Busted

On our way home from a ski trip this past weekend, we heard a loud "boom" and our car started shaking violently. We pulled off the road to check things out. Things looked fine. We could shift between gears so it wasn't the transmission. The vibrations continued in park and neutral, so it wasn't the tires/steering. The temperature/oil lights didn't rise dramatically, so the car was driveable.

So we continued the our 1.5 hour journey home. In overdrive to minimize the vibrations that cause the "check engine light" to come on. And in the right lane. We figured it was an engine mount that blew. We looked up repair costs and they run around $26.

Instead, we learned it was a piston that blew. (Manufacturer's defect that just took this long). I have a 2000 Toyota with 104K miles. Cost to fix? $5000. Cost to sell car "in rough condition"? $5500. I think you're getting the idea of what this means. Looks like my beloved car is toast.

There is an option C... there may be a bad connection rod that blew. If this is the case, they can work on just the one piston instead of the whole thing. That will be considerably less expensive and may give us a lot more miles on the car. Diagnostics are being performed now. Stay tuned...