I was driving about fifty down a rocky texas road, which is usually has mostly small, non damaging rocks... suddenley I hit a large bump, seconds later my red oil pressure light came on, I instantly shut it down and had it towed.... The car was leaking oil out of the bottom and the fromt skit plat was slightly hanging down. Does anyone know if this is most likely an oil pan, or are there other exposed oil lines, systems, etc???

 

It probably is the oil pan if the front skid plate was hanging down and your oil light came on. Hopefully you didn't damage anything else. Man that had to have been a really big rock [:@]

 

My money is on the oil pan. As said above, here is hoping that is the only thing you damaged.

 

Oil pan, oil filter, and plastic shield replacement= $1150... ouch...

 

Car has 2 oil pans...well..one but it has 2 sections, an upper and lower...More than likely you dinged it hard enough to causea small leak in the lower section. I did the same in my A4 over a hump in an alley. Cost me $280 bucks (parts & labor) to fix. AUDI admitted it was a stupid design. My advice is get a stronger skid plate. (metal)

 

Similar problem a friend had. They replaced the lower pan. Wasn't that expensive, probably like what prbayha mentioned.

It just so happened he was on a motorway in the middle of the dessert at night on a weekend. He wanted to continue his journey. At the fuel station in the middle of nowhere, they put some of the metal magic epoxy stuff to fill the hole/crack. Filled it up and away he went... When he got back to his home town, he got it fixed at the dealership.

Another story...

A friend had his oil and filter replaced. Oil filter wasn't put on properly. Doing 110 mph, again in the middle of nowhere, the oil filter burst off. Oil on the front wheels... Front wheel drive car... Well, he was lucky to walk out of the car. The car was totaled even without flipping. The whole bottom, steering mechanism, drive train etc was scrapped to bits on the hard rock dessert.

So, nice to know you were ok...

 

When I was in Iceland we'd rent cars and drive on the service roads which consisted of lava rock. We'd make sure we got the extra insurance and we'd play rally car racer on those roads, rolling over huge rocks causing unknown damage to the car's underside. The oil lights never came on, so I don't think it was too bad.

Oh the things we do when we are young and dumb!

Not callin you dumb, just us on those rocky roads.