2004 Highlander 120,000 miles

I had my oil changed 500 miles ago. I started the car and the valves sounded like there was no oil. I had it towed to a auto repair shop. He dropped the oil pan to check pump, put a new filter and oil, and the thing is running great now, didn’t do anything but change the filter. Has anyone ever heard of this and do you think I should keep driving the car or trade it off?

When you were waiting for the tow truck did you check the dipstick? If you didn’t, I think you should lease your cars.

What is a dip stick?
Yes,that is the first thing I did.
Do you know why the valves were knocking?

Ok - oltimer_11’s reply was a bit snippy - but I’m almost flagging that post for the “Yes stupid…” thing.

Hang around these boards for a while and you’ll see that there is absolutely no reason to assume that someone would have checked the oil. A common response to that could just as well have been “how do you check the oil?” … and later, “oh, I have to open the hood…”

I’m not saying the response was of any great help but your reaction is nearly flaggable.

What did the guy at the auto repair shop say about it all? Was there a problem with the oil filter and that’s why it was replaced? what was found when the pan was dropped? You didn’t even say that the oil level was good. That is the most obvious to say if you know so much. If you were so “smart” yourself then you’d know enough to give a better description.

The guy at the auto shop heard it rattling too, he checked the oil, did some kind of test on the oil filter, it showed good so he took off the oil pan to see if there was any trash in it to cause the problem. Every thing looked clean so he put it back together, when he tried it it ran good as new. He told me to drive it for a while and keep a close watch on it. I just wondered if anyone has ever had a problem like this? and what would cause it.

It might have been the case that the oil filter that was put on the car had a defective check valve so that the oil was draining back into the oil pan. The valve train may have been starved for oil when you first started the engine. When he replaced the oil filter, he solved the problem.

Thank you very much.
That sounds like a logical answer to my problem, I will just have to wait and see, maybe it will never happen again.