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Oil pan smashed

Yesterday I smashed the oil pan of my 1993 190E 2.6 against a concrete median strip. The pan is torn wide open on one side near the bottom and the oil is gone.

Lots of traffic and no place to get off the road--I wasn't able to get to a safe parking spot for about 6 blocks--speed was 25 mph. Some oil under the engine where parked, but not much.

When I shut the engine down, it was running OK, but power seemed low and there was mild lifter chatter (?). Oil pressure was zero, but there were no warning lights at all and no apparent overheating. Nonetheless, looking at it, I assume that most of the oil was lost immediately.

It'll be towed to the dealer tomorrow morning. What repairs should I expect? I'm expecting the worst, but would appreciate some idea of the likely problems.

Reply to
CEB
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Horrible luck. But a good empathetic description of the event and its immediate aftermath.

Call your auto insurance company to see if this potential damage is covered by your policy.

"It'll be towed to the dealer tomorrow morning." That's a mistake, IMHO.

Dealers' mentality is to make everything as good as new - that's why their jobs are so expensive. But that's what many owners want - good as new.

Expect the dealer to say that you need a new $6,500 engine. (Remember, they're selling you something - an engine, peace of mind or ?)

An independent shop would pull off the pan, look inside for any rock damage, perhaps check a bearing or two - or not - install a new pan, fill the oil and run the engine and THEN opine on its mechanical condition. Its probably OK - not as OK as last week but OK enough to reliably power the car.

So it may be up to you to live with a bit of gnawing doubt or you may say "I'll just wait until the ax falls - if it ever does - for I can always buy another engine."

Reply to
T.G. Lambach

The same thing happened to a customer of mine, 87 300E. We replaced the pan, filled with oil, started and all seemed well. Then we changed the oil and filter to get out any debree left from the disaster. Car runs fine, good oil pressure, still not burning any oil, etc. And this car was run until it stoped (His daughter was driving it at the time.) Paul

Reply to
Paul

Not necessarily

Having gone over a speed bump rather too quickly I had a cracked sump. I had the car towed to the dealer.

They diagnosed the above and charged for it (something around 400 pounds incl tax IIRC). No hint of new engine etc, but maybe my damage was less than that of the OP's.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

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