Toyota Repair: 94 Toyota Tercel Oil Leak, 1994 toyota tercel, toyota tercel


Question
I have owned a 1994 Toyota Tercel since 1996.  Contrary to most of what I have read, it has been extremely reliable and I have had little to no problems with it other than burning oil after about 100,000 miles.  Since it was so reliable and still in good cosmetic condition, I opted to have the engine rebuilt at 165,000 to stop the oil consumption.  The shop that did the job did a great job and it has ran great thus far but it has now developed a small leak.  It started as a small quarter sized drop being left on my garage floor each time I parked so I took it back to the shop.  They replaced either the camshaft or crankshaft seal … I can't remember which.  Upon returning home, it still had the same leak.  I took it back to the shop, they said there was some lip where the seal seats that didn't appear to hold the seal in very well so they redid the job and said I was good to go.  Still had the same leak and it was getting worse.  Took it back another time … same ole story.  I got fed up with it and just figured I'd live with placing cardboard on my garage floor.  That only worked for so long as it is now leaking pretty bad (about a pop can size pool everytime I park) so I took it back again.  This time they replaced the oil pump seal and said it was good.  It now leaks the worst it has ever leaked.  When the car is running it leaks about 3 drops per second.  If you lay under the passenger side of the car, it first appears that it is coming from the top of the oil pan because it is all wet on the side.  However, it is leaking from a round piece that is above the oil pan and just happens to run down the pan and collects in the splash guard until it spills over and makes a mess.  The second time it was in the shop, they had it up on the rack and showed me that it didn't leak until they started the car and let it idle for awhile.  After it idled for 30 seconds to a minute, oil would start pouring out of the round silver colored piece above the oil pan.  They told me that it was the seal behind there that they replaced the first and second times.  After leaving the shop the last time … they told me there really isn't anymore seals to replace in the area where the leak appears to originate.  Any ideas here?

Answer
Yes I have a real good idea, since this repair shop charged you for all of these seal replacements and did not fix the oil leak, I think you have a right to ask for a refund of most of the money you have spent, from what you are telling me there is an oil leak that is now worse than before, the shop obviously doesn't know what to do to repair the leak and will not assume any responsibility from what I'm getting from you.
I'm going to give you the best advice that I can, since I can't see the oil leak myself I'm going to ask you to have a toyota dealer diagnose the leak, once you find out what it is that needs to be done go back to the shop that made all of the repairs and demand that you receive a refund  because they did not repair the problem, this is getting into a legal area and you may be forced to file a small claims suit against the other repair shop to recover some of the costs if they are not willing to negotiate, I am not a legal expert but I think you have a good case because they did not repair the leak.