Last night on a dark highway, we hit a deer. At 60 mph, the deer died instantly. The mighty 300SD did what it was supposed to and the deer went under instead of through the windshield. We hit him nearly in the center of the grille. The impact pushed back the fan/radiator into the engine and the oil cooler was moved back several inches causing an oil cooler line to rupture at a fitting sending oil everywhere. The grille went flying (as did the license plate), but the bumper was untouched. The hood is mangled, but all three latches held. We swept the deer off her feet and then she fell under the car and the front wheels ran over her and she became lodged, one leg tangled in a tie rod. As I slowed onto the shoulder, I had the foresight to glance at the oil pressure gauge, which showed 0. All the coolant also came out onto the road. My wife and both teenage kids were in the car and were shook up, but no one was hurt.

The tow truck driver did a great job of loading the car despite the jammed deer and my daughter's tears. It was a 40 mile ride home and he squeezed us all in (and our dog).

I saw the deer the instant my headlights illuminated it - it was running across the road directly in front of us. I didn't have my high beams on since there was a car a quarter mile ahead.

I'm totally bummed. I have run this car on wvo with a single tank and no conversion except for a heat exchanger and it has been an exceptional commuter, averaging 3000 miles a month. 6000 miles on unblended wvo with no problems. Cruise, AC, everything worked. I bought him from the original owner last year with 156k.

The frame piece that supports the radiator and is welded to the innner fender is totally mangled and beyond my skills. I am now inheriting my wife's even nicer '82 300SD. She's relegated to a Volvo 240 until we can afford to replace Hans - no time soon, I fear. I will also run wvo in Penelope as soon as I can. We were going on vacation next week, but it looks like enough of the money will be going into the Volvo that vacations are not in the near future.

Question for you guys: If the oil pressure line blew instantly at 60 mph, and I pulled off the road within a couple hundred feet, then shut the engine off in a couple more seconds, did the engine get damaged? At this point, Hans will likely be a parts car and his engine only had 190k easy miles. I hope his engine is OK, because it was the smoothest 617 I've ever seen.

I'd just ordered brake rotors, now I don't need them.

Crap.

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1984 300Sd 210k

Former cars:
1984 300D 445k (!!) (Strider) Original (and not rebuilt) engine and transmission. Currently running on V80 ( 80% vegetable oil, 20% petroleum products). Actually not, taking a WVO break.
1993 300d 2.5 275k. Current 120/day commuter
1981 300SD 188k (Hans) Killed by a deer

More..

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1984 300Sd 210k

Former cars:
1984 300D 445k (!!) (Strider) Original (and not rebuilt) engine and transmission. Currently running on V80 ( 80% vegetable oil, 20% petroleum products). Actually not, taking a WVO break.
1993 300d 2.5 275k. Current 120/day commuter
1981 300SD 188k (Hans) Killed by a deer

Another

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1984 300Sd 210k

Former cars:
1984 300D 445k (!!) (Strider) Original (and not rebuilt) engine and transmission. Currently running on V80 ( 80% vegetable oil, 20% petroleum products). Actually not, taking a WVO break.
1993 300d 2.5 275k. Current 120/day commuter
1981 300SD 188k (Hans) Killed by a deer

Hey,
Sorry to hear about that. It's always a good thing when you walk away. Cars can be replaced people can't.

My son crashed his car this weekend too so I feel your pain. He drove it into a ditch to avoid hitting a truck. But both he and his passenger walked away. My son did have to get 4 stitches for a gash wound on his right hand and slight marks/burns from the air bags.
But this was a Ford he was driving. Maybe if it was a Mercedes he wouldn't have needed stitches!

Good luck to you.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination

My condolonces as well. This thing with deer is really getting out of hand. I think you are the fourth member this year to tag one. Considering how small a group we are, this is significant.

The damage always scares the bejessus out of you for the first 24 hours.

After a few days, take a fresh look at it. If you can pick up the parts cheaply enough (maybe $1.5K??), fixing it might be a possiblity??

Perfect reason to move down here to Texas. An armadillo won't do near that amount of damage!

Glad you and your family are OK!

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Sorry to hear what happened! I hit a big racoon the other week with my w126 doing about 70mph and even that scared the crap out of me...I cant imagine a deer.

These animals are stupid

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

There are over one million deer hits per year in the US alone...
The only thing that really counted is that yall were not hurt...
Everything else is replaceable....
I think your engine is fine... that is not long before shutting off... and you knew exactly when the ' clock ' started... many people running at highways speeds that notice they don't have oil pressure don't actually know how long they went before they noticed it...
It won't take much testing to determine the engine condition.

I'm sure the engine is fine. Sounds like you shut it off right away. I'd be more worried if it ran with low oil pressure for a long period than without oil pressure for 30 seconds.

Deer are one reason I hate to drive at night. Have narrowly missed hitting one on more than one occasion.

Chances are very good to excellent that the engine is OK as you slowed down and didn't run it under load. That alone tends to retain the hydrodynamic layer for a longer time. Also, the whole construction of the engine is pretty stout. Bummer about Hans. Hopefully he will live on as an organ donor. Glad he protected you and your family.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

I am going through a similar experience with similar damage. My son hit a jeep about a month ago and my first reaction was to tow it to the junkyard. These cars are great but because of their low market value and the cost to fix them they are very easy to "total". In my case the cost to repair would have been around 6 grand but I have some bodywork skills and estimated that i could do it for around 2.
I started a thread called "bringing it back from the dead" to detail my progress in getting the car back on the road.
My work progress stopped a few weeks ago for summer vacation etc., but now I am now back at it again. I'll revive the thread if I can figure out how to attach the pictures to my posts. How do you do that!
You need a new hood, grill, condenser, radiator, oil cooler and all 3 front radiator supports and your toal costs should be similar to mine if you decide to fix it yourself.

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Tom Hughes
St. Louis
84 300SD
92 300D
86 300SDL

Tenknots,

Hans not dead just wounded. Get some used sheet metal parts and get Hans fixed.

Engine was not damaged in such a short time without oil.

P E H

Tried posting link but still have to learn how to do same. Branden(or some name close to that) posted easy to follow instructions - and many thanks for that info....

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Jim

'49 170?(donated to church in Darmstadt '58)
'58 220S(crusher, after '73 fire[San Antonio])
'72 280SE 4.5
'77 240D
'81 300SD
'83 240D parts car

That's really unfortunate, but good thing it didn't go through the windshield!

Deer suck, we should all hunt more.

Don't junk hans though, if the engine is good enough to think about selling for parts, then it's good enough to save the car for.

If all your damage is visible in those pictures, and you don't have steering/suspension damage, then you're not actually looking at that much repair. The body stuff would be the hard part, your new parts would probably only cost you around 1 to 1.5k.

Good luck and don't give up on it!

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"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brillaint blaze
than it should be stifled by dryrot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time."

-Jack London 1876-1916

1983 300CDT (running WVO since 12/05)
1981 300SD (parts car)

Don't let Hans die. A little patience and TLC on your part is all he needs. I wish I would have fixed the 82 Chev diesel that I hit a deer with. Now that it's parted out I can't go back.

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1983 300-D turbo
1985 300-D turbo
1959 Harley Panhead chopper
1929 Ford coupe restored
I hang out with Boneheaddoctor at Schuman Automotive OBK#5
All liberals are mattoids but not all mattoids are liberal.