My friend's 2000(ish) toyota corolla was recently driven on low oil, 3/4 qt until it started making noise and running bad. He took it to the shop, they found the oil was the problem, and did an oil change. It is now running better but gets rough right before the auto up shifts. The shop described the engine as a "time bomb" and said the engine could let go now, or a month from now.
What says the Toyo gurus of GRM of this prognosis?
Probably rods and/or rod bearings, if not the main bearings.
I would hit the local salvage yards and carpart.com to find another low mileage motor and then spend a weekend swapping it out.
yup... I've actually replaced a few toyota 4-bangers at the shop because they ran low on oil. They don't like to be low. I blame it on a low capacity pan with a higher-than-necessary volume pump.
Tell him to drive it like a grandma until it dies, then replace it... or sell it now as a car that needs "engine work"
How hard is a bearing job? Possible in car?
A lot of toyotas in that group of years seem to be like that. Very minimal oil capacity, and yet quite a few burn it. I did a LOF a few weeks ago on a corolla and it drained enough oil to slosh around an 8 quart pan and coat it. Including the tiny oil filter, I bet a quarter of a quart of oil drained out.
~Alex
Does your friend have a Y chromosomal deficiency? Exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. It's dead. New used motor. Anything else short of a total rebuild (which will cost 4X) will not work. Make sure you get the non-VVT or VVT, depending on what's in there. I think 2000 has a non-VVT.
And let this $1K lesson be learned: Check the berkeleying oil level at least every other fillup. Duh.
neon4891 wrote:How hard is a bearing job? Possible in car?
Not hard at all. My friend's '04 Matrix was low on oil once, due to an incompetent shop. My friend, very mech inclined, convinced the dealer to pull the pan and check, rather than replace the engine. Found bad rod bearings but good mains. He then helped the tech change the rod bearings and its' still good after 12K miles.
Yep. My father in law bought one that was already having oil issues. He didn't realize it and locked the engine up. I looked up the internals. Its cheaper to replace the engine.
There are JDM options. 
