How fragile are oil pans?
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Seems like the most vulnerable part under a car is usually the oil pan, right? Just how easy is it to put a hole in it or tear it open while driving off road in a low-clearance passenger car? |
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Depends on the passenger car. Crawl under it and see if the oil pan hangs below the subframe of the car. |
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My guess is your bigger concern should be getting stuck. I have high centered a few low clearance vehicles and gotten just plain stuck once or twice but never crucified an oil pan. |
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Cracked the oil pan on my old car last year, didn't feel like I hit too hard either. I had a 02 Passat Wagon. Took the pan off, used that liquid metal stuff, and it held just fine. |
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I saw a girl crack her oil pan right open on the dirt road leading to beauty mountain on NRG last weekend. She said it was the 3rd one on that car. That road was perfectly fine for driving, must be a terrible design flaw in the jetta. |
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gtluke wrote:I saw a girl crack her oil pan right open on the dirt road leading to beauty mountain on NRG last weekend. She said it was the 3rd one on that car. That road was perfectly fine for driving, must be a terrible design flaw in the jetta. It was also a wagon, meaning it was built in Germany. And there was a huge "buy local" sticker in the window. I found that entertaining.its the driver. lots of folks don't even think about the low hanging pan on street cars... last summer I was in TM campground... a VW Gulf came rolling through, sort of fast, hit one of the many rocks that are imbedded in the "well maintained pavement"... bam, they didn't even stop. VW made it about 1/2 mile before the motor died..... made quite a mess, got the hazmat team out from the Valley. David.... sell the car, before the JB weld unseats. LOL |
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Guy Keesee wrote: David.... sell the car, before the JB weld unseats. LOL100%... let it be someone else's problem and fast! And check out some Skid Plates... Subaru only uses plastic these days to "protect" the car with the most vulnerable parts hanging down low, Oil pan, tranny, rear diff.. all of which are heavily protected by these guys' plates. Super easy to install and totally bomber... writerguy.com/primitive/ski… And since you're already selling the car you shouldn't have an issue getting a subaru to put these bomber skids on!! |
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Plastic "skid plates" e.g. on the Subaru, are there to smooth airflow under the vehicle (and thus improve mpg, which can be HUGELY important to OEMs) rather than to provide any protection. |
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Gunkiemike wrote:Plastic "skid plates" e.g. on the Subaru, are there to smooth airflow under the vehicle (and thus improve mpg, which can be HUGELY important to OEMs) rather than to provide any protection.Don't introduce facts into this! |
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gtluke wrote:She said it was the 3rd one on that car. That road was perfectly fine for driving, must be a terrible design flaw in the jetta.Couldn't decide how tongue-in-cheek you were being. BUT it turns out that there are a lot of VWs out there with weak aluminum oil pans. Terrible design flaw indeed! Shocking. Worst off-road passenger car ever? Tons of VW owners bitching about it here: jalopnik.com/5935258/the-su… |
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...yet another reason why I drive a truck |
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johnnyrig wrote: then drive like you bank account depends on it.Unfortunately that removes 100% of the fun of taking a 2003 Corolla off road. As someone said upstream, yeah, definitely easier to get it stuck than hole the oil pan. But much more easily remedied! |
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caughtinside wrote:It's easy to fling a rock up into and puncture your oil pan. A friend did it to my Jetta a couple years ago. Drive slow.I guess that's the heart of my question--assume you're moving at crawl speed, and being strategic about the paths all 4 tires and underbody are taking (because the trail is rough enough that you will get stuck or just unable to continue otherwise). I'm wondering--maybe unanswerable--how likely it is that oil pan-to-ground contact will result in a catastrophic leak. (Assuming you're not in an aluminum-panned VW, disaster!) Seems like the most likely scenario to cause damage would be when the suspension is compressing when a front wheel is coming down off a drop-off--not only is the vehicle's path suddenly lower, but the dynamic movement is adding to the problem. (And there's a fair amount of dynamic movement no matter how gently you ease the wheel down, because your crispy 2003 OEM struts are just there to hold the wheels upright at this point.) I think maybe the best answer to the question is to drive the Corolla until it (_FINALLY_) dies, then replace it with a Subaru and buy a $200 aftermarket skid plate for it. I assume that off-roading the Corolla will help accelerate the process, but getting stranded somewhere remote could be a hardship. |
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German Engineering |
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Joker in me points out... the tires are the most important part... such that you keep an extra one in the trunk. |
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Phil Esra wrote:I'm wondering--maybe unanswerable--how likely it is that oil pan-to-ground contact will result in a catastrophic leak. (Assuming you're not in an aluminum-panned VW, disaster!)Knowing the VW well... I'd advise anyone rolling one now to swap in a steel oil pan and the steel or aluminum skid plate. The plastic stock thing is one step above cardboard, and who ever thought a low hanging aluminum pan was a good idea? |
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Craig Childre wrote: and who ever thought a low hanging aluminum pan was a good idea?Unbelievable. |
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They're fragile. |
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you know......you can also have the pan arc-welded.....instead of JB |
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I didn't buy my 03 VW Jetta for its off road clearance. I bought it for 48.8 mpg and the 800 mile range :) |
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Guy Keesee wrote: David.... sell the car, before the JB weld unseats. LOLhaha replaced pan after a couple weeks then scrapped it a few months after it happened. I couldn't have sold that car to save my life. |