Oil Pan Drop

[tmontague]

Just a symptom of excess clearance in the cylinder causing the cold piston skirt to slap the cylinder wall. Once warmed up the metals get larger and it goes away.

Cars can have it for well over 5 years and drive fine. You'll just have less compression when cold and increased blow by.

If you had it had you would have a much more urgent thread and you would likely be more concerned due to the loud noise. Drive the car as you normally would and enjoy it for many years to come

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by tmontague

Just a symptom of excess clearance in the cylinder causing the cold piston skirt to slap the cylinder wall. Once warmed up the metals get larger and it goes away.

Cars can have it for well over 5 years and drive fine. You'll just have less compression when cold and increased blow by.

If you had it had you would have a much more urgent thread and you would likely be more concerned due to the loud noise. Drive the car as you normally would and enjoy it for many years to come

Thanks, tmontague! I feel better about it now. Since I've ordered the gasket, I'll probably still take the cover off and check the clearances. If, perchance, one or more are out of spec, I'll make a decision then. This will be a good learning opportunity for me as well as some of the kids in our autoshop.