Hello, I have a 2000 Camry that I believe has suffered a catastrophic failure of the piston and/or ring(s) but I am still grasping at any ideas that will provide hope to the contrary.

I was accelerating out of a driveway onto a main road in the rain. I was experiencing a bit of wheelspin but nothing I'm sure any reader hasn't felt at one time or another. All of a sudden the car started vibrating very hard. I thought I had popped a tire or something. It actually felt worse than a flat tire, more like a separated belt or something that would cause a lump on the outside of the tire.

Anyway I swerved back and forth a few times and it didn't feel like suspension. Then I came to a stop and the vibration was still there, so I knew it was in the engine. It felt like it was missing, probably on more than one cylinder. There's also a slight knock. I have no idea what rod knock or a broken ring sound like, but it could definitely be it.

I drove it home, maybe about a mile, and started pulling stuff off.

I am a very wishful thinker. At first I hoped maybe it was a motor mount. Nope. Maybe a slipped tooth on the timing belt? I wish.

Finally bit the bullet and pulled the front three plugs. Leftmost one (passenger side) and middle one were soaked in oil. Driver's side one was fine, maybe showing signs of being a little hot.

Peering down through the holes into the cylinders, the leftmost one has a puddle of oil on it. The middle one is quite wet with oil. I know it's oil because I stuck an extension down there and it's the same oil as on the dipstick.

The oil is Castrol Syntec 0w30. For you tribophiles, yes, the mystical German Castrol. Just changed the oil a few days ago.

I didn't notice on the way home but I had a friend start it in the driveway and there's a decent amount of white smoke coming from the exhaust. In tonight's research I found out that synthetic oil burns white, so it's burning oil.

It's gotten dark and started raining, so no time to do a compression test, but I am hoping that it will show maybe a breach of the head gasket between the two cylinders with a corresponding breach of one of the oil passages. Not much hope but it's possible.

The intake gasket does not seal any oil passages so that's out.

The PCV inlet is right near the runners for those two cylinders. But the chances of THAT much oil getting sucked into JUST those two cylinders is slim to none IMO.

The engine hasn't been overheating. I will admit to running 87 octane, while the manual suggests 89. But it shouldn't cause damage, just slightly retarded timing.

The only other area that I can think of that can allow oil into the combustion chamber is the valve guides, but I pulled the valve cover off and oil is not pooling up there. For the engine to go from no symptoms to puddle of oil, I highly doubt it could be valvular (you like that word coinage?) but again, one can only hope.

The car has some cosmetic collision damage and I can't imagine anyone paying more than ~$4500 for it before this issue so I am thinking that if the problem is below the head, it's time for a new car. I'll do a head gasket but not an engine overhaul or a junkyard engine. A brand new engine is out of the question IMO.

I'll keep you posted, and feel free to ask questions/offer recommendations and/or condolences!

Either you got some broken rings (along with probable piston wall scoring) or your valve stem seals & guides failed causing oil to soak the plugs and prevent normal firing.

However, usually you don't get two failures right at the same time, so I would also suspect a head gasket failure, allowing coolant into the cylinders (also can cause white exhaust smoke). Look into your coolant reservior and radiator and check for an oily sheen on top of the surface...dead giveaway to a failed head gasket.

Synthetic oil burns white. There is no oily sheen in the rad overflow nor under the rad cap.

I think it's a broken ring or broken piston.

After doing some research-- http://oilgelsettlement.com/

I think I have a case for a new engine at Toyota's cost. I believe the oil change dislodged some of the built up sludge, blocking one or more oil passages.

One of my main reasons for thinking this is that the PCV valve is crusted shut with gritty sludge (meaning it doesn't pass the rattle test). It was fine ~8000 miles ago.

Update: One of the pistons just grenaded. Had to pay Toyota $400 to tell me the car is totalled.

"Toyota Service" is an oxymoron. I can't believe some of the stuff those service writers try to pull. Whatever.