Engine issues?
 

When you lifted the hood where did you see the smoke coming from. Did it smell like antifreeze or oil or rubber burning. Was there any fluid on the ground. What did your temperature gauge say. Did you get a check engine light. Have you checked your oil and is it full. I would not start it and have it towed to your dealer as you might do more damage.

Hey jagtoes,

I didn't lift the hood, and I didn't check for fluid on the ground, unfortunately. I did get it towed to the dealer without starting it, to prevent further damage.

It did smell like burning oil or rubber in the inside of the car until about 5 minutes after turning off the engine (when the smoke also stopped). Perhaps it could be oil-related, but I got it checked maybe 2 months ago, so I'd be surprised.

Any ideas as to what could lead to the gas pedal not accelerating the car, and causing that engine click noise instead?

sounds like you lost compression
but i am hesitant to alarm you for perhaps unnecessary worries
just wait until they can look at it

Do you have any record of the VVT oil hose being replaced. This was a problem with the early year cars and it had a TSB out to replace them. When this hose blows the engine timing doesn't work correctly and could affect drive-ability. There would be oil over part of the engine.

I agree. It's very much likely the hose has ruptured

Hey everyone, I got the [short] description of what the dealer said. Apparently the engine was leaking coolant, and that damaged the engine. They said the car would require an engine replacement. They quoted $6k (including labor) for a relatively new engine with 9000 miles on it.

My follow-up question is: does that seem reasonable? Does it seem possible/a good idea to talk to another mechanic to see if they could find a cheaper used engine? I've been searching online and it seems there are many in the $1500 range with ~50k miles. That seems like even with labor, that would be a better deal than $6k.

Any thoughts?

Apparently you failed to mention that you didn't look at your temperature gauge and you cooked your engine.

I would shop around to independent shops for locating and installing a used engine as they should be a few thousand cheaper than a dealer. Find an independent Toyota specialist.

Think about it as he made his own bed . By pointing it out maybe others who don't pay attention will see that a normal check or a glance at their gauge will save them $6K. It's pay me now or pay me later story.

There are conditions where the temp gauge will show normal, yet the engine is overheating. The temp gauge measures the coolant temp. If you lose coolant fast enough, the temp gauge may never indicate hot because the coolant stops making contact with the temp sensor.

I've always wondered way cars don't have an audible alarm for such important conditions as low voltage, low amperage output, and high coolant temperature. Idiot lights can be easily overlooked - the component can go bad right after you look down on a gauge and it can only take a few minutes for an engine to overheat before you next pay attention to a gauge. For this reason, I recently bought an UltraGauge for my Tacoma that has audible alarms for these conditions and many others. On top of it, it will display ATF temps.

jtrivedi, that's a bummer what you are going through.

Sorry you are wrong. The temp sensor measures HEAT and doesn't care if it is liquid or air. The 1st sign of the problem is smoke which will not destroy the engine if it is shut off. Some cars have 2 sensors . One for the gauge and one for the ECU to adjust the fuel injectors as well as coolant fans and other controls. If either one fails you will also get an MIL on the dash so besides the gauge going to red ith engine light comes on.

It was here on these forums that I first heard about temp sensors not accurately reading hot air.

"When there is a coolant leak or the engine has a blown head gasket the sensor can be fooled because of the air or exhaust trapped in the cooling system which the sensor cannot read. This is why certain conditions can exist that will be puzzling to the car's driver for example; it is obvious the engine is overheating due to the steam being produced from under the hood but the temperature gauge will read cold with no temperature warning light on. This is because the sensing part of the sensor does not have coolant around it so there is nothing to read."
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/ho...e-sensor-works