Biggest 3UR "Major" Problems and PM to avoid

I've been scouring this thread all morning looking at coolant valley leak, cam tower leak & (less-so) head gasket leak threads and got the typical WebMD paranoia setting in, so I thought it would be a good idea to get everyone's input on what the best preventative maintenance might be on these trucks to avoid the 3 "main" gremlins:

1. coolant valley leak
2. cam shaft tower
3. head gasket

If anyone thinks there are bigger/more common issues these engines see, feel free to add to the list.

 

Coolant every 5 years or 60k miles after the factory fill.

oil change every 5k miles/12months.

Car care nut says head gasket failures seem to be limited to 2007-2013. 2014 got a part change.

You could add ethanol miscalculation for the flex fuel models but that’s more of an electrical/computer issue than an engine problem.

 

1. Frequent coolant exchanges/flushes (every 50k miles or 5 years).

2. Get that 0W-20 water out of the pan and put 5W-30 in. Change every 5k miles.

3. See #1 above.

 

Looks like you live in a hot climate, too: do you recommend 5w-30?

 

1000% yes. I’ve been running since 30k. At 108k now.

 

does the 5w-30 help with the cam tower leak and the timing cover leak? Sorry if this has been answered somewhere else.

 

Anecdotally many seems to think so. It also seems helpful for quieting down or preventing the timing chain tensioner rattle.

It's also fascinating that across the globe, the USA was the only country in which the 3UR was sold and recommended to be run on 0W-20. In every other country it was sold in, it was recommended to run 5W-30 (with zero mechanical changes made to the US version)

 

Thank you. My truck is a 14 with 125k on it. Has a slight oil leak at the timing cover. I will be switching to 5w-30 next change and see if it slows it doesn't.

 

As someone who has resealed almost two dozen cam towers, I've never seen any rhyme or reason to prevent them from leaking, though I can't comment on the oil viscosity possibility. I've seen them leak as early as 2-3k miles, and I've seen trucks that have greasy spots that we've told the customer to monitor, and it has never become a problem. I bought my '15 used with 86k on it and used the greasy cam towers as a bargaining chip with the Dodge dealer to knock a few bucks off of the price of the truck. I'm now at 221k as of this morning's drive into work, and I still haven't had them resealed. The only thing I have ever noticed from the truck is occasionally, after a heavy workload like pulling a decent trailer, I'll occasionally get a whiff of oil as I walk past the driver front fender.

With that being said what I always told customers was that you shouldn't need to worry about it too much until you start seeing it actively dripping. The dealer I worked at wouldn't allow us to recommend them unless we had an active drip, and I found that seemed to be a pretty good basis for the recommendation.

As for the valley tray, mine made it to 200k almost exactly. I found my water pump leaking when I replaced my original serpentine belt, tensioner and idler pulleys. My brother, who is still a dealer tech, did the water pump for me as it was a little more than I felt like doing in the driveway and knocked out the leaking valley tray at the same time.

I agree with the head gasket issue, my understanding is it's almost exclusive to the pre update 2014 trucks.

 

Should I use 5w-30 I live in AZ and I got 101000 thousand miles on it

 

We had a theory at the shop that the customers who did there oil changes over an extended period of time were the ones that had the cam tower leaks and timing cover leaks. One tech swore it was because the oil becomes more acidic and would attack the fipg.

 

How would explain the guys who got their cam tower leaks at only 2k miles, I read about brand new trucks sitting at the dealer that just got offloaded from the delivery truck with the leaks

 

You might have read about it but it’s would be extremely rare for cam tower leaks at that low of a mileage. The very few that might have a leak would be from a poor application of sealant when the engine was assembled. We had a few timing cover leaks on low mileage 3UR-FE motors but it was from an insufficient amount of fipg.

 

I personally saw 4-5 cam tower leaks before their first oil change. In fact, the first one I saw had just shy of 2k miles and came in specifically because he was dripping oil on the driveway.

I don't believe self-maintenance had anything to do with it, more likely the grey factory FIPG or an application error when these engines were assembled. According to our FTS, the manufacturers have a limited amount of silicone they are allowed to use per engine, so the application is done by a robotic arm with a calibrated tip to apply a precise amount. I don't know how true that is, but that's the story our rep gave us. A lot of the trucks I did and saw done were under warranty, recommended by us at the dealer. I think I've only done 2-3 customer pay trucks to be honest.

 

- 5w30 @ 5k
- don't shut engine off immediately at the pee stop after cruising at highway speeds, or piston rings will cook
- if towing, let engine cool on the side of the road a bit after the climb and before descending: engine braking cools it very quickly, you may stress the heads / block thermally, they can warp

 

Getting ready to do the Coolant change this year. Any specific TTPs? Does this need to be purged, bled, etc? I plan to drain radiator with petcock (assuming it is there) then pull lower and upper Radiator hoses to allow to drain completely, and refill with Toyota Coolant (pre-mixed preferred) or Coolant and Distilled Water.

I've been neglecting this, am at 100K & 7 years, and need to do it. Have kept up on all other fluids including brake flushes, trans, transfer case, read diff, but have neglected the coolant.

Been running 5W30 since day 1, with a bottle of Ceratec every other change. Intervals have been 5-7K, with a couple going to 10K when I was taking lots of 1300 mile round trips (monthly).

 

Biggest 3UR "Major" Problems and PM to avoid




4. Wet panties constantly being thrown at the Voodoo Blue TRD PROs.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/coolant-replacement-the-easy-way.142235

 

Moisture on said undergarments can damage the finish. And cause poor decision making.

 

You would think that if the leaks were from the lack of fipg you would think that you would see most of the oil leaks early on. They seem to be right away or on older and/or high mileage engines.