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.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

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.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

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

__________________
Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

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

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...

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

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

A skid plat would have prevented this occurance.

See attached.

Attached Thumbnails

 

I have attached part numbers and additional pic

Attached Thumbnails

   

DO they make these skid plates for a w126? my auto would be very happy with one of these. Where did you get yours?

thanks!

My skid plate ("anti-noise capsule" in Mercedespeak) just arrived from Phil [$132, free shipping]. Having wrecked the transmission of my Oldsmobile by hitting a rock (I thought it was a paper bag), I am sensitive to things that hang down in harm's way.

It's always interesting to see something like this accessory for the first time and realize, "Oh that's what those brackets are for!" Turns out the W123 has a pair of diagonal brackety things hanging down just aft the oil pan. The rear of the skid plate attaches there. The front goes on the frame just behind the radiator. I need to find some bolts -- looks like 8mm should be about right.

The skid plate has a strategically-placed hole in it so that you don't have to remove it to change your oil, a nice feature. It doesn't look like it will interfere with routine maintenance at all. It does make the car a couple inches lower; I'll measure and take some pix when I do the install this weekend.

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

let us know if it's any quieter.

The skid plate is less than 17x17 inches in size; it's not a "cover" like I've read the later 603 engines have. I doubt there will be any difference in noise level but I'll try to notice.

By the way, the skid plate has a pair of captive nuts at the front. Anyone know if they have anything to do with attaching the transmission cooler cover that Stephen (virtualdoc07) mentioned earlier in this thread?

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

If you think the oil pan sticking out in the breeze is troubling on the 616-617, take a look at the 603's pan on a 126. Cast aluminum with another big alumimum appendage hanging off the side, just asking to be knocked off by some piece of ejecta from Bubba's gravel truck.

Gives me the willies every time I drive.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Well, I got the new parts today. All went back together with ease in about 35 minutes.


Total cost with new pan, drain plug, and gasket, came to about $100. Since it was a stroke of bad luck and was unavoidable, my parents payed for this round.

__________________
Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

Could you please attach the pictures that are missing from post #1 and #20?