Being owner of an automobile is fundamental, we most of the time need it to get to our job and for most of our daily trips. This important portion of our annual budget frequently triggers us surprises, being conscious of oil leaking on your car is one of them… In actual fact, an oil leak is rarely inoffensive and can quickly lead to the breakage of your engine if you don’t recognize it. If you are conscious of oil leaking on your Toyota RAV4, you have come to the right page, we will first help you to uncover the cause of the oil leak and, secondly, we will help you to fix it, whenever possible.
Identifying the origin of the oil leaking on your Toyota RAV4
If you observe fluid leaking from under your Toyota RAV4, the first thing to do is to verify all of your levels (power steering, engine oil, brake fluid, coolant) to find out if any of them can fairly quickly be defined as the origin of the leak. To limit the risks, it is definitely important to verify your levels every 2 weeks to prevent any risk of engine breakage.
In our case we will only be focused on case you notice oil leaking from your Toyota RAV4, as far as engine oil is concerned, the liquid will be quite viscous and in shades of brown to black and if it is gearbox oil, it will be rather in amber tones and will have a strong unpleasant smell.
It’s not always easy to uncover the cause of the oil that leaks on a Toyota RAV4 because of the accessibility of the engine block, nevertheless here are the guidelines to follow to uncover the origin of the oil:
- Locate the point where the oil falls, the area from which it leaks onto the floor…
- Go back up the path of the dripping oil to its basis, if the blot is too big, don’t hesitate to clean the engine block and drive to be able to locate it more quickly.
- To assist you, here is a list of the auto parts that most of the time induce oil to leak from a car: the drain plug and its seal; one of your crankcase gaskets; the oil pressure switch; the oil filter; the transmission drain plug; the transmission sealing rings.
Whenever possible, repair the part that made the oil to leak on your Toyota RAV4.
Now that you’ve identified the cause of the oil leaking, it’s time to get down to business. Of course, for a while, you’ll be able to add more oil to top up the level, depending on its seriousness, but bear in mind that this is not a durable solution and that the leak could get worse at any time. We are gonna show you the repairs that we think you can carry out all alone with some knowledge, tools and according to the accessibility that you are going to have on your engine. In any case, you should know that after repairing an oil leak on a Toyota RAV4, you will have to swap your engine or gearbox oil.
Oil leakage from the drain plug and its seal on Toyota RAV4
In this situation, the process is fairly simple, you just have to lift your Toyota RAV4, if you can perfectly horizontal, remove your drain plug, drain your engine oil, swap your drain gasket, tighten the plug to the right torque and verify the hot engine to make sure the leak has been repaired.
Oil leaking over from the oil filter of my Toyota RAV4
In the case that your oil leak comes from your oil filter, you will simply need to replace it. To make this happen, take a filter wrench, remove the old filter, making sure that the gasket does not stick to the engine, set the new filter and tighten it moderately. Same check, hot check if oil is leaking from your Toyota RAV4.
Oil leaking from the pressure switch of my Toyota RAV4
To conclude, if it is your pressure switch that is the cause of your leak on your Toyota RAV4, you can, determined by its accessibility, reach it and swap it quickly. To make this happen, set a drain tray under the part, disconnect the electrical wire, remove the part, quickly reposition the replacement pressure switch, clean the whole thing and do a hot test to make sure that you no longer have any oil leaking from your Toyota RAV4.
For any other type of leak, we suggest you to go to your auto technician because the repair needs too much expertise and tools to be performed serenely alone.
If you need more tutorials on the Toyota RAV4, go to our Toyota RAV4 category.
