Engine Replacement at 113,000 miles?!?!

That's exactly what happened to my Taurus.

I managed to squeeze out 15,000 miles before the clanking turned into a destroyed engine. When the bearing couldn't take the pressure anymore, it broke... causing the piston-rod to snap. You wouldn't believe how horribly loud an engine can get when 5 cylinders are tossing around broken metal from the 6th. Needless to say, that level of damage cannot be repaired. The replacment engine swapped in (after pushing Ford to help pay for it) worked pretty well.

But that experience combined with the transmission problems I also had was what caused me to seek out something better... precisely how I found Prius.

Sorry, that probably doesn't help you feel better at all other than not being the only person to experience that.
.

 

I suggest you ask the dealer to install a salvage engine, you should be able to buy a low mileage one for ~$500 plus shipping:
eBay - prius engine, Parts Accessories - buy and sell on eBay Motors=

Toyota engines usually are quite robust, I suspect the prior owner did not perform timely oil changes. The noise you heard was probably due to a worn crankshaft bearing.

Remember that when you buy a used car, sometimes you are buying someone else's problems. Buyer beware...

 

you bought a used car that made a clanking noise? you should have run from that as quickly as possible. how long a car lasts depends largely on how well the owner takes care of it. by the time you bought it, poor maintenance could have done some serious damage.

dealers generally will not install salvage parts, new only. you'd have to go independent to do that.

would replacing the engine with a salvage cost more than replacing the car? probably not. but next time you buy a car, please get it inspected by a certified mechanic.

 

Hi Missa, first-time poster with a big problem. Sorry you got a mistreated one. It might appear that you are getting slapped around here a bit, but I wish to agree entirely with Patrick that a salvaged engine is just the ticket.

Nothing 'hybrid' needs to be massively relocated for this, so any good independent engine shop seems like the way to go.

This is not a new engine in the Prius, but it is subjected to very kind conditions with all the electrical help in this car. Your experience is one of very few, the others are all catastrophic engine oil loss I think.

I have no worries about Missa in the future, but would every one else reading this please take good care of the engine oil? Yes, it's that important.

 

[another redundant post deleted]

 

Thanks for the clarification. How many miles did you log before the engine started to make noise?

 

you sure it had enough/any oil in it?

 

you can't damage a bearing with too much oil.
how much time elapsed between oil change and engine failure?

 

No, in my experience the dealer assholes at Toyota (Albany, GA) will tell you they can't get the new, install the salvaged parts, say you have a year warranty on them, then not back it when it turns out the salvaged parts were bad.

 

Hi Shawn,

Well, I hope you were not charged for new parts, when salvage parts were installed...

 

Technically I was not, but the price was about the same as what new would have been. This was for the Tundra. They are real rip off artists at that dealership. Lied to me half a dozen different ways, and installed faulty parts. Hanging would be too good for them.

 

They should be chopped into little itty bitty pieces and buried ... alive

Source: Heavy Metal, the movie

Seriously, if a dealership tried to screw me that badly, it would be dangerous for them. Just ask the nice folks at the GM dealership where I *special ordered* my 2000 GMC Sierra

 

Hey folks,
It would appear that over filling of the crankcase would lead to foaming. This severe foaming of the oil (oil aeration, from the crankshaft counter weights whipping the oil like an egg beater) caused a failure similar to oil starvation. One of the single most important reason to never overfill an engine with oil.

 

Engine Oil Bible has this to say:

"What's the worst that could happen? Well the problem with this is that the next time the engine is run, the windage in the crankcase and other pressures generated by the oil pump, etc. place a great strain on the seal on the rear main bearing.
Eventually, often much sooner than the ordinary man in the street might expect, the rear main bearing seal ruptures, and the engine becomes a 'leaker'. If you've got a manual gearbox, this means one thing: this oil goes right onto the flywheel and the face of the clutch disc. A lubricated clutch is A Bad Thing. If this still goes unnoticed, the front seal is the next to go, and the engine then becomes a 'gusher' (or to be more colourful, it starts pissing oil all over the place). As well as smothering the clutch with oil from the rear, the oil now coming from the front leak will be neatly distributed about the engine bay as it hits the front pulley - often propelling it out as far as the brake discs. At the same time as this Hollywood disaster movie is unfolding outside the engine, things aren't working out any better on the inside. As you can see from the diagram, the correct oil level is really close to the rotating crank. Overfilling will mean the crank dips into the oil and churns it into a froth. Froth is good on certain types of coffee but not good in an engine. The mixture of aerated oil will be forced into the bearings and in case you didn't know, air is not a lubricant. Typically this means that bearing damage will follow quite rapidly, especially if you are driving on a motorway. You'll know bearing damage when you get it. The engine smells like a garage mechanic cooking over an open flame and the noise coming from the engine is the sort of thing you'd normally hear in vaudeville plays when a piano is pushed down a flight of stairs. As if that all wasn't bad enough, the excess oil gets thrown up into the piston bores where the piston rings have a hard time coping with the excess oil and pressure. It gets into the combustion chamber and some of it will get out into the exhaust system unburned resulting in a nice patina of oil all over the platinum surfaces of your catalytic converter. This renders it utterly useless for good."

Of course once the oil starts leaking it does become something of a self-correcting problem, but if you don't notice it, you then get the problem of insufficient lubrication.

I think the feeling among mechanics, particularly ones familiar with an older era when bearing seals weren't as good, might be, 'I'll overfill slightly so it still has plenty once it's leaked a bit." Modern bearing seals are oil-tight against the recommended grades of oil (API SL, SM). There is a MAX mark for a reason. Stay below that mark.

A conspiracy theorist might consider that the dealer deliberately overfills the oil to cause a leak and therefore give themselves regular work... but I am not a conspiracy theorist. "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence."

 

Or, as I like to say:

"Why do it correctly when it's so much quicker and easier to just f*** it up?"