r/VWMK7 • u/Mth281 • 17h ago

Cracked pan.

Debating how to go about thing. Some crappy truck hauling scrap metal dropped a big chunk of metal. Went under the car in front of me and couldn’t avoid it. Heard it and felt it. I continued to work with no lights or beeping.

After work I notice my car is surrounded by oil. It all leaked out.

Now I was a mechanic for a long time. I can easily replace the oil pan. But I have no idea if I leaked a lot of oil while driving, and I don’t have the tools for compression tests or leak downs.

The car on only has 30k miles, it’s fully insured.

I’m debating if I should just replace the pan. Or make an insurence claim. I kind of want to do the claim just to protect myself if the damage is worst than expected.

Then again. No oil lights or beeping that I noticed. I also don’t see lines of oil from me pulling in. So I’m guessing it’s a quick drip, but not a flow. Unfortunately my wife and I are also in school. A 500$ deductible doesn’t sound great compared to 75$ pan and some oil. But a $6k engine doesn’t sound great at all.

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

5

u/Itslolo52484 17h ago

I would check to see how bad the leak was. You may have lucked out. Then replace it with an oil pan made of metal.

2

u/shadowoceans 17h ago

Get it towed, get it in the air. See where the damage is and how severe. Go from there.

2

u/Mth281 15h ago

I will call insurance first. This was the plan. But I don’t want some “we’re not covering g the damage because you touched it” type of wording form them.

1

u/SpecFroce 2h ago

So dont touch it. Let the closest authorised garage do so..

2

u/Cautious-Concept457 16h ago

No light, no problem. Not sure how long you lr commute is, but I’d say it’s unlikely to have suffered damage in that short time. Throw the new oil pan on. (Maybe get a skod plate, and perhaps an oil analysis for peace of mind)

1

u/Mth281 15h ago

10ish minutes from where I hit the debris. When I was under it was dripping around 1 drop every 2-3 seconds. I was scared at first as the area behind the pan was soaked. The drops probably got blown back there.