Connecting Rod Failure

I have a 2005 Tacoma 4WD manual with about 150k and yesterday when I was stopped at a light the engine started making a loud clackety clack noise. There was a gas station right there so I pulled into gas station and shut it off. I had it towed to a mechanic and their diagnostic says a busted rod.

I'm shocked that a connecting rod would fatigue and fail with so few miles. I religiously changed the oil to Toyota's recommendation in the manual. In fact the oil was replaced a couple weeks ago.

What would cause it to fail? Have others seen this with similar mileage?

Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can talk directly to the mechanic to see how determined the diagnosis. Meanwhile I'm debating if it's worth replacing the engine. If I do I might as well replace the clutch while it's out.

CT

 

Here's a sound clip on youtube that I captured of the clacking noise
https://youtu.be/5rxe0g3m_5A

 

Would like to know what the mechanic finds inside the engine to cause this.


Door Ding, I saw The African Queen movie when I was a kid about 10 years old.

Did you build that model?

 

close... I was so ticked at the time I don't know why I used voice memo to capture the noise when I could have used the video camera.

 

Not a common failure. Over revving is the most common cause of connecting rod failure in motors.

 

Was it actually fully diagnosed as a broken rod? Or did someone hear the awful noise and assume it was a broken rod? A compression test with 0 psi on one cylinder will quickly and easily confirm, as well, you would most likely have a cylinder specific misfire code causing a flashing CEL.

 

@Super...... Werty?

 

Rod knock. Loud and clear.

Engine oil was changed recently by you or someone else? If someone else, have you checked the oil level since the noise, or even right after the oil change?

Which weight oil and brand was used?

 

The crank can be turned if you find a specialist. I'd replace the rod and the crank, if keeping the same engine. As well as inspecting all of the bearing.

Otherwise, if a lack of downtime is your over riding factor, swap in a good used engine.

 

It will cost less to just throw another engine in. Deff sounds like a rod. I wonder if there's a hole in the block yet.

 

This^^^ You would be much better off snagging another engine from the JY.

 

I had the same sound with a thrown harmonic balancer. Hopefully it's that easy to fix and did caus any major issues. Good luck.

 

10 bucks says a lack of oil on the dipstick.

 

^^ Agreed. Which would most likely be a spun rod bearing. Not a broken rod.

 

My failed rod.

 

Didn't you fix that with JBweld?

 

Only the deck.

 

This happened with my 22re once... Here are the results. This was a brand new engine (<3000 mi) that had a bolt back out, the connecting rod was all mangled up... I'll have to find a pic of it too. Warranty covered the replacement.

 

Pulled this out of a hemi in a Durango at work. Pretty epic the rod broke twice, hole in both sides of the block. Someone must have let her run a bit lol

 

Looks like a diesel swap is in order.