My 2000 Toyota Corolla is making a knocking sound that gets worse when the car is in idle and in drive. I have a feeling that it is dying, but is it unsafe? Any ideas?
At 55 seconds something happened to make the sound change to a lower pitch motor-boat effect. Is that what you are concerned about? What changed at that point? That latter sound to me sounds like when I remove the PCV from my own Corolla’s valve cover to test it.
Are you concerned about the sound of the first 55 seconds, or the last 30 seconds? The first 55 seconds seemed to have some valve train noise, or maybe accessory noise, but it is hard to tell whether it is normal or not by listening on the vdo. Have you tried using a length of garden hose or vacuum hose as a stethoscope to isolate where the problematic noise is originating?
What happened in the last 30 seconds was that I put it in drive
Are you certain the PCV valve is fully seated? Has it been functionally tested by your mechanic? On my Corolla every once in a while I remove the PCV from the valve cover (leaving the hose which goes to the intake manifold attached) and make sure whatever is inside, that it shakes around freely, and that there’s a significant suction when I press my thumb over the end. Ask your mechanic to check it out is probably the first thing to do.
With the engine cool, have someone sit in the car, start it, and put it in DRIVE. Then you feel the engine valve cover and see if you can feel the knocking inside the engine. If you can, that’s very bad.
It probably isn’t dying, but it does need some work.
how many miles are on it?
Has anyone checked for stored fault codes?
When was the last time the sparkplugs were changed?
Are there any other operating symptoms?
It has almost 150,000 miles on it. I’m sure someone can fix it or at least replace some things. The car is pretty worn out though, and either burns up oil and/or leaks badly. I’m not sure putting a large amount of money into it is worth it.
A shop can provide an assessment of the engine’s condition as well as a repair estimate. A compression test and a “read” of the spark plugs might be a good idea before making any decisions.