“Knocking Sound” ‘00 Tacoma

Hey all, I’m in the market now for a 1st gen Taco. Found a 4x4 near me on Craigslist with 185k, and 1 owner. The owner says that it has a “knocking sound” in the engine and they’ve decided to buy a new car instead of fix it up. It’s got a 3.4l V6 manual and the owner hasn’t stated the timing belt has been done again. Could the knocking sound just be that the timing belt/water pump needs to be redone?
Should I take it into a shop to look before? Or should I just have a look at it. I’m willing to put about $1000 into it to fix up and issues because it’s listed at so cheap.

what are your thoughts?

 

Does it smoke? Is there sludge in the oil cap? Is the coolant frothy? How much are they asking? Have you driven it? Is it a dog?

 

All good questions. The main questions I would ask myself before buy a truck are:

Is the frame solid and rust-free?
Are there signs of a blown HG or gas in the cooling system?
Does it burn oil (blue smoke in exhaust)?

You should go check it out yourself. Even if it sounds like ass, you'll have a benchmark to compare the engine to others that you may check out.

 

Of course with the frame. Here I’ve linked a reddit post asking mechanics for their take. It’s a video of the thudding. https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanics/...urce=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

That is more of a tapping. I'm not an expert but possibly needs a value job?

 

Value job?

 

valve.. sorry

 

Sounds like my subaru before it blew up. Maybe a misfire. Any check engine lights? If it is a misfire, it could be anything as simple as a spark plug, coil pack, plug wires, or fuel injector. Or it could be something more mechanical in the engine.

 

Sounds like wrist pin knock.


Time for a new motor

 

Uh oh.... but for 3-4K, is it worth a go?

 

If the trucks decently clean, these engines are pretty simple to swap, can be had for ~1k plus whatever you want to do maintenance wise (rear main and t belt at least I’d say)

 

To me, that engine sounds bad. Rod knock. New engine, but I’m not a mechanic. When the valves needed adjustment on my 1994 4cyl, it sounded like a small tick.

Like Empty_Lord said, you can probably find a decent engine to swap for around 1k.

 

Don’t need to be a mechanic. lol, valve ticks typical are not nearly that loud. A double “knock” like that is almost always a bad wrist pin.

 

the knocking sound is it injector knocking. or like a rattle knock maybe motor mounts are worn casuing rattle, could be a lot of things