Road Hazards - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

rg2098 · #1 12-31-2004, 11:52 AM

Last night I was out driving around with the family in the diesel when all of a sudden.....BOOM!! A bone crushing jolt through out the car. All I remember seeing is a small piece of ice that rolled off the pile at the side of the road. Naw couldn't be ice, the car would crush it, had to have been a pot hole. (Fast Forward) Today with our lovely 50 degree weather I go out out to decontaminate (wash as much salt off as possible) the car. As I'm bending down to spray down the undercarriage, I find......................

The good news is that it appears I didn't fracture the upper oil pan and I still have oil pressure, a new pan is already on order. The moral of the story you ask? Things in the road can be deceiving. WATCH OUT lets try to keeps these beauties on the road.

lietuviai · #2 12-31-2004, 12:43 PM

Consider yourself lucky, but it's a good thing that those oil pans are sheetmetal and not cast metal like the upper pan. If it worries you, you can always get another pan from a wrecking yard plus it's easy to unbolt.

rg2098 · #3 12-31-2004, 12:48 PM

Since I still have oil pressure, I'm going to change the pan with my next oil change in a few months.

turbodiesel · #4 12-31-2004, 12:57 PM

Yes, you are lucky the pan didn't crack.. but I have seen them busted up worse from curbs, debris, etc.

Jimmy Joe · #5 12-31-2004, 02:30 PM

Another moral of this story is if you hit something hard, get out and look for fluids right away.
You don't want to find a ruptured oil pan 100 miles down the road...

#6 12-31-2004, 06:05 PM

Yeah aren't you impressed the with oil pans ability to take hits?

I dropped the 300SD off of pavement onto gravel doing about 75 (don't ask) and flatted the bottom of my pan up enough to cover up the oil pickup (it has a rubber screen dealy on the end of it)
Found this out on my way to school heh...just barely any oil getting in the pickup=minimal oil pressure.

Anywho, I just beat the pan out with a hammer, made it all nice, put some bed liner/undercoating stuff on the bottom and inch or so up the sides to protect it from rust and whatnot and put it back on. That pan is VERY thick and made of pretty nice formable metal.

If the pan has any gouges in it I would probably replace it too isntead of beat it out. Since mine was just sorta "flattened" it put no severe point problems on it..

Try doing that in a econo-box and see what happens

Never understood why oil pans were the lowest part on cars hehe...guess it just works out that they have to be there
*shug*

Brandon

phidauex · #7 12-31-2004, 06:16 PM

My pan is pretty bonked up too, but it has been since I bought it.

Any ideas what did that damage? Looks like it was pretty big!

I'm going to pick up a new pan next time i'm at the boneyard, since there are no signs of leaking or low pressure or anything, but I do check on it every so often to make sure it looks ok.

I suppose thats why vehicles that are meant to actually drive over stuff have bash plates there.

peace,
sam

rg2098 · #8 12-31-2004, 06:24 PM

I think it was a snow covered chunk of cement that came out of a pot hole. I still have full oil pressure thankfully and no leaks (no punctures) so as soon as I get a new gasket, I'll try to beat it out and pray for no oil pump damage.

Gilly · #9 12-31-2004, 06:50 PM

Be sure to realize your dipstick will now be inaccurate until the new pan is installed.
Gilly

#10 12-31-2004, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilly

Be sure to realize your dipstick will now be inaccurate until the new pan is installed.
Gilly

Unless the bent pan pushed the dipstick tube up as well, wouldn't it still be accurate?
The car will now hold less oil overall but you should stil lfill to the same level (overfilling=bad)

when mine did this the dipstick got pushed up too and changed the reading but I think this one should still be the same?

Thanks

rg2098 · #11 12-31-2004, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon314159

Unless the bent pan pushed the dipstick tube up as well, wouldn't it still be accurate?
The car will now hold less oil overall but you should stil lfill to the same level (overfilling=bad)

when mine did this the dipstick got pushed up too and changed the reading but I think this one should still be the same?

Thanks

Thanks guys, one more thing I didn't think about to depress me. Oh well, fix one thing at a time. Next thing I'm going to find out is that the force up ripped a motor mount. I should get my gasket on Tuesday so I'll rip it apart then and take some more pictures of what I find. Hopefully nothing.

whunter · #12 12-31-2004, 08:11 PM

I will be very glad, when you get the pan off so I can get a look inside.

#13 12-31-2004, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whunter

I will be very glad, when you get the pan off so I can get a look inside.

The engine is VERY pretty inside...
intricate....

Gilly · #14 12-31-2004, 08:16 PM

Oooooo, good point Brandon. How about this:
Watch out as your oil level may now be too full.......

Gilly

350SL4spd · #15 12-31-2004, 08:24 PM

After all your stories of oil pans surviving all sorts of hell , I must just be the unlucky one...
On my w123 wagon, I was busting along at 65 down a two-lane and hit some red neck "construction" that they had forgotten to so much as mark w/ so much as a cone. Basically a 6 inch rise in pavenment over a distance of about a foot. Bottomed the front axle out on the stops. That rattled some fillings and more than a few cuss words loose. I kept an eye on the oil pressure and it was fine for the next 50 mi or so, then I got out and was greeted by the "fuse" that I was laying down behind my car. Oil pan split all along the from lip. Aparently at highway speed not enough oil was getting that low in the pan for me to loose too much...She certainly dribbled out the better part of 6 quarts while I waited for the tow truck. (who was pissed when it "soiled" his roll-back on the way home!)
I miss that car....