cracked oil pan repair

[MoaningLisa]

When I bought my passat, it was slammed to an inch off the ground. the owner blamed the oil leak on a bad valve cover gasket (common, easily repaired problem) but I soon figured out the oil pan slammed into the pavement any time you bottomed out...which was a lot.

one day I hit a speed bump going WAY too fast, and punched a hole in the pan...I returned the car to factory ride height and patched this hole.

the previous patch was made of muffler patch, covered with truck bed liner. it held for about a month, and slowly started to drip. the drip was slow, but I couldn't live knowing it was there, so today I patched it again.

just because its a fine German car, doesn't mean its immune to redneck engineering.

my car has the 1.8 turbo, which has an aluminum oil pan (like most newer cars) and the muffler patch didn't like the aluminum, and failed. the epoxy I bought this time around is meant for aluminum. even though I demonstrate this on my car, it should be the same on all cars.

previous patch-

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started by draining the oil. do this while the engine is hot, and it will take less time for all the oil to drip out. I used a paint scraper to scrape off the old patch.

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and THIS is why you don't lower your car without putting in a solid skid plate.

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I used Brakleen to clean any oil off of the surface I was going to mount the new patch, and wiped away the brakleen with a shop rag. I put some of the epoxy on a piece of the cardboard packaging, and pressed that against the leaky area. the cardboard was only to hold the epoxy in place while it set, after it set the cardboard was useless...but its epoxied to the bottom of the car. over time, the combination of rain, oil, wind, road salt and whatever else passes under the car will destroy the cardboard, but the epoxy should last.

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after the set time specified on the epoxy packaging, I put new oil in the car (you wouldn't put old oil back in your car right...RIGHT!?) and checked for leaks.

bonus guide-hoodrat crush washer

the crush washer was shot, and I didn't have a spare laying around...so I used an old trick to seal the drain plug. I have used teflon tape in the past to substitute a crush washer, but I wanted to try the RTV trick.

I cleaned the base of the drain plug using Brakleen, and applied a bead of RTV around the base of the bolt. after it dried, I torqued it as normal.

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old crush washer


final product

[Infinityshock]

I performed a ghetto engineering feat on an oil pan once.

Self tapping screws, small plate of thin-gauge metal, and generous quantities of high-temp gasket maker. I uses an entire box (20?) Of those screws to hold it on

U might want to consider getting a new pan from a scrap yard or off ebay...depending how hard they are to remove

[Irukanji]

There is this stuff in Aus called "knead it", basically you knead this shit together and it hardens after a while. Might work on the sump.

Otherwise get a replacement asap. Mine is a cunt to remove since you have to lift the motor to get access to the bolts, a skid pan would definitely go on if I was going stupid low.

[Soso0]

There is this stuff in Aus called "knead it", basically you knead this shit together and it hardens after a while. Might work on the sump.

Otherwise get a replacement asap. Mine is a cunt to remove since you have to lift the motor to get access to the bolts, a skid pan would definitely go on if I was going stupid low.

I think I've heard of that shit here in the us. Does it hold up well

[Irukanji]

Not 100% sure on it, but my step dad used it to repair a bit of aluminium casting which had failed on my brothers old Hyundai, part of the cooling jacket presumably the bottom of the intake manifold. Held up for 3-4 months before he sold it, so I guess it will last a while until a decent replacement can be had. If the crack isn't too big, how about brazing? Silver solder might work if you get some flux into the crack...although you'd need to remove it.

If you could find a decent machine shop ask them how much it will cost to run a quick TIG bead across it to fill the crack, might be cheaper than a replacement, but will still require removal.