Hi everyone - newbie here.
My partner hit a curb in her 2007 Honda CRV. This caused a hole in the oil pan, a circle that’s about 1.5" in diameter. We are broke as hell, so we could not afford the $1400 it was going to cause to have our usual mechanic fix it.
I’m just starting out at a job working on trucks and I took a few automotive tech classes. I’ve taken a transmission oil pan off and put it back on before, so I figured I basically had this in the bag.
Long story short, I don’t. Mostly because it looks like the engine is mounted AT the oil pan, so I’d need to learn to jack up the engine and the transmission, which I don’t have the expertise or tools to do…?
Being broke as hell, we are also busy as hell, and the car has been sitting at the curb outside for over two months now. I really did not realize how much time is passing.
The hole has been sitting uncovered.
How many pests can I expect live in there by now? We are in Portland. It’s rained a lot. How bad is the rust situation going to be?
My partner has spent so much time and dedication trying to keep this car in good shape. I really want to do everything in my power to fix however badly I’ve screwed up here. I’m going to be spending today FINALLY learning what it is I need to do to properly support the engine and transmission so I can do the oil pan replacing job, but I’m worried it’s not the only job.
Today, I want to slap some flex seal on the hole, the way I should have a long long long-ass time ago. I’m considering spraying compressed air around in there first?? Will that help or hurt?
Thank you for reading. This is a potentially really big screw-up and I’m very anxious about it so help is appreciated.
It’s fine. When you finally get the old pan off just clean it well, the only passage into the engine itself (oil pickup tube) is screened off so no worries about pests, and it’s unlikely to have rusted because of all the oil coating everything in there. At worst surface rust, which you can just knock off during the cleaning process. There shouldn’t be any way for water to get from your holed oil pan into the engine itself outside of just being straight flooded.
Oh this is fantastic news I was panicking. Thank you very much. You don’t think I have to worry about… insects, even? I’ve pulled an engine apart before (just… not one that was ever going to go back into a car, so I didn’t have to be too careful putting it back together), so I know a bit of what I’m looking at w the crankshaft and pushrods once I get the oil pan off. I guess I felt like there would be bugs living up in there now, though I suppose they’d have died the second oil got on them, huh.
Well, I may have answered my own follow-up question. Thank you very much.
I don’t wanna take too much of your time today, but can I ask what kind of cleaning process you’d do for this before putting the new pan on? (Or just what to look up on YouTube to find that from someone else, if you’d rather.)
It’s most likely fine. If it was on the top of your engine with water pouring down it would be a problem but on the bottom probably alright unless it’s been parked in deep water.
Thank you very much. My other worry was about like… bugs, or mice, but the other comment here says those probably won’t have gotten far…?
It’ll be fine. You are gonna need a jack and a couple jack stands. Get the front tires off the ground with the stands under the pinch weld. Loosen the two big subframe bolts (19mm iirc) a few turns on the driver side and with the jack supporting the passenger side of the subrame you can remove the two on the passenger side. Then you’ll be able to lower the passenger side with the jack and make some room for the pan to clear. Other than that it’s pretty straightforward. Put a dab of rtv on any joints around the gasket surface. You can get a pan, gasket, rtv, oil, and filter from rockauto for around $100 it’s well worth doing even if you gotta get tools. Good luck!
I’m confused because there seem to be engine mounting bolts that bolt into the engine through the pan. I haven’t been able to find straight answers on this anywhere, but I feel like that is probably the only place the engine is mounted or at least a very significant one (and I don’t trust my own eyes alone, but I haven’t found anything else that look like engine mounting bolts anywhere else). So when I remove them, I am kind of like… okay, so is this engine going to fall out of the vehicle on me now?