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Jim
Grant has been working in the automotive industry for over twenty
years. In addition, Jim is an ASE Master Technician with advanced
L/1 certification. He works as manager and technician in his
family's automotive business in New Hampshire. He writes weekly
automotive consumer columns and is editor of an automotive newsletter
that is circulated throughout North America. |
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Jim Grant's Tech Tips
'97 Toyota Tercel, Replacement Engine
Q:
Toyota's
are supposed to run forever, right? So I bought a '97 Tercel with 45k
on it but less than 10k later a cylinder blows and my mechanic says the
cheapest, most reliable way to fix the problem is to drop in an engine
from another Tercel with similar mileage on it. So I did that. My question
now is, was the blown cylinder a fluke or do Tercels have a history of
this? Should I be worrying about the "new" engine blowing a
cylinder? Should I unload the car now while it seems to be running fine?"
A:
Toyota
does make a good vehicle and with the right care will last for the long
haul. But, Toyota's like other vehicles are a machine and machines do
break. When it comes to engine failure I've found it to be very random
on low mileage engines. Something just goes wrong and the engine rips
itself apart. Maintenance is not a factor in these cases and it is unlikely
that there will be a warning , noise, shake or the sound of pending doom.
It just all breaks loose and leaves you with a broken engine. If it were
my vehicle and I liked it a replacement used engine with similar or lower
mileage would suit me fine.
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