Bad Oil Cooler > Engine Failure

Hello folks,

new to the form but came here for advice on the following issue:

I have a 2018 TRD Sprot 4x4 with 126,XXX miles. Bought it brand new with 7 miles on her, never driven hard and babied since day one. Its never really been off-roading I would say. (pavement princess)

Currently it is at Toyota awaiting repair under warranty (fingers crossed) but wanted some insight as I've never heard of this issue.

Start of the problem: 'low oil light' indicator came on pulling into work on a Friday. Checked oil level at lunch, and it was fine but noticed small oil leak when checking under the truck. I was at work so I drove it home that evening after checking the oil level again with no issues. No further indicators came on that night indicating that something was wrong (did not run hot, no 'low oil' indicator light, no smoke from burning oil, nothing). Prepping to leave for the dealership the following Monday we checked the oil level - completely empty. Decided to tow it to the dealership from my driveway due to oil level.

In hopes of the powertrain warranty to cover repairs, the dealership has to breakdown the engine to find the problem. Once they do, we are informed the 'oil cooler' went bad causing an engine catastrophe. The engine is done.

Has anyone heard of this or can offer some insight?

 

Can we get more details here ? You drove the truck in and it worked just fine and they called you telling you the engine is toast?

 

I am bit confused, did the oil light turn off and stay off before you drove home? Was the oil light on that night or while you drove it to the dealer?

You are at 126k miles, what is you warranty length to?

Sorry this happened, it's a very expensive motor and even at auto recyclers is not cheap yet.

 

Hi @maxmk8,

Sorry for the confusion, hope this helps --

Did not drive the truck to the dealership, it was towed from my driveway to the dealership, my choice.

I drove the truck home from work and work is where I gifted with the 'low engine oil' light as I was pulling into the parking lot (Friday). I went out at after lunch to check the oil level (to let it cool) and the oil level was fine. I checked under the truck after checking oil dip stick, notice a small amount of oil. Call my fiancé about it we both agreed that it the oil level was fine that evening to drive home, do it to get it home. Otherwise we would have it towed to make sure nothing further was damaged. I checked it again before leaving work that evening and the oil level was fine, again, and not oil under the truck. We both agreed it was fine. It sat in the driveway all weekend when we decided to take it to the dealership to be looked at Monday. Before starting it we checked the oil and it was near dry. So we had it towed to the dealership.

For powertrain warranty purposes the engine had to be broken down to find the problem to make sure it was powertrain related resulting to the answer the dealership gave us that the oil cooler failed.

 

Hi @Chew

Yes the oil light turned off. It did not stay on just a brief indicator which I thought was odd.
No, oil ight was not on upon towing it to the dealership (we did not start the truck as it was towed.)

Warranty is a lifetime 99,999 mile powertrain warranty or until sold.

Hope this helps.

 

Hope they honor the warranty. Seems liked you lucked out if you did in fact have it. Normally oil cooler failure doesn't lead to engine failure at all... But running it without engine oil would in fact cause catastrophic damage.

The confusing part is ... you didn't seem to notice where the 3+ qtrs of oil went and it didn't seem like you ran it without oil as you checked it multiple times and had it towed once it was empty.

 

There are two "low engine oil" lights,, specifically, low engine oil pressure and low engine oil level.
It sounds as if you drove home with one of the warning lights on, which very well could have been the first warning light (pressure) which could be why the oil level was full, but the motor was still cooked.
how long is warranty active?

 

Yikes, thats the first time i heard of this happening

 

@Chew

Neither one of those lights were light up on the dash. The truck gave nothing other than 'low oil'. (not my photo, just an example) It disappeared on its own before clearing it. Did not reappear on my drive home that night either.

Warranty is a lifetime 99,999 miles or until sold.

 

"Lifetime 99,999 mile warrantee or until sold" sounds to me that as long as you're under 99,999 miles it's under warrantee regardless of age of vehicle but once sold or at 100,000 miles the warrantee is over... I could be wrong but that's how it sounds to me.

 

That's how I understand it as well.

Following this thread to hear the details of what happened/went wrong and the damages. Good luck OP!

 

Since you have 126,000 on it, I would venture to say the warranty is no longer valid since you are over 99,999 miles. Usually dealer offered "lifetime powertrain warranties" are full of loop holes to get the dealer out of any repairs. Our local Toyota dealer offers a free lifetime powertrain warranty but only if that specific dealer performs all maintenance on the truck. It is a crock.

 

According to the dealer the engine is “done,” but you noticed no trouble with the engine when you ran it?

Low oil level is one thing, but if you actually ran it out of oil then it would have had low pressure and that’s when the knocking and other bad damaging noises start due to officially having no oil. Low oil and nothing else is not that alarming, just the leak needs to be fixed.

The dealer saying the engine is done for when you said it drove fine the last time you drove it (home from work Friday as I understand it) seems very fishy.

 

Agreed, warranty is done at 99,999. I’d see at the dealer how they determined it is toast. If you had oil failure it would have been very noisy which you have indicated. Seeing is believing.

 

This sucks.

 

Where did all the oil go? Surprised more people haven't asked that question..

To go from "fine" between the lines to "almost empty" barely touching the stick (Im assuming) is surely a few qts. There has to be oil spots (or pools) in your driveway. Unless there was internal rupture in the cooler and oil mixed with the coolant..? How did the truck sound last time it was running?

 

ahh gotcha, maybe the screen is just generic,, you'd think otherwise though

 

that's what I am wondering, if it lost nearly 6 quarts, there would at least be some smoke, a puddle/trail, and a dramatic noisy end to things. If checked at work and at home, both were found full, and it was then towed from home without driving it, there has to be quarts somewhere.

 

realized I typo-d info about the warranty. Warranty is good for 999,999 miles (not 99,999) or until the truck is sold. I can update in the next few days once we get an update on the warranty. Going to the dealership tomorrow to discuss the breakdown. Was just curious if anyone else here had heard of an issue such as this.

 

no, on what little I have, if the cooler "cracked" and suddenly drained most/all of the oil, I would tend to think damage from an impact like debris or an accident. Again, I don't understand how you checked the oil at home, it was full, then after towing (not driving it) it was empty without having a visible pool of oil under it.