Re: Spider oil pan incident

[Ian Lomax <sfalfisto@domain.elided>]

 Phil,
Good luck getting the construction company to pay, I was never able to.  Talk to you insurance company, I have a feeling they are going to claim you had a "single vehicle accident".  Sorry to be a downer, but I'm just warning you now to proceed with caution.
I've been through this twice.  When this happened to my spider, I dented the hood, broke the motor mounts, and cracked the front section of the exhaust.  Check your exhaust, and replace both motor mounts in addition to the pan and fan + shroud.
Just replacing both the lower and upper pan on my Milano ran about $1000 with labor.  The spider should be similar, plus the cost for the motor mounts and other bits.
Sorry for the accident, and good luck with the settlement.
Ian Lomax
SF, CA (with remarkably poor roads)
  Phil Dufresne <pdufresne@domain.elided> wrote: A week ago friday I took my '78 Spider out for a spin. After a nice drive,
happy that it started and surprised that ran as well as it did, my euphoria
came to an end as my oil pan collided with an irregularity in the road. I
was doing about 25 mph and the impact was so hard that the engine put a dent
in the hood. After uttering some well chosen expletives I saw smoke and oil
in the rearview mirror and pulled off the road and shut the engine down
within a half of a block. To add insult to injury the AAA wrecker dropped
the car in the process of getting me back to the garage. A constrution
company had been working on the road and their insurance is going to foot
the bill for the damage.

The wrecker incident seems to have done nothing but bending the license
plate. The collision has cracked both pieces of the oil pan, dented the
hood, squashed a plug wire, broken the fan shroud, scraped the front apron,
bent an exhaust clamp, and, I assume, damaged the motor mounts. I believe I
got the engine shut down before any oil starvation damage occured.

Has any body had a similar incident? If so, what other damage should I look
for? Any advice? (other than obviously that involving sump guards)

The insurance company is having trouble estimating the damage. Would any one
like to offer cost estimates for a new oil pan and labor to install? I will
probably do the work myself with the exception of the paint and body work.

Many Thanks,

Phil in Cleveland

'78 Alfa Spider
'83 Porsche 944
'54 Willys Overland 4x4 Station Wagon
'91 Ford F250 (The Giant White Truck)
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