If don't want to go down that route try GTX HighMileage. Or the offerings from Pennzoil, Havoline, Chevron, Valvoline Max Life. They may help. As for why you have the leak I can't explain it to you at the moment since it's 4:24 AM where I am at and I am a little tired. But don't worry we have very knowledgeable people here that will help you.

 

[Mike242GT]

Where is the leak? Front seals, rear main seal, valve cover gasket? Lots of people will tell you there is no problem switching to Mobil 1 in an older vehicle, lots of others will tell you about the leaks they encountered. As noted, Auto-RX may help - so may switching to a high mileage oil. Pennz HM "cured" a small rear main seal seep in one of my cars, but it took about a year and two OCIs.

 

[Quest]

Have you replace your PCV valve yet? Excessive crankcase pressure will cause seal leaks too.

 

[John_K]

Valvoline Maxlife stopped a leak in my Dakota with 80,000 mi on it.

John

 

[ShiningArcanine]

Mike242GT, here is a picture of under the car that I took today when I was changing the oil with my father. This is by the front passenger side wheel:

[img=http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/7131/1002022bg7.th.jpg]

As you can see, there is clearly an oil leak somewhere around that rail. Unfortunately, I am not exactly sure where the leak's origin is located.

Quest, The PCV Valve was first changed at 72,000 miles and again at 82,000 miles.

 

[gudkarma]

i just did the valve cover gasket on my girls 95 avalon.

the leak was there for some time as evidenced by the crust, crud, and oil on the engine.

you need to determine the location of the leak & how bad the leak is before you concern yourself with other stuff (imo).

try an autorx clean & rinse cycle, it may halp.

people will say that synthetic oil will remove deposits on seals & gaskets & that is when the leaking starts.

on the other hand, like the poster above noted, there are high milage oils that will cause seals to swell & stop small leaks.

 

[ShiningArcanine]

Well, I am seeing crud on my Avalon's engine, in the area below and somewhat to the right of where the oil is inserted. If I was to open the hood and take a picture, would it be helpful in pointing me in the direction of where the leak might be located?

By the way, my mother made an appointment with the dealership an hour ago to have them take a look at it and hopefully fix it. She is hoping that it is under warranty because she had them try to fix the leak in the past, but looking at service history, I can none of the components changed had anything to do with the engine, so I doubt that any of it will be covered under warranty, especially since the warranty on the car ended a long time ago. Does anyone think that I am wrong in thinking that none of this will be covered under warranty and they will replace a bunch of really expensive components without solving the actual problem?

 

[RedDart]

The best way to find a leak is to have a repair facility add a black light reactive dye to the oil and drive the car for a while before returning it to them. The black light will reveal exactly where is the origin of the leak. I had a Taurus that had oil collecting on the lip of the oil pan so it was assumed that oil pan gasket was bad. In reality it was the rear main seal, which was replaced when a replacement tranny was installed. It has been my experience that HM oils with seal swellers, such as Vavoline MaxLife, will slow down leaks but they may not stop the leak if a mechanical repair is justified. I would stay away from the Toyota "stealer" unless you really trust them. An independent shop would do the job cheaper and be less likely to try to sell you on other services.

 

[ShiningArcanine]

What sort of repair facility should I try to find in the yellow pages?

 

[JohnBrowning]

It is almost 13 years old nothing last forever especialy not elastomer seals. I do not think it has anything to do with switching to M1 it has to do with age. This will espcialy be the case if it is any seal beside the front or rear main seal. The front and rear main seal often get dried out from age and deposits from dino motor oil. When you introduce the synthetic oil it cleans the deposits that are keeping the oil oil from leaking past the old, hard dried out seal. So the synthetic did not cause the leak it merly revealed the preexsiting damage.THe real damage was done by time and deposits left behind by dino oil.

 

[Cutehumor]

personally I would have stuck with dino in a car that old. if there is any even 1% of possibility of leaks, I'm not going to do it. been there done that. the cost of changing leaking seals from switching to synthetic cost you more than one oil change that's for sure.

 

[Ray H]

Agree. Furthermore, no oil, regardless of cost or superior base oil/additive technology, will undo 87,000 miles of accumulated engine wear and seal deterioration, either, though one of the high-mileage oils with ester content may temporarily elliminate or at least minimize a seal leak for a while longer.

 

[fpny]

I owned a 96 Avalon with 137K miles on ot. It had on and off with a very minor leak towards the front on the passenger side (a couple of drops a week). The leak had been there since I bought the car back in early April with 125K on it. Since this fall, I switched to Castrol GTX HM oil and for the last 2 months, I haven't notice any oil drops on my garage floor anymore. For one reason or the other, the leak seems to stop after I switched to GTX HM. By the way, I also did 2 Auto-rx cycles on the Avalon this summer. I was going to use synthetic oil on it during the winter season and I decided not to and used the Castrol GTX HM oil instead. Looks like I made a good choice. I think you should give GTX HM a try as well. So far, it works for me.

 

[ShiningArcanine]

Given that the state of the seals in my mother's Toyota Avalon is unknown and that if they are completely gone, the application of Auto-RX should led to a quick engine failure, would it be advisable to use Auto-RX to condition the seals prior to switching to Castrol GTX High Mileage, or should I switch to Castrol GTX High Mileage without touching Auto-RX? Also, since I just did an oil change today, should I switch to Castrol GTX High Mileage immediately or would it be safe to wait until the next oil change interval and switch then?

Also, out of curiosity, what would having the engine resealed cost if I was to have it done?

 

[fpny]

The reason why I did 2 cleaning cycles of Auto-rx is because I don't have any maintenance records on the Avalon when I bought it. Since this Avalon had the 1MZ-FE V6 engine which is one of the known engine that had sludge problem. It also had well over 100K miles on it when I bought it. That's why I did the Auto-rx on it just to make sure I got a clean engine to start with. I intent to run it for at least 250K. After I ran the 2 cleaning and rinsing cycles with Auto-rx, I didn't noticed the leak got any worst. I ran 3000 miles with Castrol GTX dino oil after Auto-rx before I switch to GTX HM oil.

 

[JohnBrowning]

If the seals are leaking they have seen some wear and tear either from oxidation or age. Auto-RX will help restore the seal to it's proper elastic properties but if their are any tears or dry rot then auto-rx can not help it. Auto-Rx will not cause it any further damge it can only help. If Auto-Rx does not stop the leak then you will have to get what ever seal or gasket that is leaking replaced! Hard to say what the cost would be depends on wich seal is leaking.Auto-Rx is very mild and does not cause further damage to seals like solvents and seal swelling compounds.

 

[zeeman]

maybe its leftover oil draining from the oil filter after oil change. I know on my i4 camry, oil drains down the engine block when i change the oil filter.

 

[ShiningArcanine]

JohnBrowning, I am curious as to what the cost would be if all of the seals had to be redone, just so I have an idea of what the cost ceiling would be in the worst case scenario.

zeeman, I can say with confidence that it is not from leftover oil from an oil change.

 

[Earl Filter]

Quote:

---

The best way to find a leak is to have a repair facility add a black light reactive dye to the oil and drive the car for a while before returning it to them.

---

Why not get the dye and blacklight kit from an auto parts store, and do it yourself?