Oil sludge 1996 Toyota Tercel. The motor started to knock. The dealership picked up the car and said it was a lack of maintence problem. My husband had done the maintence. The oil looked like sludge. I could not afford to fix the motor so it was reposed and sold at auction for about $3,000. Which left me to pay the difference I am still paying for the car. I was in lpn school and pregnant at the time the car broke down. From what I understood on the lemon law was that the car had to be in the shop 5 times for the same condition before the lemon law would apply. I almost miscarried my third child and was advised by my doctor to get rid of my stress so I dropped out of school and forgot about the car. I have been reading about the Toyota oil sludge problem and I believe that is what happened to my car. Here is the list of problems that my car had. 11-20-97 O-ring and seal, 12-15-97 transmission leak, front pump seal, O-ring, rr transmission axle and replace O-ring, torque converter, 2-25-98 slow to lock into reverse when cold and was low in fluid (dealership could not find the problem), 3-17-98 slow to lock into reverse again (dealership could not find the problem), 11-98 damage to valve steam seals, waved surface on top of cylinder boor, piston striking cylinder head, spun #4 rod bearing, crank shaft damaged, #4 connecting rod damaged, oil pump pick-up tube screen plugged with sludge build up, cylinder head and oil pan sludge build up. I could not afford to pay for a new motor or for a car that did not run. Toyota dropped my warranty. My husband had changed the oil. The car never got hot. The oil looked almost like black glue. The car gave me no indication that anything was wrong. I was on my way to school and it started making a loud knocking sound so I called the dealership and they came and towed it. Toyota has offered to fix some of the Toyota's with the Toyota oil sludge problem starting with the 97 but mine was a 96.

- Sims, AR, USA