93 Camry Motor Locked

[ClearHooter]

A friend of mine has a 93 Camry with a 4 cyl, auto. The other day his son was going up a pretty steep grade and said the motor jumped up to 5000 rpm. On the next grade she just stopped. He said the temp got hot but not from the cooling system. When they tried to turn the engine by hand it wouldn't budge. I put a wrench on the crank bolt a day later and tried to turn it with no better results. He said when it stopped he checked the oil and could see metallic particles in the oil. When I looked at it naturally they had all settled into the pan. But the oil did smell burned. We removed the plugs and checked the piston positions and they seem to be correct; so nothing actually let go internally and locked up. I've concluded about the only thing that could have caused such a catostrophic seazure would have been an oil pump failure. Its a given the motor "ain't no good no more." They got a pretty good deal from a salvage yard of $900.00 for an engine with 78,000 miles and R&R. I was just wondering if oil pump failure is something that may be common with this particular engine? My old 1980-1800cc Corolla has over 635,000 miles on it and I've never been into it. Not even to change the timing components. I know this is an exceptional motor but this Camry only had 165,000 on it. Has Yota taken a giant step backward in durability since the old days? I don't know what kind of oil they were running but I know it wasn't a Penn. Crude. Just courious about these engines. Thanks in advance.

[DFBonnett]

Nothing is generically wrong with those engines. It was either an anomaly or Junior isn't being 100% forthcoming about the chain of events leading to the failure. My money is on the latter.

[ClearHooter]

Originally Posted by DFBonnett

Nothing is generically wrong with those engines. It was either an anomaly or Junior isn't being 100% forthcoming about the chain of events leading to the failure. My money is on the latter.

I told my friend stuff don't happen like that without noise of somekind. But in the kids defense this is a bear of a hill. It takes many a car out on the way up. We call it "Saluda Grade." I-26 just outside of Saluda, NC. Anyone that reads this that's ventured up it will testify to its varasity. I asked if the AC worked and it didn't. So the windows were down, the radio was on at least loud enough to overcome the road and wind noise and his girl friend was beside him. His dad was in front of him in another vehicle so it wasn't like he was trying to see how fast he could make it up the hill. Given what I've seen over the years I could only conclude an oil pump went out. From the looks of the posts and by what you say its good to know there's nothing inherently wrong with the motors.

[DFBonnett]

If you ever determine the cause it would be great if you posted back here. I think a lot of those who read and post here would be most interested.

[Brian R.]

Under those circumstances, if something like a rod didn't let go, then it must be coolant or oil.

[ClearHooter]

He's already took the car to get the engine R&R. Its doubtful they will tear into it to find the crux of problem. If they do and I find out I'll definately post the results. I ALWAYS try and end with an outcome. Thanks

[ClearHooter]

Don't suppose we'll ever know for sure what happened. The shop naturally wasn't courious enough to spend time and man-hours to unbutton the engine to find out.

I'm still faulting the oil pump. It was suggested a head gasket but there wasn't any water in the cylinders nor had the coolant or oil mixed with each other. Though the engine did heat up the radiator didn't. For it to lock the way it did had to be a bearing seizure or rings or pistons melting to cylinder walls in my humble opinion. The reason nothing was heard was the windows were down, the radio was on.........loud and the boy's mind was on this goooood lookin' babe sittin beside him. Its that old tree falling in the forest thing. It still makes a sound but there's just no one there to hear it. Hopefully the salvage engine will last $900.00 worth.

[Toysrme]

I'm faulting the maintenance & oil pick-up (I.E. not enough oil level in the engine for going up a steep grade.) I've seen one Toyota oil pump fail in person in the last 5 years, and only a handful online. The odds are just very, very long.
No point in looking inside a siezed 4 cylinder engine when there are 30 million copies of it in junkyards to be hand for literally $100-150 bucks.





Engine's sieze when their bearings have been run so long without oil they overheat & fuse together. A headgasket would not be at fault in this particular sintuation. He'd have had a billowing stack of coolant, and or blue smoke from massive coil consumption & coolant loss.