Hey All,

Just want to get some insights on what I should be doing. Long story short, truck dumped it's trailer hitch in front of me, my car drove over it probably going like 50 kph (30 mph) and it just made the most disturbing metal on metal heavy contact sounds. Anyways, I immediately slowed down, smoke was coming out of my car's hood so I made a quick left turn into a side street and shut it down. The whole thing probably took like 20 seconds or so, maybe less. Car was towed to a repair at a shop that was recommended by insurance. It's a ford dealership/body shop, I had my doubts but they told me it's all warrantied as it's a registered facility through insurance. Of course, my oil pan was destroyed so they told me they are going to repair the damages but will check the health of the engine first by running it on idle after replacing oil pan. Once this was done, they told me the car started fine and idled fine and there are no issues so they proceed with the repairs of the rest of the damage caused (subframe replacement, cross members, radiator support, etc.). I get the car back, they didn't even do my alignment so I had to get it done as soon as I picked up the car. The alignment doesn't even hold true now so I got it inspected again and it looks like the used subframe they got was damaged too. Not only that, they chipped my paint on the front fender near the headlights, and the car now idles funny. I feel intermittent hiccups/slight misfires during idle. Luckily, I'm taking the car to a respected shop here to complete the next round of repairs like the subframe but should I be worried about the motor? Could that short amount of time cause that much damage to my motor? One mechanic mentioned to me that any oil leaving the motor that quickly will cause some damage down the line and that I should be saving up for a motor replacement.

Thoughts? Sorry for the long read, thanks for any input.

 

I realize a lot was happening all at once but did you ever see the oil light come on during the incident? If it stayed off then your engine had enough oil pressure until you shut it down so it should be fine. If it did come on then the pressure dropped out and you may have some internal damage/wear.

 

Nope, didn’t notice any lights. Thanks for the insight, I feel a bit better about this.

 

20 seconds is a very long time if the engine was running without oil.

Was the pan cracked and leaking oil semi-slowly? Like...a quart per 5-10 seconds kinda thing? In other words....about as fast as just turning a jug of oil upside down and letting it drain thru the outlet.

Or was it ripped open completely, dumping the oil out immediately?

I hate insurance repairs. They need to be babysat. I think they're so used to repairing cars that are owned by people who see their car like an appliance. So a "good enough, that should hold er" repair is what they seem to do most of the time, because most people don't notice or care.

 

The only issue I see here is "Car was towed to a repair at a shop that was recommended by insurance. It's a ford dealership/body shop..."

 

That was definitely the issue... I should be noped out if there once they me what it would take to repair.

I gauged 20 seconds as it seemed I did everything within that time. It could be been much less, it all happened so fast. Now that I found to 20 in does seem quite long. I know t happened really quick. The hole was the size of a child's fist. Oil poured out immediately of course but was still spilling quite a bit after I had pulled over and stopped.