On the 5.7, the upper oil pan is sealed with RTV that fails with age — and because oil from leaking cam towers runs down over the same joint, this leak gets misdiagnosed as a rear main seal constantly. We diagnose it honestly and reseal it at your home.
The 3UR-FE 5.7 V8 uses a two-piece oil pan: a structural aluminum upper pan bolted to the bottom of the block, and a smaller lower pan beneath it. The upper pan is sealed to the block with factory RTV rather than a gasket, and like every other FIPG joint on this engine, the sealant hardens and releases with age. When it goes, you get the classic presentation: a steady drip from the centre-front of the pan, an oil smell that follows the truck, and a spreading mark on the driveway.
Here's where owners get burned: this engine also leaks from its cam towers higher up, and that oil migrates down the back and sides of the block, wetting the pan rails and the bellhousing area. A shop that sees oil at the back of the pan without tracing it calls it a rear main seal — a bigger, scarier quote for a seal that's often perfectly fine. Getting the diagnosis right before quoting the repair is half the value of this job, which is why we degrease and trace before we commit you to anything.
The reseal itself is awkward rather than complicated: clearance to drop the upper pan means supporting the engine and lowering or partially dropping front suspension components to make room. Then it's the familiar discipline — every trace of old RTV off both surfaces, genuine Toyota FIPG in the correct bead, torqued in sequence. If the cam towers above are leaking too, fixing them at the same time matters: resealing the pan under a still-leaking top end means oil running down over your fresh work within months.
If your Toyota / Lexus is doing any of these, this is the likely cause:
A dripping pan never stabilizes — the RTV releases progressively along the joint, and the leak rate steps up with each season of heat cycles. Beyond the driveway stains and the oil smell, it's a constant draw on your oil level between services on an engine people famously don't check. The other cost of waiting is misdiagnosis: oil spreads with time and kilometres, and the wetter the underside gets, the easier it is for a shop to sell you a rear main seal you don't need. A clean, traced diagnosis now is worth real money.
Yes — with proper engine support and staged jack work on level ground, this is established mobile territory. It's deliberate, methodical work rather than exotic work. We confirm your parking surface is suitable when we book, bring all the support equipment, and the truck stays safely supported the entire time.
Because the pan can't simply drop out — the engine has to be supported and suspension lowered for clearance, then both sealing surfaces cleaned completely before resealing. That's hours of labour around a part that costs very little, and dealers bill it at book time and dealer rates. We give you one flat quote for the complete, diagnosed job before any work starts — and if our tracing shows it's not the pan, you'll know that before spending pan-job money.
By tracing, not guessing. On the 5.7, oil from the cam towers and the upper pan joint migrates to exactly the places a rear main leak would wet, so 'oil near the bellhousing' proves nothing by itself. We degrease the underside, drive it, and follow the fresh oil to its highest point. Rear main seals on this engine fail far less often than they get quoted.
If they're leaking, yes — they sit above the pan, and their oil runs down over the pan joint. Resealing the pan under a leaking top end means your fresh work gets blamed for someone else's oil within months. We inspect the towers as part of this job and quote the bundle honestly: if they're dry, we say so and leave them alone.
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