How does this car throw a rod?

SANSME

MEMBER
TOYOTA 4RUNNER

My car is a '95 Toyota 4-Runner, 2-wheel drive with 160,000 miles. We bought the car a couple of months ago very cheap beause it needed major repairs. We took it to the local Toyota dealership and told them to fix everything. It ended up costing $4000 but they told it was the engine was like new. Yesterday it threw a rod, no warning at all. The dealership is now telling us that it will cost $5900 for a new engine with labor. Well, the car's not worth that, but I just wonder why a car that is supposed to be like new would throw a rod. Every single oil leak was fixed, not to metion valve cover gaskets and who knows what all. I have 4 pages of repairs. Is there any way at all that this could be their fault by either not fixing something they should have or by not telling us something they should have?

1 Reply

BACKYARDMECHANIC

MECHANIC
337 POSTS

Any engine with 160,000 miles is not like new no matter how many new parts you install unless you did a total rebuild on the motor. This would include but not limited to at least new rods and rod bearings. You also mention that the car had several oil leaks when you got the car which leads me to believe the engine was operated either with little or no oil at one time or another. Running a car with little or no oil can cause bearing failure. I hope this helps.