Hello everyone, I have a 2007 s40 I just got in January, it currently has 126k miles on it. A couple of weeks ago I was driving and thought my car was making noise, it was a LOUD clicking noise going in a rythym and my first thought was a flat tire. I got off the freeway and realized it was still going when I parked with the engine still running and opened the hood, it's coming from the engine. The noise got louder when I accelerated and only stops or lessens in neutral. It's a LOUD head-turning noise. A good Samaritan felt sorry for me I guess and pulled over for me and told me it could be there that was not enough oil. My oil was low but not that low. He suggested I add the Lucas oil additive to it and if that didn't work then my engine is messed up. Sadly adding the lucas oil didn't work, I took it to get an oil change and the mechanics there said changing the oil wouldn't fix anything and I'm better off getting a new engine. So my car has been sitting in my spot since then, I haven't moved it while I figure out what to do.

I'd like to add that my car burned oil. After 3 months of owning it, my oil light turned on. I added oil, got an oil change, light went away. This kept happening, every 2 months around the 3k mile mark or even sooner, my car would tell me that the oil pressure was low so I'd add more oil until I could get an oil change. I thought this was weird because there are no leaks. The mechanic I took it to when it was making the noise told me the engine had already been corroding since before I bought it thanks to the previous owners not keep up with oil changes. I haven't taken it to another mechanic yet because I really really don't want to drive it, it sounds like it will blow up if I go over 30 or 40 mph so freeways are out so it's really nerve wracking.

My question is how much will it take to fix this?? Will I have to do an engine swap? From what I've heard this can cost up to 2-3k $ . Someone who is not a mechanic said it sounded like the pistons?? I don't know anything about cars except what I can learn by these forums. I'd just like to hear your thoughts, suggestions!

 

You ran the car out of oil multiple times so the tapping noise you're hearing is probably a bearing noise.

Probably true given how much oil your engine is burning.

That or an engine rebuild.

 

Suggest you start by doing a compression test on the engine.
That will give some idea of the general state of the engine itself in relation to pistons, piston rings, valves and the cylinder head assembly etc.
You should get your fault codes read also as that indicates the most prevalent issues that exist and narrow down the most important ones.

 

A mechanic came today to check it out and all I had to do was turn it on and he knew it was screwed. He said it was the rods?? He quoted me 1700 for an engine and 2300 for parts and labor does this sound correct?

He also said the engine I buy has to be a specific VIN number for it to work and talked about coding in the computer?? I'm pretty bummed out I need to come up with the money, it's not paid off yet and he said I won't get more than 3000 for it in the condition that it's in.

 

Connecting rod bearing. No surprise.

So will you check the engine oil level regularly using the dipstick on your next engine? Have you learned that the oil light is an oil PRESSURE light and not an oil level light? And do you understand what that means?

 

I was checking the oil regularly especially when the light came on but the mechanics that were changing my oil simply wrote it off as the car just burning oil. But this new guy said it was the oil pump not working properly if that's what you mean?? But now I do know that burning so much oil is NOT normal!

 

sounds like your oil pump scavenger got clogged and your oil pressure went low and starved the bearings. Its likely you need a complete engine rebuild (aka replacement) - but you may be able to drop the oil pan and inspect/replace some of the rod bearings as well as checking the oil pump to get some small amount of service life out the engine but it's likely damaged. I had the oil pump fail on my 2012 VW CC due to metal bits in the pick up. Car only had 48K miles and total dealer maintenance so I got a new $9000 engine under warranty. The only way the dealer figured out the cause was to drop the oil pan and inspected the pump.