Loud clanking from engine compartment?
07-03-2018, 08:16 AM
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Loud clanking from engine compartment?
Hey Everyone!
I have a 1997 3.4L v6 4Runner with 300,000 miles on it. I bought it with about 250,000, so I'm not totally sure it's history. It has been running great up until now with the exception of a little squirting noise coming from the dash when I accelerate sometimes.
My wife was driving it on the interstate about a week ago when it started steaming a lot of white/clear steam and spitting up some kind of white liquid all over the hood. After this happened, I got it towed back to my house where I took a look at it.
I found a large crack on the top of the radiator about 5 inches long where it had busted, and a white sludge inside the radiator cap. To find the crack, I dumped water into the radiator and ran it with the cap on for only thirty seconds before the crack became very pronounced.
I'm not quite as handy as some, so I had accidentally left the keys in the ignition afterwards and ran the battery dead overnight. When I went back out to jump it with my civic, hoping to drive it with water in the radiator to someone's garage and change the radiator, something even worse started. A loud clanking is coming from the engine compartment. It sounds like there is a wrench bouncing around in the top of the engine itself, not the transmission. It's very pronounced, sharp, high pitched, and sounds dreadful.
Other things that may be noteworthy: the engine oil is normal, though it had just come up on it's time for a change and it was a little on the low side (it burns a little.) The transmission fluid looks normal although about two inches high on the stick for checking it cold. When I first brought it back then had to move it (off, in neutral when I rolled it down the driveway to get it flat,) it had leaked about a 6x6 puddle of either dirty oil or transmission fluid. It had a red tinge to it.
Any thoughts on where the clanking could be coming from? Is my beloved 4Runner doomed?
Thanks!!
I have a 1997 3.4L v6 4Runner with 300,000 miles on it. I bought it with about 250,000, so I'm not totally sure it's history. It has been running great up until now with the exception of a little squirting noise coming from the dash when I accelerate sometimes.
My wife was driving it on the interstate about a week ago when it started steaming a lot of white/clear steam and spitting up some kind of white liquid all over the hood. After this happened, I got it towed back to my house where I took a look at it.
I found a large crack on the top of the radiator about 5 inches long where it had busted, and a white sludge inside the radiator cap. To find the crack, I dumped water into the radiator and ran it with the cap on for only thirty seconds before the crack became very pronounced.
I'm not quite as handy as some, so I had accidentally left the keys in the ignition afterwards and ran the battery dead overnight. When I went back out to jump it with my civic, hoping to drive it with water in the radiator to someone's garage and change the radiator, something even worse started. A loud clanking is coming from the engine compartment. It sounds like there is a wrench bouncing around in the top of the engine itself, not the transmission. It's very pronounced, sharp, high pitched, and sounds dreadful.
Other things that may be noteworthy: the engine oil is normal, though it had just come up on it's time for a change and it was a little on the low side (it burns a little.) The transmission fluid looks normal although about two inches high on the stick for checking it cold. When I first brought it back then had to move it (off, in neutral when I rolled it down the driveway to get it flat,) it had leaked about a 6x6 puddle of either dirty oil or transmission fluid. It had a red tinge to it.
Any thoughts on where the clanking could be coming from? Is my beloved 4Runner doomed?
Thanks!!
07-03-2018, 12:24 PM
#2
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Welcome to YotaTech!
The noise you describe does not sound good....
Do you know if the engine overheated when the steam came out under the hood? If so, how badly was the engine overheated?
How low was the oil? One quart or less? A couple quarts?
Noises are hard to diagnose over the internet since we cannot hear it ourselves and cannot pinpoint the noise.
Can you take a video of the noise and post it up here?
To pinpoint where the noise is coming from, you can take a long screw driver and place the tip on a surface near where you think the noise is coming from and put the other end to your ear. The screwdriver will help transmit the sound so you can hear when the noise gets louder or quieter.
07-03-2018, 12:51 PM
#3
Did you open the hood and attempt to see, hear, feel where the clanking is coming from?
07-04-2018, 07:24 AM
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Update!
Hello Everyone!
I've never used a forum like this before, so it's really refreshing that everyone responded so quickly. I really appreciate it!! Here's what happened when I hooked it back up to some jumper cables and started it again.
...no horrible impending doom clanking noise. It sounded normal. I'm going to post some pictures of the transmission fluid dipstick, a picture of the radiator crack, and the engine oil dipstick. Not quite sure how to relate the dipstick level to how many quarts over/under it is, so I thought some pictures could help.
To answer Rad4Runner's questions; I do not know if the engine overheated. My wife was driving it and just wanted to make sure that her and her sister got out safe, and she's not too car knowledgeable either so she didn't think to check. She says she wishes she could be more helpful! I do know that I ran it for about ten minutes today at idle without overheating (with the radiator cap on, water in the radiator and the reserve.) But, my wife was driving it at 70mph on the interstate, so it's definitely possible. Lastly, the noise is not happening now so I couldn't narrow it down, but it was SO loud that I could hardly talk to another person standing next to me over it, and it sounded like it was coming from the top of the engine (I did have the hood open when I walked around to look real quick during the noise,) but past that I wish I had taken a video the first time. I honestly shut it off as fast as possible because the noise was so crazy sounding I didn't want to do anymore irreparable damage. I can say that I can't find any videos on youtube that sound like it, it was not a click, squeak, rattle, or cough. It was a full bodied and frequent banging.
The first pic the trans oil is about half a tick mark below the bottom end of the hot line (and this is once the engine had been warmed up.)
The second pic is the engine oil. I was going to put up the hot and cold pics, but this is the engine warmed up and you can see the oil is right between where is should be when cold.
The third pic is the spot where the red tinged fluid had leaked out a few days ago, I didn't know if that could be useful for how much had leaked out.
The fourth is the large crack in the top of the radiator.
My video wouldn't upload, so I'll try starting it later to see if it makes the noise and make sure it's a shorter video so it meets the size requirements.
I've never used a forum like this before, so it's really refreshing that everyone responded so quickly. I really appreciate it!! Here's what happened when I hooked it back up to some jumper cables and started it again.
...no horrible impending doom clanking noise. It sounded normal. I'm going to post some pictures of the transmission fluid dipstick, a picture of the radiator crack, and the engine oil dipstick. Not quite sure how to relate the dipstick level to how many quarts over/under it is, so I thought some pictures could help.
To answer Rad4Runner's questions; I do not know if the engine overheated. My wife was driving it and just wanted to make sure that her and her sister got out safe, and she's not too car knowledgeable either so she didn't think to check. She says she wishes she could be more helpful! I do know that I ran it for about ten minutes today at idle without overheating (with the radiator cap on, water in the radiator and the reserve.) But, my wife was driving it at 70mph on the interstate, so it's definitely possible. Lastly, the noise is not happening now so I couldn't narrow it down, but it was SO loud that I could hardly talk to another person standing next to me over it, and it sounded like it was coming from the top of the engine (I did have the hood open when I walked around to look real quick during the noise,) but past that I wish I had taken a video the first time. I honestly shut it off as fast as possible because the noise was so crazy sounding I didn't want to do anymore irreparable damage. I can say that I can't find any videos on youtube that sound like it, it was not a click, squeak, rattle, or cough. It was a full bodied and frequent banging.
The first pic the trans oil is about half a tick mark below the bottom end of the hot line (and this is once the engine had been warmed up.)
The second pic is the engine oil. I was going to put up the hot and cold pics, but this is the engine warmed up and you can see the oil is right between where is should be when cold.
The third pic is the spot where the red tinged fluid had leaked out a few days ago, I didn't know if that could be useful for how much had leaked out.
The fourth is the large crack in the top of the radiator.
My video wouldn't upload, so I'll try starting it later to see if it makes the noise and make sure it's a shorter video so it meets the size requirements.
07-04-2018, 02:04 PM
#6
Upload video to youtube and share link here.
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