Here's my luck… rocker arm put a hole in the valve cover
 

So this first part is to rant about unfortunate events that have happened to me with my car lately.
About 3.5 weeks ago, i am making my morning coffee before heading to work. My girlfriend leaves on her way to work. About 20 seconds after she walks out the door, there is banging at my front door. I open it and there she is, clearly upset saying "Honey! Your car!!!"
Walk outside and what do you know…. someone decided to come through my apartment complex and hit about 5 or 6 cars on purpose. Hit and run. Have not found the person.

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Well, got my car repaired. Came out "ok"… its not perfect. Took 3 weeks to get it repaired.

Now for the current issue (why i posted in this section):

I got it back last Friday (Sept 18th) after work. Saturday morning, get about a mile from my home and hear a clicking sound. Pull over into a parking lot and pop the hood. Hearing a "click click click click click" (VERY LOUD). And then what sounded like a bolt dropping to the ground. I thought "Oh thats nice, the body shop must have left a random bolt in my engine bay". Then i noticed the oil. Oil everywhere. Leave the car parked and have it towed back to the body shop (They had it last, no idea what is going on with my car). They say "its internal to the engine" and they have it towed to the dealer.
Spoke to the technician today. Apparently a rocker arm put a nice hole in my valve cover. He has submitted everything to Toyota and awaiting approval to begin tearing it all down.

Ready for this?….

My car is a 2015. With about 7,100 miles on it. And 100% stock (unless you really feel like counting lowering springs and window tint).

Manual or Automatic?

I'm not mechanically sound in any of this stuff, but posters, in an effort to help, will invariably ask you questions about your shifting habits.

The answers to these questions, if posted here, may give corporate ammunition against your claim.

Did the car come to you with any miles on it? Did the repair shop drive it around? Do you trust said repair shop?

If stuff starts going wrong with the claim, hopefully you can truthfully say that you purchased the car with some miles on it.

Bad string of luck for you, man.

Like I said, I know very little about all this stuff.

It is a manual. Bought the car brand new last December. I think I took delivery of it with 5 miles on it.
My driving/shifting habits are that of any normal driver driving a manual car. This is my daily driver. Hardly ever saw above 4k RPM. (These cars are slow, so I have no desire to drive like I think it is some high performing car). Never raced, never dogged on, never tracked, never anything. And, again, zero modifications. Service was done accordingly at Toyota dealership.
Repair shop was one that my insurance company (USAA) recommended. They did test drive the car after the repair work to be sure that the car was good and ready to come back to me. I think I put about 15 miles on it after I got it back when the rocker shot a hole in the valve cover.

Search the forums this has happened on other cars as well both boosted and naturally aspirated.

From what I read I think the most likely cause is an over rev, however it seems the rocker arms are poorly made and in some cases the rocker pins are off center so it could just as likely be a manufacturing defect.

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Your driving habits are good. It is strange that it happend shortly after you got the car back.

I wonder if the repair man drove it hard and mechanically over-revved it.

If you google: mechnical over rev causes rocker arm failure, you'll see about five spots down on the list that a thread was deleted from this site to protect the OP from saying anything which may deny him a claim.

The main consensus what that this sort of failure tends to happen due to an over rev, hence it is odd with your driving habits that it would fail. This bring to question the repair man who test drove your car.

Possibility

I had my engine replaced due to Rocker arms as well. :) All is well now.

@bur****jp had same issue with rocker arm pin comming loose and rocker punching hole in valve cover

could the accident have some how caused internal engine damage that cause the engine to fail once the car was back on the road??

Too bad about your car getting all messed up in the "accident". Looks like a "good ol boy" in a jacked up pickup truck ran into it....:mad0260:

I too, like @BRZnut, thought the engine may have been jolted during the "accident" and shifted the cam/rocker assembly. But, it doesn't look like there was any (much) damage to the engine block itself. Was there..??

My guess is that the rocker pin failed because of a weakness in the manufacturing process.

I sure hope Toyota makes it right for you .... :)


humfrz

I'd bet money on this. Sickening but common.