1998 Toyota Camry Engine

BRANDY96

MEMBER
1998 TOYOTA CAMRY
4 CYL
AUTOMATIC
215,000 MILES

Today as I was driving down the road I pushed the gas and noticed that my car wasn't accelerating. Previously I have had problems with my car running hot. I thought that was the problem but as I stopped pushing the gas the car begin to make a noise that sounded like something was dragging the ground. As I got out and looked nothing was dragging the ground. I kept cranking my car and it would go but it would not go over 5 mph. Gas was one issue but why is it making a knocking noise? Someone said that it was the motor. My Question is. Is the engine and the motor the same thing? If so could running out of gas make that the reason why it is messed up. The car has oil and water but I am being told that its the motor. Please help

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

If you want to get technical, a motor is run with electricity and an engine is run by burning a fuel, like gasoline, but people use the terms interchangeably when referring to car engines.

Knocking noises are never a good sign, especially when they show up suddenly, but the first thing is to have someone listen to it to tell if it's serious. Loud knocking noises can be caused by damaged connecting rod bearings. Once one of them starts to deteriorate, they fail completely within a few minutes. At the same time the oil pressure will drop to almost 0 psi. You would see that on the dash gauge or warning light. Once this happens, the only thing you'll accomplish by continuing to try to drive the car is to reduce the number of miles you'll have to walk to get help. With low oil pressure, more parts will be damaged and that will make finding a good used engine a better value than trying to rebuild your engine.