There was no warning signs, odd sounds, nothing. It was a daily driver car. Errands around town and family vacations. I'm pretty keen on hearing noises that are not suppose to be coming from a vehicle. That's what puzzles me so much about this. I drove the car the last 2 days it was driven.
I've never heard of a timing chain breaking on a low mileage car myself. Nor have I ever heard of one malfunctioning on startup when no work had been done to it. No research I've found has said there was a problem with timing chain components on this year model car. In 2010 the 2.5L came out to replace this 2.4L engine. If what I read is accurate. But no complaints about timing on the motor.
I don't have a garage to work on it in. It is suppose to be in the teens - 30's this week. I'm not sure how much I can get done on it in the cold weather. But we desperately need this car on the road. My 1989 chevy truck isn't a good option to be doing all the driving. At least gas prices are low currently. I will post what I find out.
If anyone has any ideas before I post please feel free to tell me. I'd like to have a target area before I just take everything apart searching. Any ideas I can do research on could help me greatly.

without a garage and freezing cold temps

take out the plugs and do the compression test its the quickest way to get the numbers and your answer

from there

this forum can give you all the write ups to fix the car

if the rings have broken the motor has to come out or head off if a valve problem

a timing chain issue ... a lot of the engine bay parts ..need to be undone

Whatever I find out I'll post. I'm currently trying to find somewhere I can work on it in the heat. I can load it on my trailer to move it. Thank you for the suggestions. Any thing else comes to mind please let me know.

Suppose the chain tensioner could have failed but? This is accessed from the outside on the side of the engine and held in by a couple of nuts.

The quickest method of checking is to remove the valve cover and inspect. The cover may not have a conventional gasket but use form-in-place sealant. If your going to reinstall the cover pick some up. Auto parts stores, department store auto section, etc carry this type of sealant. Suggest Permatix Ultra Black 82180

For a working environment might drape clear plastic over the upright hood and use what you can find to make a makeshift tent. Then use a portable heat source. Have used propane and electric heat sources plus gasoline stoves but be careful. The point being to raise the air temp inside the working area into the higher teens or maybe low 40's.

See private message.

1st thing I had planned to do was remove the valve cover. I have also already thought about a makeshift shelter over it. I have a 20x30 tarp i was going to use. I can get a decent size area out of that by pushing the car closer to the house then attaching the tarp to the porch. I have 2 tubes of that sealant still in the package hanging on my building wall. I am going to try to make time this evening to take off the valve cover. I'll post what I find. It is hard with 1 vehicle. I gotta get this car back on the road or something. Thank you again for the pm with that info.

I was able to get outside today to take off the valve cover to look at the timing chain. It looked fine and had very little play. I would like to post 2 pictures but I don't know how on a forum.
I wanted to do more but when the snow turned to hail I figured I should put the cover back on and go in.
The next thing that comes to mind is the crankshaft. With the valve cover off I rotated the motor by hand to make sure all valves and lifters worked properly. Which they did. The chain looked good all the way around along with the cam gears and cams. Apparently the problem is in the bottom end. Which really disappoints me. That completely screws us up. :(

sorry to hear that ...and weather against you


quickest fix is to fit a second hand engine

a engine rebuild to do rings/pistons or valve work would take longer

any cheap hire cars in your town

Suggest before digging into the engine to check VVTi operation and cam/crank pulley alignment.

Suppose it is possible the VVTi is stuck/failed, causing valves to remain open. The system did have a problem at one time.

Rotate crank pulley CW and set to TDC for No 1 cylinder.

The passengers side of each cam pulley face should have a paint mark. These marks should now line up marks on the chain.

Then check valve clearance.

Check valve clearance on No 1 and 2 intake and 1 and 3 exhaust.

Rotate crank CW 360 degrees.

Check valve clearance on No 3 and 4 intake and No 2 and 4 exhaust.

Cold clearance
Intake 0.0075–0.0114 in
Exhaust 0.0118 – 0.0157 in

Determine if there actually is clearance and valves are not closing due a problem.

If need be I could find a used engine to drop in it. It looks like it wouldn't be to difficult to remove. Just all the damn wires and sensors. Just pulling the valve cover I had to unplug about 12 things.
Next chance i get i will try that suggestion. I didn't put it in TDC yesterday. When i rotated the motor by hand all valves looked like they where moving properly. As I was doing that the hail started. We're suppose to get 18-30in of snow this weekend. So I'm not sure when I'll be able to mess with it next. I don't think a makeshift tarp tent could hold up to that much snow.
Thanks again for help and info. The curiosity of what and why this happened is bothering me. That car has always been taken care of properly and drove sensibly. Whatever is wrong i wouldn't consider it normal wear and tear with that amount of mileage.

Losing compression overnight is unusual for this engine. The engine did have VVTi actuator problems and why suggest making sure the valves are actually fully closed at right time.

It could be the actuator failed at start up and allowed a camshaft to rotate on its one independent of the timing chain. But typically VVTi problems result in noise.

If the valves are closing OK a few other issues with this engine:

Sudden increases in oil burning caused by clogged piston oil ring return holes. If the oil is not checked every say 1500 miles can result in low crank case oil can happen.

A number of head threads for the head bolts in the block can pullout. This typically results at first in loss of coolant but who knows might lead to loss of compression if extreme. This is a fix for this problem by installing thread inserts.

Toyota does have extended warranties on both issues.