Toasted Motor?

Hi TW, I reacently bought my first tacoma about 5 months ago and everything seemed perfect. But I received terrible news yesterday from my mechanic, I took it to him to have him check my tie rod (different story). When he started it, it was rattling fairly loud (sounds almost like a diesels truck, which I've been told is common because the valves make some noise which idk if that's 100% true) and he shut it off and checked the oil to find metal shavings on the end of the dipstick. I recently did a oil change and new filter less than 400 miles ago. Should I be worried or am I over reacting? What would be causing this?

 

It's a 3.4l btw

 

First it should not rattle or knock at least the engine .

Some thing loose banging around on start up ??

Has this been going on for some time ( knocking ) if that is the case and your seeing metal shavings on your dip stick then things could be very bad .

I will say I never saw metal shavings on a dip stick only in the oil after it was drained

Myself I would think the engine would have seized if there is that much metal in the oil

Not being there in person it is impossible to do more then guess

 

It didn't rattle when I first bought it, it only started roughly two months ago. And it rattles during idle as well, his guess was probably the valves. He said he'd run it till it dies that it could grenade in 10 days or 10 years. I was curious if anyone else had a similar issue or some insight. Thank you for your reply

 

First, I'd check the valve clearances (easy to do yourself if you have a feeler gauge and haynes manual)

Then,
Get a different mechanic.
Have him do a compression check

 

First off..... I would drain the oil into a clear container to verify the metal shavings. Lot's of shavings could be anything.....
Secondly I would remove the fan belt, pull the plugs and turn the crank over with a breaker bar, moving the crank back and forth until the sound is (hopefully) reproduced. Any obvious clanking when moving the crank back and forth is a indication of a bad connecting rod bearing. You may want to check crank end play. Excessive end play indicates a badly worn thrust bearing.

Anyhow, if any excessive play or clanking is noticed....prepare for either a rebuild or a new(used) engine.

 

You said YOU did an oil change, what did the last change look like?

 

Did you change spark plugs recently?