shadowschild
New member
Hello,
I’m writing this as a post mortem, the open wound still very fresh.
My trusty 5 speed 97 SR5 4runner with 256,000 km is being scrapped and donated to a kidney foundation.
On Sunday I started the truck, which had not been used in a week and was low on gas (no light yet, just ½ way between the last 2 lines).
It started fine, but there was a rough idle for several seconds and then it went back to normal. This never happened before, although in hindsight I have felt a rough idle for maybe 1 or 2 seconds after startup in the past, but nothing as long as what happened on Sunday. After gassing up at a nearby petro Canada (91 octain) I drove about 15 minutes to my parents place.
As I came to a red light at an intersection just down the street from my destination, I noticed the engine was rough idling again, a sense of dread came across me like something was really wrong.
As Im praying the engine doesn’t die on me at that intersection and sweating bullets as the light takes forever to turn green, I looked out the right side view mirror at the exhaust smoke and it seemed more white, more smokey then normal and I smelled something odd adding to my general distress. Keep in mind it’s cold here in November so the exhaust is always visible.
The light turned green & I accelerated, the car started to make an aweful sound, I thought maybe the muffler had a hole or something which has happened before. I drove up to 50km/h and felt the motor “skip” a beat, I arrived at my destination about 15 seconds after the horrifying intersection. I went to have dinner and about 2 hours later tried to start the car, in the hopes it would make it to the nearby mechanic (about 10 minutes away). Unfortunately when I turned the key I heard a terrible sound like metal hitting metal. I tried a couple of times but gave up, called towing and the next day my mechanic called, engine is finished.
Considering I had the truck for 12 years and did maybe 25k km in that time, I never expected the engine to go. It had plenty of oil so whatever happened is a complete mystery to me. It did leak some oil from the valves I think but we are talking little drops it’s normal as the seals do get old. Anyways it was a soldier and will be missed, a lot of memories.
I’m writing this as a post mortem, the open wound still very fresh.
My trusty 5 speed 97 SR5 4runner with 256,000 km is being scrapped and donated to a kidney foundation.
On Sunday I started the truck, which had not been used in a week and was low on gas (no light yet, just ½ way between the last 2 lines).
It started fine, but there was a rough idle for several seconds and then it went back to normal. This never happened before, although in hindsight I have felt a rough idle for maybe 1 or 2 seconds after startup in the past, but nothing as long as what happened on Sunday. After gassing up at a nearby petro Canada (91 octain) I drove about 15 minutes to my parents place.
As I came to a red light at an intersection just down the street from my destination, I noticed the engine was rough idling again, a sense of dread came across me like something was really wrong.
As Im praying the engine doesn’t die on me at that intersection and sweating bullets as the light takes forever to turn green, I looked out the right side view mirror at the exhaust smoke and it seemed more white, more smokey then normal and I smelled something odd adding to my general distress. Keep in mind it’s cold here in November so the exhaust is always visible.
The light turned green & I accelerated, the car started to make an aweful sound, I thought maybe the muffler had a hole or something which has happened before. I drove up to 50km/h and felt the motor “skip” a beat, I arrived at my destination about 15 seconds after the horrifying intersection. I went to have dinner and about 2 hours later tried to start the car, in the hopes it would make it to the nearby mechanic (about 10 minutes away). Unfortunately when I turned the key I heard a terrible sound like metal hitting metal. I tried a couple of times but gave up, called towing and the next day my mechanic called, engine is finished.
Considering I had the truck for 12 years and did maybe 25k km in that time, I never expected the engine to go. It had plenty of oil so whatever happened is a complete mystery to me. It did leak some oil from the valves I think but we are talking little drops it’s normal as the seals do get old. Anyways it was a soldier and will be missed, a lot of memories.
