Gt timing chain cover gasket replacement.

[SonicXtasy]

Hi guys, new to the forum but not new to Vibes. We bought the wife an Orange Vibe auto new in 05, traded it in on an Odyssey in 10 and recently traded that in on an 18 Corolla IM (Vibes current little brother).

Anyway, my son needed something a little bigger than his Integra and we eventually settled on an 05 Vibe GT. Picked it up for $2250 with a hundred forty thousand miles. Interior was fairly clean but the body had a couple dings and dents and weren't too bad but the AC was not working and it had a bad oil leak. We've already changed the valve cover gasket and the O-ring for the timing belt tensioner and we've determined it looks like it's leaking from the timing chain cover where the block and head meet. I've already got everything out except I can't figure out how to get that stupid metal pipe that runs in front of the timing chain cover back to the exhaust manifold out of the way. I've done some Google searching and can't seem to find any thorough how to's on changing the timing cover gasket on a GT or any 2zz. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Bookworm]

1zz or 2zz? Apparently there have been a couple of people on here with the 2zz having problems with the timing chain cover gasket, and it involved an engine pull.

[SonicXtasy]

Made the post while it dinner. Went back and pulled off the upper exhaust manifold heat shield and can clearly see that metal pipe attaches to the manifold without any way of coming off. Looks like I'll be taking the exhaust manifold off as well. A little disappointed at how difficult Toyota has made maintenance on these engines.

[Bookworm]

To be fair, ALL engines in modern cars are next to impossible to work on. If anything, the Vibe's a bit easier than my old Mazda, and WAY easier than the 81 Ford Excrement.... I mean, Escort.

What happens is that the motor engineers are NOT the same engineers that create the engine compartment. Often, they take a motor, then build a compartment around it - which means they put no thought into anything but assembly.

If they could pass a law saying that all manufacturers must have their upper 10% of management replace all standard repair/replacement components themselves before releasing a product model, I think you'd find the cars becoming easier to work on (and dryers, and washing machines, refrigerators, dishwashers, lawn mowers, etc).

Basically - brakes, alternator, starter, shocks/struts, battery, all fluids, all fuses, all bulbs, all belts, and cooling fans.

[Caretaker]

...been there
...fixed that

In the 2zr engine (Corolla Vibe), the engine has to come out to replace the timing chain cover gasket. Your engine might be different. For your sake, I hope it is.

[tpollauf]

SonicX .... Look up my post from 10 months ago and see if this is EXACTLY what you're dealing with. Although a year older, we may have the exact problem with the exact engine! here's my post: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=46475&p=521527&hil ... ak#p521527

Let me know and maybe I can help. FYI ... I still never fixed the leak on mine yet. Definitely sometime this summer!

[SonicXtasy]

Mine seems to be leaking where yours is, seems to be where the head and block meet. I am hoping I don't have to pull the engine but will if I have to. I am fortunate to be able to use a friends shop to work on it. There are 3 car lifts, an engine hoist and a large percentage of the Snap-on catalog of tools available for me to use. I will post back with what I had to do to complete the repair.

I understand modern engines have gotten better than the oldschool cars of the 80's. I have a 1990 Ford E350 van (engineered in the early 70's) with the 460 in it. I had to completely remove the smog crap to replace a spark plug. Dreading if I ever have to "dig into" the motor. My complaint about Toyota came from a friend that changed the water pump on his moms late 90s early 2000s FWD Lexus. It was basically the same car as a Camery. They were not able to get the water pump out because of some big mounting plate that covered part of the pump. They had to pull the timing belt/chain (cant remember which it had) and gears to get the mounting plate off. All Toyota had to do was cut about a 1/2" section out of the plate and the water pump would have cleared and not affect the structure of the mounting plate at all. It more than doubled the total repair time and risked destroying the motor if you didn't get the belt/chain back on correctly.

I have concluded that auto manufactures have purposely built products that should not need any real repairs until they are about 10-15 years old. Then some minor part fail such as the oil gasket or plastic timing chain tensioner, etc, and even though the replacement part is fairly cheap the amount of labor required to fix it costs as much as the car is worth and therefore a lot of the cars go to the junkyard much earlier than they should.

[SonicXtasy]

Well I've managed to do it, I did manage to get the timing chain cover out without removing the engine. Doesn't necessarily mean I'll be able to get it all back together but there's hope it can be done without pulling the engine! So far I've had to disconnect the passenger side motor mount and pull out the fender well trim. The power steering pump obviously has to unbolt but it is still in the car, I've also had to unbolt the exhaust from the exhaust manifold and then unbolt the exhaust manifold and maneuver it out of the way. Nothing but the engine mount on the frame and the valve cover has come out completely from the car so far.

[SonicXtasy]

Timing chain cover is back in with new seal. Looks like it can be done. Still finishing assembly but I'm feeling pretty good at this exact moment!

[zbyers]

It can definitely be done without pulling the engine, but is surely a major pain in the rear.

I know I'm a bit late, but that metal pipe you're referring to...When I did mine, those studs holding it on can be unthreaded from the engine. once you remove those studs, then it's a matter of just carefully wiggling everything around that.

[tpollauf]

Timing chain cover is back in with new seal. Looks like it can be done. Still finishing assembly but I'm feeling pretty good at this exact moment!

Give us an update as to whether or not this fix was successful for you. I'll be finally getting my oil leak fixed this week!

[drfrisker]

Completely forgot about the emissions exhaust pipe that wraps around that side of the engine. I'm not at all happy that I started this job but I guess we're in deep now.

I got it done, 1 week later, what a gigantic pain in my (removed). No lift. I would have rather dropped the whole engine, got the mounts changed and new throwout bearing, with easy access to all the Power steering stuff. Check and make sure your belt tensioner arm isn't rounded off- whomever had my car before or did work on it really buggered it up, I used a C clamp contraption to get the thing back on there.

Also changed a bunch of rubber hoses out - all the power steering hoses, pressures to the rack, return and reservior. Had to get the cat welded to the magnaflow exhaust because the magnaflow is falling apart at it's inlet.

The car isn't worth all this work so make sure you get some good use out of it if you're doing it.