Rav4, 170K miles, connecting rod noise

ws1511

Was looking at buying a 2010 Rav4 with about 170K miles. Looked pretty good aside from needing new rear wheel bearings. Wanted a mechanic to take a look, so the seller dropped the car off Wednesday night at a local mechanic’s for a Thursday morning check-up. After sitting out all night there was a rattling noise in the engine in the morning on startup—very brief, then seemed to go away. Mechanic is 100% sure it’s the connecting rod. He said to me: “I don’t know if this engine will last 5000, 10000 miles, or more, but it’s going.”

Haven’t dealt with such a serious issue but this was a bummer after investing a lot of time in this car (good though, if we indeed caught a serious problem problem). Seller and I had been talking about selling for $4.5K—seller is now willing to go down to $4K. My priority is something reliable though, so think this is too much of a gamble.

Any thoughts? Any similar experiences?

jmonroe1

ws1511 said:

Was looking at buying a 2010 Rav4 with about 170K miles. Looked pretty good aside from needing new rear wheel bearings. Wanted a mechanic to take a look, so the seller dropped the car off Wednesday night at a local mechanic’s for a Thursday morning check-up. After sitting out all night there was a rattling noise in the engine in the morning on startup—very brief, then seemed to go away. Mechanic is 100% sure it’s the connecting rod. He said to me: “I don’t know if this engine will last 5000, 10000 miles, or more, but it’s going.”

Haven’t dealt with such a serious issue but this was a bummer after investing a lot of time in this car (good though, if we indeed caught a serious problem problem). Seller and I had been talking about selling for $4.5K—seller is now willing to go down to $4K. My priority is something reliable though, so think this is too much of a gamble.

Any thoughts? Any similar experiences?

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That mechanic might be right. But, I’d like to see it sit out on a cool night at least a few more times which you probably don’t have the luxury of doing. Given what you know so far I wouldn’t want the car.

Don’t let the cost of the inspection bother you, that was info you had to pay to get so you didn’t end up buying a bucket of bolts. Just swallow hard and look at another car.

Good luck.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

The cost of the inspection just saved you $4,000. Be happy and move on to the next one.

stickguy

you paid for the inspection for a reason. Potentially heading off a very expensive mistake. Be glad you did, and keep looking. Even if it was a different problem (something like loose timing gear) that is still a major problem.

roadburner

Yep- keep looking...