02 Suddenly started pouring oil.

My wife was driving my 02 Tacoma, when she said it made a loud thud noise and started shaking like it had a flat tire. She pulled over saw oil very steadily dripping under the passenger side of the engine. By the time i got there 10 min. later, the puddle was about 12 in in diameter. i checked the oil level on the dip stick and it was still showing a normal level. I will have it towed to a mechanic Monday, but I am scared to death it has thrown a rod or something. It only has about 105,000 miles and I have religiously changed the oil. Any ideas what might have happened?

 

Can you see where the oil is/was leaking from?

 

Losing that much oil is never a "good" thing, where is your oil filter ?

 

The oil filter is still intact and shows no signs of oil loss in that area. l could not tell exactly where it was coming from because it had sprayed everywhere on the passenger side of the engine below the manifold.

 

Do you have a 4cyl or a 6?

 

How's the steering?

 

This is a 6 cyl. and the steering hasn't been effected.

 

Well... if it "sprayed" that means it's under pressure, I would check the EGR valve if your model has one. If not think where pressure would be, heads, valve covers, oil pan, etc. Be sure to check the fan, it could be blowing the oil from some place and make it look worse.