Questions and Answers

Dirty Oil? Q. Hey, Vince.. I have a 1994 Toyota Tercel, standard body, 4 speed, 1.5 liter 3E engine, 117,000 miles. I'm sure you know the answer to this, as I should myself, but I can't remember what the actual problem(s) could be.

I drive this car daily to work, 90 miles round trip at freeway speeds (70 mph +or-) so I do understand that the engine is working very hard, and performs flawlessly. Since I've owned it, (Oct. 2000) I've changed the oil religiously at 3000 miles for the last 21,000 miles or so.

Here's the problem: upon changing my oil this morning, it appeared somewhat bubbly, and, to my ultimate disappointment, I saw minute metal shavings in the oil. It wasn't there at the last oil change.

Now I know that this isn't good. Is it just a matter of time before my engine dies? Or is there something I can do to save my engine?

Please let me know what to do. It still runs great, & I plan to do whatever I can to keep it running great.

Thanks for any help.
Corey

A. Bubbles in the oil is not good at all. The only way I know of for oil to bubble is if it was overfilled with oil. That engine only holds three quarts of oil with a filter replacement. That engine also has little tolerance for overfilling. Some engines you can overfill by a full quart with no problem.

When you overfill an engine with oil, what happens is the crankshaft hits the oil and it acts like a blender. It puts air into the oil and this air is circulated throughout the engine. Since the air does nothing to lubricate the engine, it wears, causing the metal you're seeing in the pan.

At this point all you can do is make sure the level is correct and hope that there isn't too much damage.

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