Guys -
Strange situation. A friend is looking at a used car, and brought it by for my opinion. It's an '06 Toyota Corolla in good shape and with low mileage (120K km) for the year. It's been owned by the same couple for the past eight years, and although they didn't seem to be mechanically-inclined, they were very nice people who had taken good care of the car. I drove the car and quite liked it - it's solid, and drives nicely.
The only concern I had was something I'd never seen before - the baffle just under the oil filler cap had been pushed down and had contacted something steel that rotates, either part of a camshaft or something driven off a camshaft. The baffle had worn through, and although I don't think there was still any metal-on-metal contact going on, obviously there had been. The engine sounded fine.
It's hard to tell when this would have happened. The oil had been changed regularly, but typically at a franchised oil-change place rather than at a garage or the dealer. I suspect someone put in a metal funnel and pushed it down so it wouldn't tip.
My concern is that the wear on the baffle could have resulted in some relatively large particles of metal getting into the engine and perhaps damaging a bearing or scoring a cylinder wall. The owners said the car didn't use oil between changes, but if the incident was recent (perhaps at the time of the oil change just a few days ago) there may have been damage done that hasn't shown up yet.
So, is it likely the engine has been damaged by this? Should my friend still consider the car? It is in good shape otherwise, and equipped pretty much as he'd like, including a manual transmission.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts about this!
Strange situation. A friend is looking at a used car, and brought it by for my opinion. It's an '06 Toyota Corolla in good shape and with low mileage (120K km) for the year. It's been owned by the same couple for the past eight years, and although they didn't seem to be mechanically-inclined, they were very nice people who had taken good care of the car. I drove the car and quite liked it - it's solid, and drives nicely.
The only concern I had was something I'd never seen before - the baffle just under the oil filler cap had been pushed down and had contacted something steel that rotates, either part of a camshaft or something driven off a camshaft. The baffle had worn through, and although I don't think there was still any metal-on-metal contact going on, obviously there had been. The engine sounded fine.
It's hard to tell when this would have happened. The oil had been changed regularly, but typically at a franchised oil-change place rather than at a garage or the dealer. I suspect someone put in a metal funnel and pushed it down so it wouldn't tip.
My concern is that the wear on the baffle could have resulted in some relatively large particles of metal getting into the engine and perhaps damaging a bearing or scoring a cylinder wall. The owners said the car didn't use oil between changes, but if the incident was recent (perhaps at the time of the oil change just a few days ago) there may have been damage done that hasn't shown up yet.
So, is it likely the engine has been damaged by this? Should my friend still consider the car? It is in good shape otherwise, and equipped pretty much as he'd like, including a manual transmission.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts about this!