I purchased a used 2017 4runner at about 90k miles a few years ago. It’s been great up until recently it has developed some sort of tapping noise from the passenger side head area. I’ve checked many times for loose items and haven’t found anything. It appears to make the noise when you are just taking off and the engine is under load at about 1500rpms. I can reproduce the noise by putting it in drive and revving the engine slightly while applying the brake. Changed the plugs recently and one of passenger side plugs looked gunked with oil(it does burn about a quart of oil between changes) and almost looks like detonation from what I can tell. Took it Toyota when it first started happening and they told me it was a normal noise for the 4Runner. It has never thrown any codes. It has about 130k miles now. Any idea what to check or do to figure out what could be making this noise since the dealer was no help?
Here is a link to the pictures of the plugs and a short video of the noise I reproduced sitting still with the vehicle in drive and my foot on the brake.
Thanks for any help
Yeah Toyota always says that's normal sad but true some of those engines they didn't build them perfectly and the valve train inside starts to make noise in the variable valve timing assembly. But sometimes it's just the timing belt tensioner is carboned up inside and not working fully so try my friend Bernie's cleaner from automotive test solutions in Albuquerque New Mexico you just put the stuff in your oil rev it up for 18 minutes then change the oil and filter and it will clean all the carbon out I've seen it stop noises in those
maybe the previous owner did not maintain properly?
Ive gotten a few mechanics opinions on this and it appears to them that it is detonation due to the oil in the cylinder. This cylinder is the only one with oil in the cylinder so I’m inclined to believe it. I suppose it’s either leaking from the valve seals or the oil control rings are having issues. When I noticed the engine was consuming oil originally I tried the BG products EPR a couple of times and it seemed to make no difference. I’m leaning towards the previous owner did not take care of the engine somehow. Carfax shows they took advantage of the oil changes by the dealer until ~60k then there is no history of maintenance. I’m the second owner and it currently has ~132k. I’m not sure if the VVT solenoid would be causing this issue since it’s consuming oil but I do not know enough about these engines. About a 1qt-1.5qts every 5k miles.
I’m at a loss on what to do because if it’s piston ring related it is going to much more involved repair. Any ideas where to start since additives/cleaners aren’t addressing the issue? Just take it a repair shop and hope for the best?