Hi, my mom just bought a used 2005 1.8t tt. she was driving home and hit a rock in the road and destroyed her oil pan. she tried to get it to a safe place to pull over. the oil light came on and immediately the car shut its self off. i was wondering if anyone has ever had this happen? is the engine toast or maybe still good?

Dustin

 

It really depends on how long she was without oil. Only way to know for sure is to have a shop check it out.

 

First, I have no idea as to whether or not this car had a skid plate on. To those of you who don't have the lower skid plate this is exactly the reason why. It is designed to keep foreign debris away the engine and transaxle. A rock could hit any number of items in the engine bay from the ribbed belt (An Audi mechanic told me he saw this once) to oil and turbo lines and hoses. Plus it keeps the underside really nice and clean. The underside of my TT is certainly the cleanest of any car I've ever had. I just had to get that off my chest.

I recommend though that you have the car towed to a dealer or repair facility. An enginethat hadsynthetic oil can actually go a decent distance even with the oil lost, and since you said she pulled over right away you should be OK. If it is not to bad the pan can prpbaly just be replaced. Plus if it's a 2005 it should still be under warranty or possibly coverable by insurance. Since the cover you if you hit an item and damage the body I don't see why the wouldn't cover mechanical damage.

 

interesting to think a plastic sound proofing tray as you call a skid plate ( which its not ) wouldstop a rock going through the sump pan it more than likely would have taken the tray out as well

 

I'm glad your referred to as a sound tray. I used the term skid plate bc everyone in this forum seems to call it such and I wanted an ease of recognition. The devices primary mission is to deadon sound but it does also provide great protection from the large bulk of road debris and actually does take quite a large velocity, high mass object to pentrate it particularlye being hit at angle. Try it next time you change you oil, th things surprisingly tough. I find it actually interesting how it would have even happened on the highway in the first place. Was it some sort of huge boulder.How big was this rock that it broke the oil pan?

 

your quite right of course it serves a few purposes, sound / aerodynamics / oil drip tray / corrosion prevent due to salt on the road to mention but a few, skid plate is what rally drivers have on the lower part of the engine normally 1-1/2" alloy plate to deflect objects and save the gearbox on off road usage

 

well im not sure it it has a "skid plate" or not. i will ask her to check that. this happened on a mountain road in a narrow canyon. thanks for the replys.

 

My daughter bottomed out her A4 pulling into a parking lot and put a good crack into the oil pan. the plastic belly pan did nothing but muffel the sound of the impact. I would like to know where we can get a real rally type skip plate. i have an A6 and my wife has a 4motion Passat. There are many dirt roads in upstate NY and a real skid plate would be the ticket to protect the leading edges and that low hangingoil pan. thanks

 

wrong forum and way to old of a thread

 

well.....excuse me........