general problems of the 2000 Toyota Corolla

I was driving down the highway at approximately 55 mph when my car started to accelerate by itself. I stepped on the brakes until they smoked, but the car continued to accelerate. I was so scared I was afraid to try and turn around to get to the nearest mechanic so I continued home which is a straight line and riding the brakes the entire way approximately 3 miles, got into the driveway and put the car into park at which time the car continued to surge. I shut the key off and sat there trying to compose myself. I have had it at my local mechanics and they cannot duplicate the problem. It had never happened before and hasn't since 2/11/10. My car is a 2000 Toyota Corolla.

Bolt broke on the camshaft.

My dads 2000 Toyota Corolla was bought new and was driven for fours years without any problems. He took care of the car religiously and has 60 mile commute both ways to get to work and home. Everything was fine up to the middle of 2004 when the engine started use oil at an excessive rate and then, out of nowhere, it developed a rod knock. He ended up buying a new car but the Corolla still had the rod knock and it was out of warranty. Finally, the engine gave out and threw the connecting rod end and cap through the block, disabling the car and blocking traffic in a busy industrial area of kansas city, kansas. The Corolla ended up sitting at my uncle's farm for two years until my family and I could do anything about the car. We ended up getting a used 2001 prism motor with 88,000 miles on it and swapping that motor for the blown one. Unfortunately, I knew the risk of buying a motor from a junk yard but the risk was also a double risk due to the engine's previous history. After two weeks and the motor was just being run under light load conditions and even with fresh motor oil and filter, the prism motor also developed a rod knock. The problem still exists and I have found other cars with the same motor having the same issues as my family had with our Corolla. This engine has shown to be unreliable and a potential accident waiting to happen.

My Corolla started using excessive oil at about 60,000 miles. When I took it to our regular mechanic who see that the oil is changed at recommended times (I have the receipts) he could not determine why the engine was blowing oil out the back tailpipe and suggested that I take it to the local Toyota dealership. The Toyota dealership inspected the car, made copies of my receipts, took a picture of the oil on the back bumper, and told me it needed a new engine which was not covered under warranty. They said that Toyota had agreed to cover $600 of the $5400 new engine. They charged me $90 for the inspection. This is not acceptable, when Toyota clearly knows it is their defective engine, that this car should not have to have a new engine at 70,000 miles on a car that has had properly maintained maintenance. I refused to have an engine put in, we are just adding oil every day.

The car was great until 01/22/03 when out of the blue it decided choking down, white and black smoke coming from the tailpipe. Toyota of hollywod (FL) the dealership swears it is from my failure to perform regular oil changes. I provided them with oil receipts from my licensed mechanic of 30+ years. They accused me of dummying up the receipts, in essence calling myself and my mechanic a liar. We met with factory reps on 01/29/03. They \\raided\\ my mechanics garage armed with cameras, demanding to see invoices -- old, new, numbered and numbered. Of course, my mechanic refused. They continue to refuse to put a new motor in my car even though they have determined the reason my motor blew is from \\sludge\\.