Yesterday, I noticed my oil levels dropping fast and white smoke coming off under/behind engine. There is also a large pool of oil under the passenger side of the car. The oil pan seems fine. Here are some pictures I took.





edit:
I think something broke off.

more info, I barely lose any oil when parked but massive amounts after driving.

This post has been edited by Rofomet: Apr 19, 2009 - 7:06 PM

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I can say mine looked just like that around 3 months ago, same exact drip spot also.
I changed the valve cover gasket and used perma gasket. I did not need the half moons per the toyota dealer.
Distributor o-ring was hard and dripping all over so it was changed.
Had to put little hose clamps on each end of the power steering hoses because the stock ones get loose or weak.
It is finally drying up but I think when I do the timing belt I will have to do front seals since I still have a small leak.

The valve cover and distributor o-ring are pretty easy to change. The clamps were a pain.

This post has been edited by xrav22: Apr 19, 2009 - 8:38 PM

white smoke is most likely head gasket and maybe you have an oil leak there too. Would make sense if you are leaking oil when driving because the pressure would build up causing the oil to leak at a weak spot in the gasket. I would go to a garage and have them check your cooling system pressure as well as pour in an oil dye to see where it's leaking. It would really help as I did that myself and got an answer the same day.

cant really tell by the pics but places to look.

Distributor
cam seals
rear cam seal
oil pump seal
oil pan gasket
valve cover
head gasket - but you would have a lot more problems if it were this. Overheating and compression problems.

first, that's your power steering pump.

you broke it, now replace it

those are the 2 vac lines for the assist, looks like the assembly just snapped off.

here's a pic to help you out, this is what it should look like.



if you have a big oil leak, replace your valve cover gasket, it's probably the cause.

This post has been edited by Batman722: Apr 19, 2009 - 10:34 PM

thank you batman for at least helping these guys out a little... now if you broke it like that you are going to have power steering fluid everywhere... are you sure you are losing oil or power steering fluid?? PS fluid is going to be reddish in color and smell terrible...

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i wish people who don't know would stop making such uni-lateral statements. ALOT of fluids when boiled can produce white smoke. gasoline can do it, oil can do it. heavy un-combusted oil smoke is white, uncombusted gasoline fumes are also white. holy crap!

to the OP, clean that up with some brake cleaner and run the engine some, see if you can pin-point the leaks source. the UV dye kit is a good idea, but may not be needed.


but yes, that does look like the PS pump is leaking pretty good and blowing all around. other guy is correct, you probably will not be able to get that part out of the pump and a new pump will be needed. a used pump might be OK as well, but iirc its a little bit of a pain to replace so get a reman and worry less about new leaks.

now, how the hell did that get broken off like that? you should still clean the area up well so that you can find any new leaks or other leaks and correct them.

Thanks guys for the help. I really appreciate it.

I'm not really sure how it broke. I never felt a difference in steering since I got the car 2 years ago so it might have been broken since then. PS fluid hasn't dropped either. I'll update this thread as repairs progress.

Simple statement bitter, I used the words 'most likely' because it wasn't a definitive answer like you assumed. I also pointed the kid in a safe direction that would've probably helped him solve his issues quickly.

This post has been edited by 6G96GT: Apr 20, 2009 - 7:18 PM

That piece of the ps pump that is broken is just for the vacuum assist. Manny has it capped off in that pic because it isn't completely necessary for daily driving, I can't remember the reason he mentioned it was there for. But that's probably why you notice no difference in the way the steering feels nor a loss in ps fluid.

As for your oil issue, you should wash all the oil off and recheck it again to get a better idea of where its coming from. If you can't really do that, the general idea in finding an oil leak is to follow the oil to the highest point and start there.

This post has been edited by hurley97: Apr 20, 2009 - 7:25 PM

it doesn't hurt to check all the things Ive mentioned. They are all possible leak areas especially for our old cars. There is others to check like PS was mentioned.

It was the oil pump seal. Replaced with along with the timing belt and water pump. Runs good as new now!

glad to hear u got it fixed.

Like I said check my list. and good job too.

i have an oil leak as well. i cleaned up my lower and upper oil pan and then took underbody panels and checked where the pulleys where next to the right tire to see if there was any leaks. looked after a couple days and noticed oil coming from the upper oil pan and oil on the underbody panel was starting to form on top of it sort of like a puddle.

i had it both uper and lower pans resealed with toyota seal packaging 102 fipg stuff about a year ago by a local mechanic at his house. could it be that he didnt not do a good job when he tried sealing it. also could it be my oil pump seal?? should i replace upper oil pan bolt and washer while im at it?

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i don't think doing a headgasket job would have fixed his problem quickly

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But if you had taken the time to read his post, the white smoke was coming from behind his engine, not from his exhaust.
A blown head gasket doesn't smoke from behind the engine, it [MIGHT] smokes from the exhaust.

cool