Distributor Oil Leak...?!

[Whip Cracker]

I had the car serviced today... and I've always seemed to have a minor leak coming from the Distributor O Ring...

Well, the mechanic thinks it might be coming from the DIZZY ITSELF?! Possibly coming down a shaft, through the dizzy and slightly building up from there. It doesn't drip or anything, just looks oily til ya wipe it away - only have to do it every couple of months (when it's serviced again hehehe).

Was told not to worry too much about it, as the oil's not building up inside and is leaking outside instead...

Apparently it's common... anyone else heard of this issue before?

Cheers peoples

[bozurolla]

there are seals from the top n bottom of the Distributor shaft & they do have a tendency to leak..there is an O-ring that acts like a gasket between the housing n the block & the dizzy in itself has seals as well.I personally have seen it & have had it rectified.. dont know personally the effects of leaving it i would fix it straight away (but thats just me (ive been told I'm anal).Just a keep an eye on it really just to be safe!!..

[Whip Cracker]

Yeah well considering it's been like this for... over 2 years, it should be ok :)

Was just interested in the situation... don't spose you know what costs I would have in replacing these other seals?

[Hiro]

4AGEs are renowned for this same problem, wouldn't surprise me if the appropriate Haynes/Gregorys manual has details on how to change the seals (being an FE, it'll probably have the dizzy on the end of the exhaust camshaft though, so it's a bit different to a 4AGE)

[Whip Cracker]

Awesome, sounds like it's fixable... lol.

Was thinking the worst and having to replace it or something like that... :o

[Rolla Boy]

It's very common on older Toyota engines...

O ring on the inner shaft of the dizzy is the one that needs to be replaced...

Gotta strip apart the dizzy on a press to be able to get to it tho...

[Whip Cracker]

Thanks lads,

Do yas have any idea on what costs I would be looking at? Hour or two... seals... ?

Sounds like $150-$200 ay?

[bozurolla]

Thanks lads,

Do yas have any idea on what costs I would be looking at? Hour or two... seals... ?

Sounds like $150-$200 ay?

That sounds about right! gottabit of time do it urself & just try to preserve the seals during extraction & buy it from a seals place cost u a tenner maybe(or just buy from toyota pre-disassembling) & one to two hours on the fiddle..

Good luck

[Whip Cracker]

Thanks mate... sounds straight forward, knowing me I'd stuff it up :P

Don't spose you know if there's a "seal kit" or something like that from Toyota?? Would be interesting to know...

[Guest]

I have the same issue with my ST184... as others have said, the seals are gone.

AFAIK there is no official seal kit from toyota. they will tell you to replace the dizzy... but this is a far cheaper option ;)

http://www.kbox.ca/catalog/product_info.ph...products_id/235

[Whip Cracker]

Mick - that's awesome.

I'll be after the 3VZ kit anyway... coming from Canada... hmmmm... would have to find if it's worth it or not though :)

[Guest]

Mick - that's awesome.

I'll be after the 3VZ kit anyway... coming from Canada... hmmmm... would have to find if it's worth it or not though :)

you may be able to find some here in aus, but considering its just seals it should not be too much for postage and it is a damn sight cheaper than a new dizzy.

[Whip Cracker]

Yeah I know a guy who runs "North Coast Corollas and Camrys" - he's more than happy to just rebuild a dizzy at his place, take my car around and swap it out rather than just rebuilding mine...

It's really hard when I don't have any form of transport other than just my own car and I don't have anyone that I can get to pick up/drop off. It's a hard thing to get fixed if you know what I mean. I have my normal mechanic who comes and picks my car up from work, takes it back to the workshop and does it from there... but... I'd have to get a seal kit because he's not able to "source" them so to speak.

Thanks for ya help mate.

[Jim.]

I don't know if this thread is still active or not, but will post this anyway.

I'm assuming this is a 5SFE engine, which my comments below relate to:

I found that the seal will dry out with time as it is near the engine head, so that it not only wears out quicker than it would in a cooler situation, but also that it wears the shaft a bit sooner than it otherwise might. Replacing the seal (20mmx10mmx 7mm) which is cheap from the bearing supplies shop, will fix it if the shaft is still ok. However, most I found were deeply ridged, making the fitting of a new seal only not effective anymore.

I made a simple mod to mine which gave me a new part of the shaft to use. I had the distributor body counterbored a bit deeper where the bearing presses into it. This meant the seal ran on a new part of the shaft. Problem fixed. No oil leak now.

However, what this means is that this seal sould be replaced frequently, at least at 50,000 klms intervals. My mechanic friend says even more frequently, perhaps every 30,000 klms.

As has already been said above, the "O" ring that fits on the distributor body spigot should also be replaced at the same time.