Originally Posted by TFRnoob

Hello everyone,

I have a 1999 Toyota 4Runner and love it. When I bought the car I knew it had an oil leak. I would routinely check the oil and make sure it was at an appropriate level. I let my sister borrow the car for 2 weeks and completely forgot to remind her about the oil leak.

She was driving on the freeway when the oil light went on and smelt an odor she describes as burning oil or "brakes", the car rattled to a halt as she pulled over. She called me and I immediately met her with 5qts of 10W-40 oil. I poured the oil in after checking the oil level and drove to my house (about 30 miles) I noticed a drop in power and a loud-ish knocking noise particularly in the higher RPMs. I am afraid there is likely to be some major engine damage. That being said I would love some advice on how to diagnose the problem(s) the car will have and the different scenarios that are associated with the problems the car faces.

Thanks everyone!

Rich

Originally Posted by TFRnoob

Thanks for the help everyone! Okay, so here are a few symptoms I found upon a more careful inspection that may help narrow the focus of the possible issues at hand. I suspect a cracked head or head gasket because there seems to be coolant towards the front end of the engine bay.

New symptoms are as follows:

coolant leaking from unknown source towards the front end of the engine bay.

when going in reverse, there is a pulsing.

The higher the RPMs, the louder the noise is.

No significant noise when in neutral.

Noise (clacking) occurs when turning on the car and when I am driving especially over 25mph.

Anyway, I hope this helps a little bit. I will be checking the compression later as well as checking for metal shavings in my oil later tonight. Any comments/ suggestions?

Thanks again all!

-Rich

Originally Posted by JayRolla

LOL, that is not the problem Oil is oil, it will do its job. I mean even some gear oil in the motor would have been better. No oil is not good.

Originally Posted by TFRnoob

I am having a tow truck tow it to a mechanic to diagnose the problem(s) with the vehicle tonight when I get off work. I expect the mechanic to diagnose the problem and for him to say (like everyone on this forum) that the engine is completely toast. Hopefully he can tell me specifically what broke inside the engine. When I get that information I will post and maybe either get to fixing the engine after pulling it out of my truck or look for advice on seeking a new (used) motor. I love this truck and maybe I can even give her an upgrade.

Originally Posted by KidVermicious

I think you're missing the point. Compression is irrelevant at this point, you've got rod knock. A head gasket will not help. Your motor is not pining for the fjords. It is no more. It has ceased to be. It's off the twig, it has kicked the bucket, it has run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. It is an ex-motor.

Originally Posted by mohjo712000

I have a question I believe belongs in this thread. If you were to replace a motor in your runner , or rebuild, which would it be? Also, would say a gen 4 motor slide into a gen 3?

Originally Posted by amalik

Wait so... you can't drive without oil?

What a gimmick. They warned me against Toyota's.

Originally Posted by brian4t

Sorry for your troubles (OP) but this is bad news bear as you've already heard. Seek out a good used motor and go from there. The gravity of this post reminds me a thread on a different forum where the member poured brake fluid into their transmission fill, or maybe it was ATF into their oil fill. Either way it was BAD.

Originally Posted by RinoRomp

Same thing happend to my BMW... it was mostly the connecting rod bearings and a little extra wear on the main bearings.

I did the work for about $300, big job.

Can you pop in conrod bearings just by cracking the oil pan like a BMW?