Oil Light On For A Milli Second And A Clicking Noise!

August 26, 2009

Hey all. Was on my regular drive into work. Got around a rounabout corner and the oil light came on for a what appeared to be a milli-second. It went off instantly. Then half a mile later as I was rolling into the car park I started hearing a clicking noise coming from the engine bay. Originally thought it sounded like abit of plastic trim vibrating against the drive belt but didn't see anything obvious. Need to check the oil once the car has cooled down but the clicking noise seems to be on initial throttle application upto around 2k RPM.

.....any thoughts?

Sarf

August 27, 2009

Yeah, you'll find barely any oil on the stick.

When you went around the corner the oil sloshed to one side and the strainer came out of the oil. This means the engine was sucking air and you lost oil pressure. This caused the oil light to flicker on.

If you're lucky the noise is the chain. It is tensioned by hydraulic pressure so if there's air in the sysyem the chain could be slapping.

If you're unlucky you've blown the engine and you're hearing the bearings chew themselves up

August 27, 2009

My guess is you have a pre face lift model (99-02). Keeping the Oil topped up is crucial to avoid internal damage due to oil starvation. Hopefully it won't be too expensive to repair, but could involve replacing the Crankshaft Bearings.

August 28, 2009

General rule of thumb with a 140bhp celica gen7 is check the oil every fortnight. Me personally i'd check it every week as im quite anal about stuff like like.

Top it right up with fresh oil ASAP before driving it any further. It could be that damage has been done.

September 16, 2009

Yep its a pre face lift model with the cursed oil issue. Engine was rebuilt but it seems to have minimised the issue rather than eradicate it.

Just to update, the big end bearings were damaged from the oil starvation. Pretty sure the Toyota dealership did not replace my oil or oil filter on the last service but whats done is done.

Got the bearings re-shelled. The crank was only replaced recently in a rebuild so looked in good condition so not a big job. Very irratating that I ignored checking the oil regularly as I've been pretty careful with it but thought nothing of it after the engine rebuild. Kept checking the oil and it was fine until the car was serviced very recently.

Car seems to be back to running fine, just need to be abit more regular with the oil checks.