Update: Leaking main seal 2200 miles

Have my 2023 Tundra at the dealership today, I noticed a oil leak on the bellhousing and wanted to have them take a look at it. They put dye in my oil and wanted me to drive it for 1000 miles, today they confirmed that yes, it is leaking oil. They are currently working with Toyota to determine the next steps; they think it's a good chance that the rear main seal is leaking. They will need to pull the transmission to confirm. I have owned Toyota vehicles for 35 years; never have I had a problem. So disappointed.

 

Hard to believe you've NEVER had a single issue in 35 years.

 

Well .. believe it or not, that's your choice.

 

My last purchase was a 2002 Tundra, just sold it, never had one issue with the truck.

 

Sounds like it is a major problem to boot?

you are the first that has posted about a rear main I do believe?

 

Actually the folks who are suffering bearing failures in addition to the engine noise the rear main seal has been getting pushed out in a lot of cases, depending on which bearing fails. Hopefully it's not a bearing failure in the making but something to be aware of.

 

Me thinks it's time to start looking for a 2021 if you want longevity.

 

Far from the first. Most leaky rear mains have been hybrids

 

That’s a damn shame. Sorry to hear about your issues.

 

That’s why I kept mine

 

There were a fair amount of us talking about the RMS possibly leaking early on. Lots of pics like mine below from other members awhile ago.

My truck as built in Nov of 21 and I took delivery on 12-15-21 so my truck is definitely an early, early truck. This is a pic of my possible RMS leak that I took early on. I noticed it back around 2,500 miles when I installed first skid plate. It was dry to the touch at that time, but it obviously residual oil. I took a pic of it so I could document it and gave it to my dealer at my 5k service so they could notate it. I cleaned it up back then and now at 26k miles now, it hasn't returned.

If this is indicative of the (suspected) bad batch of bearings...I guess, I'll wait for my engine to grenade itself.

I used to drive the truck a ton. I averaged 500-600 miles each week for the first 9-10 months of ownership, but now I drive it only on the weekends. So it might take me quite awhile before I hit that 30k - 40k milage where a lot of folks are seeing engine failure.

Side note: This is the first time I've seen someone mention this issue on a MY23.

 

KroppDuster... thanks for the info, very interesting. The dealer sent me pictures taken with the black light showing the dye in the oil. They at first cleaned the area of the oil and wanted to confirm it wasn't residual oil from the assy. process, the pictures confirmed that the oil is coming from the engine. My truck was made in March 2023 and I took delivery end of April 2023. I'll have to look for the past postings on this subject to see what the outcome was then.

 

As I recall, there were 1 or 2 folks that went all the way to having their RMS replaced because it continued to weep/leak at the bell housing. Been awhile since I've seen anyone post about this though.

Having done RMS jobs on 4.0L Jeeps 3 times in my life...I can say that RMS install is super delicate. Even when done by a machine in an assembly, if the RMS has any type of kink, dent, or fold in it...it can leak. It doesn't take much.

 

After reading about a few RMS leaks and the main bearing failures I’m afraid to run my truck full throttle or at high RPMs. Anybody else feel this way?

 

Sell it then

 

I like it too much to sell it. Lol
I did grab a 10yr 125 mile warranty which helps.

 

Drive it then!

 

Not at all. Towed 5 hours today at 80 MPH and had it slammed numerous times. If it breaks....its Toyotas problem not mine

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If you have a defect, you would want the engine break sooner rather than later when your warranty runs out on 11th year

 

Good point. I had not thought about it in that way. I usually keep my trucks for 200+ miles just want it to last. Appreciate everyones input.

 

To the OP, if this is the only problem you have had in 35 years, then you certainly made the correct choice to purchase another Toyota!!

 

Thanks for everyone's input ... seriously considering trading it in for a very low mileage 2021, proven reliability.

 

I would think that raising the RPM would drive more oil pressure and also prevent lugging of the engine which can't be good for those bearings.

 

Ok.. update from the dealer. They haven't heard anything from Toyota yet, delayed response for some reason. The service manager recent conclusion is the factory supposably puts die in the oil at the factory to help in the detection of leaks at the dealerships. They were not aware of this before they put dye in the oil, they blue lighted the truck and seen it was leaking. They are now convinced that the dye seen was from the factory during assembly. The factory evidently uses a lot of oil in the assembly process in mating the transmission to the motor, they claim it is residual oil. I'm not completely buying this explanation, to see the dye it would still need to leak from the motor oil into the bellhousing? I can't believe the oil they use for assembly would have dye in it. They had me pick up my truck, drive it and keep an eye on it. Ok

 

Yeah they are giving you the run around. There are friction modifiers added during assembly to aide in break-in. I don't know of ANY mfg. using dye at assembly.

 

I'd hope they would clean it thoroughly prior to giving it back to you so it will be easy to see whether it's leaking or not. How come all the other Tundras driving around don't have oil there when they were all built on the same assembly line with the same dye in the oil? I'm skeptical about this as I have never heard of this before as a standard practice by manufacturers as if they plan on leaks. Not even sure why they need dye to determine it's engine oil as what else is going to be coming out of the rear main seal? Dealerships come up with all sorts of off the wall explanations to make customers go away and most probably assume what they are told is the truth but seems pretty far fetched. Not much to do now that you have the truck, you've documented the leak now just drive it and monitor it.

 

I have seen others post that exact thing on newer trucks from assembly here, they cleaned it up once and watched and it never was another problem.

I would clean it up all the way and watch it for a while, then you will have a real answer

 

I seen this too ... however still doesn't explain why I see dye at this point if it was from assembly, the dye would need to come from the engine oil.