Lost oil pressure and rattling sound

My 2002 Prerunner started losing oil pressure and started making a rattling sound. The noise got louder. Per a mechanics request, I removed the valve cover and was told I would see something out of place. Herein lies my problem, I am not a mechanic therefore do not know what it should look like under there...please help me!

 

If you take some pics and post them, someone here will be able to tell you what you are asking for.

 

Awesome thanx...will do!

 

Definitely post pics

 

Here's a pic

 

Not trying to ruin your day, but lost oil pressure and a rattling sound sounds like the makings for a blown engine. Whatever it is, it probably isn't good.

 

@tcBob

 

She.

Looking at the photo, I don't see anything out of place there.

OP, have you checked the oil and verified it's at the correct level?

 

Do you have oil in your truck?

 

Is that a pic of under the valve cover ?

 

Looks like a pic under a cam cover to me :dunno:

 

Like a said, "I am not a mechanic and what little I know, I've learned on my own." So like one comment that was made, it might be a pic of under the cam cover! I looked to all you geniuses that may have a little or a lot more knowledge of these damn little trucks than I do! I've have been trying to research my problem to no avail. All I know is that the oil pressure light came on, it ran great to my destination and did not lose any oil at all. After having dinner, I came out, started it and heard a faint rattling noise. The noise grew louder, I got on the highway and it didn't really want to shift into 4th; it is an automatic. It did though, but shortly thereafter I started to lose power. So I decided to pull over instead of risking blowing my engine up. Nobody can seem to tell me what is wrong or what exactly may be causing the noise. It is still premature in my investigation. So like I said before, if any of you holier than thou "geniuses" have any helpful ideas of what it may be, I would love to hear your insight! but other than that please refrain.

 

If the oil pressure light is on but it hasn't lost any oil I would guess that the oil pump has failed.

 

So it does have the proper amount of oil? Based on you saying it hadn't lost any, I would assume this was checked. When you started after dinner was the oil light still on? Where did the rattling sound like it was coming from?

 

What a great way to ask for help, eh?

 

I was 'reading' the same thing too. WTF, was that necessary?

 

Could be many things, Clogged oil pick-up screen, failed oil pump, blown crank bearing, etc. Need more data. Where is the noise exactly? Lower engine, upper? Right side, left? Harmonic balancer wigglin all over?

 

You posted a picture of a head with the cam cover off, nothing else, no explanation and now you are posting my response as being a negative one? Not sure about where you are coming from. You're going to want to start with draining the oil and looking at it closely. If you lost oil pressure to the point where you were driving and losing power chances are there is already some real damage done

 

Ok, if this is the way you want to approch this then, here we go.
I'm the one who suggested postign a pic.

Lets start at the simple.
1) Does your oil smell burnt?
2) Replace your oil filter and cut the top off it. (The end with the holes in it)
3) Cut the filter at the top and bottom once you have removed it from the metal shell
4) Open up the pleats and inspect with a light. (I like to spread it out on a white background, papertowels or soon to be dead to me tee shirt). IS there any chunks of metal in there?
5) Go over the spread pleats with a magnet. How much is picked up with the magnet?
6) Take pics and post on here or back on your original thread with the picture under your cam cover
7) Request advise and it will come...

Cheers

 

You're surprised? This is the internet after all. You're GOING to get a mix of satire, helpful stuff, mean douchey stuff, and anything else you can think of.

Most forums (except maybe pirate4x4 - haha) have really helpful people. This site is no exception, there are TONS of really knowlegable people wanting to help. Lashing out at everyone for a couple people being sarcastic isn't helping you.

With 3 different threads on the same topic, none of us are going to keep track of who has answered what, when and where. Keep it to a single thread next time. Maybe you're new to discussion forums and didn't realize it's typical to post the pics in the same thread your original post was it. It's also typical to quote people you are responding to, so they will get a notification that you quoted them and can respond to you.