Just last week we had a lady tow her car in for repair. She indicated that the oil light had been flashing the day before but the car ran okay. She told her husband and he told her to take the van to work the next day. Because the van is harder on fuel she drove the Toyota to work in Toronto with the flashing oil light. Driving along at 120 km per hour it started to loose power and then there was sudden shaking vibration and it quit. She said something hot and smoking fell out on the road. Investigation revealed a grapefruit sized hole in the front of the block. When we put the car on the hoist we could see the same size hole on the rear and the broken starter hanging by the battery cable. The plastic shrouding under the car had a big melted hole where a chunk of the connecting rod had gone through.She figured we had done something wrong on the last oil change but when I showed her the oil change sticker with the date and mileage she got a little sheepish.
Checking the oil seemed a strange concept to her and something to be left for us wrench monkeys at the garage.
