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broke open oil pan, now what

xkeyscore

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
ca.us
Golf R MK7

I drove over an L-bracket made of steel. It cleared the front skirt but put a three inch wide inch hole in the oil pan -- which is made of PLASTIC FFS.

Drove the car low rpm for about 2 minutes before limp home mode kicked on -- Basically said to drive less than 4000rpm. About 30 seconds later a red emergency action message said to shut off the engine. About 5 seconds later, I was off on the shoulder with the engine off. Total distance driven since impact was about 1.1 miles at low rpm.

Towed it to the dealer, replaced the pan, oil, bolts, gaskets, and filter. So far so good.

This is the part where I am may be feeling some paranoia. I now notice a rattle mostly on cold start but some times warm. It sounds like the valves arent lubricated. The rattle disappears after one to three seconds. This is normal in some cars as it takes time to push oil through the valves but I never noticed it before on this car. So maybe I am hyper sensitive to the sounds now or do I have a problem?

Thoughts flowing through my head are...

1. It was only 5 seconds from the red idiot light to shutdown but 1.1 miles seems like a long way to go with big ass hole in the pan. Could I have damage in that kind of time span?

I plan to put a 1000 miles on it and send an oil sample to a lab. I am considering doing a compression test. Maybe a leak down test.

Am I being paranoid here?

2. Shouldnt there be an anti-drain device that prevents oil from draining from the valve train? Could that be damaged if I am suddenly hearing valve noises on cold start?

3. Five or ten minutes after the car was stopped on the road, the pan was still dumping oil on the side of the road. It was a small but steady stream. I offer this information as a reference point that the car was totally out of oil. I dont have a good notion of how much oil dropped out of the car after it was stopped. It was raining that day but there was a an oil slick behind the car as far as the eye could see.


Do you guys have any thoughts here?
 
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sprinks

Drag Racing Champion
Location
United States
What you're describing sounds perfectly normal for the motor and i think because of your accident you're extra paranoid right now. The ea888 engine is known for odd start up noises that quickly fade away (1-3 seconds) after start.

Without video of your noise no on can exactly diagnose it either. Also, if there were problems with oil pressure upon start, you'd likely be throwing an oil pressure error code more than likely. However, if all of these things are bothering you, you should likely bring it back to whoever did the replacement work so they can document any issues with install. They could also check compression for you while they're doing that.
 

dietcokefiend

Master of Disaster
Location
Ohio
Did you notify your insurance over this? Given the possible issues you may want to involve them now.


1. The oil pressure emergency shutoff is going to be triggered by engine running + low oil pressure. There is probably a gradient of of difference from fully operational to sucking up air to oil pressure being too low and the ECU tripping. When that warning comes up you are in metal to metal contact range already, basically those backup wear additives are working their asses off to prevent the engine from chunking itself.


If it were me, I'd dump out a sample NOW, send it into Blackstone and if there is absolutely anything out of place start an insurance claim.


2. Yes and it takes a long time for oil to leave the valvetrain components in normal operation. I think the only time I ever had issues with a modern engine was prolonged parking (weeks) and the car sounding really weird kicking up for a split second or so. Day to day you'd never notice this.


3. In terms of the good news, oil pans are designed with a few things in mind. First is a quantity of oil that can sustain the engine over a sane maintenance window. Too little oil and you wear it out faster, too much and its wasteful. Next up is internal baffles so when you are running sustained G-forces you don't starve the pickup of the pool of oil and start drawing up air. So in a perfect setting on a flat road you could probably lose more than half your oil... maybe more and it would still be submerged.
 

Jacobmk7

Go Kart Newbie
Location
NC
Car(s)
2015 GTI S 4dr DSG
Make a video of a cold start. Change the oil and see if you see any shiny bits, also send it off the analyzed as stated above.
 

golfdave

Autocross Champion
Location
Scotland (U.K.)
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf GT Estate
Another vote for the full length engine bay "skid tray"....reinforced GRP....thick & strong..& made by VW for the car...see my guides...
 

JC_451

Autocross Champion
Location
NJ, one of the nice parts.
Car(s)
2017 GTI Sport
I remember a story of someone on here going to the Dealership for an oil change and immediately getting the emergency light after pulling away. The Tech had drained the oil but didn't refill it.

That dude's car was fine.

Pretty sure running it for 90 seconds as oil poured out the pan is a 0 consequence fuck up. Not really much choice on the highway anyway, you have to get somewhere safe to pull over priority 1.
 

vj123

Autocross Newbie
Location
The Detroit
Car(s)
19 & 16 GTI - sold
A chunk of ice on road did the same thing to my B8.5 A4. I stopped the vehicle as soon as the warning light came up in like 2 miles. Took it to the dealership and after replacing the parts, I did not face any other issue in the future.

You might be a little more worried.
 

sandmangti

Autocross Newbie
There are basic metal pans if you can go SS from ECS Tuning.
Plus cheap ass China made cover.










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sshlyk

Ready to race!
Location
Seattle
I can be wrong, but metal pan can do more damage in that situation. Plastic just broke in pieces, where metal pan would probably catch on that steel piece
 

sandmangti

Autocross Newbie
I can be wrong, but metal pan can do more damage in that situation. Plastic just broke in pieces, where metal pan would probably catch on that steel piece



Ever seen the SS pan in my picture in person? But, you are matching it with a full cover to help deflect.
Yes you could hit an I-beam. But at that point you will not win with anything.


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