GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

So0o i was driving down Rt 1&9 (an industrial area) when i saw the car infront of me bounce up and it ran over this black and metallic object. i was too close to the car ahead and didnt have room to swerve out of the way. I aimed for it to go right under the middle of the car thinking i had enough clearance to drive over it saftly.... i was wrong. It felt like it hit the recovery hook first and made this painful metal clashing sound as it bumped my car up. After it passed i looked in the rear view mirror to see what it was and just then the celica behind me had its turn with it. The celica caught it with the interior wall of the right tire and it literally flung the car up off the right tire and then off the rear. The car was up on two wheels and then passed over it.The object looked like a ripped up spare tire and rim at first but it seemed to have wires dangling from it so0o it might have been the compression chamber from an AC..So i go and pull over to take a look at the damage and from the skid marls it hit the recovery hook first, then tore off all the retention clips off this plastic wind deflector on the passenger side of the car and then hit a black container which to my limited knowlege of the 1zz-fe looks like the oil pan... There are some scuff marks all over it, it looks like it got dented in and theres a deep groove going through it, no leaks tho I never inspected the oil pan(?) of another vibe so0o i dont know if that dent and groove were suppose to be there before. I'll post some pics of the damage and if anyone can.. Please post a picture of yours so that i can compare.. Thnx

That really sucks! Can't get to mine to check out hte oil pan now, but will later. If you get an oil or check engine light it would probably be best to turn the engine off right away.

better get it to dealer quick! if it was big and metal it could do damage to the bottomside you DONT see....let insurance handle damage costs!!

i say you fingerprint the thingy, then, shove it up the a** of whoever left it there. ok so you can't do that. i would definitely report that though

Alrighty... i got some picsThe quick fix

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More duct tape to keep the cover from flappin in the wind...

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And what i think is the oilpan...

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Looks like a wet spot on the ground in the first pic, is it fresh & from your vibe?

that was there... there arent any leaks

quote:And what i think is the oilpan...Yeah, that's the oil pan. Just looks scraped up - if I remember accurately, that "crease" or "indented line" is normal.

it looks dented right where the crease starts.... it guess it doesnt look that bad at this angle

Alright i cleaned it up a bit and took more pics... how does it look?

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nope theres no leak... im just afraid that since its dented in it might hit something inside.

good lord!!!! i guess its time for skid plates in nj!!!

I'd have her checked out by the dealer. I guess if you still have oil pressure, and the crank isn't beating the pan, you should be o-k till you can get it in to be checked out.One thing I noticed was it looks like your A/C "radiator" took a hit also. If it did, I'd definately have that checked out. They are VERY expensive.

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Crap now that u mention it.. it looks the whole radiatior is shifted from where it mounts

radiator should be ok as long as its not leaking. The oil pan is fine unless its leaking. Man i stay away from rt.1 lol its so f*cking bad. The potholes are like a foot deep and huge. with my lowered vibe itd really suck

Looked in the service manual, and the way the engine is set up there's not much that extends down from the engine block into the oil pan area. The only thing that does is the oil pickup tube/strainer. It is towards the backside of the engine, the drain plug side, so a dent on the front side probably won't affect it. Like the engine designers gave it some thought and anticipated running over stuff and denting the front side of the pan.Hard to tell from the oil pan pic just how significant of a dent is in there.

The oil pan looks worst from the side, and the flash kinda gets rid of the shadow made by the dent.. so its hard to see.As for the radiatior.. that "dent" is suppose to be there, it just goes down because it meets up with the mounting point. i looked on the other side and it has the same "dent" in it...ok so0o No leaks = GOOD ... but now i just gotta get all the retention clips that are MIA

Depending on the size of the dent in the pan, you may take less oil than before, so whoever changes your oil needs to pay attention to the dipstick. Then again, maybe it's better to put the standard amount of oil in and have it read high on the dipstick. Probably not too hard to take off the oil pan and beat it back close to original shape, but hard to know if it would be worth the trouble, especially if it's currently not leaking.

i went to the dealer in search of new retention clips and they go for $4 a pop... i think i need like 6 of em.I cant make myself pay $4 a piece for some crappy clips... im thinkin about replaceing them with stainless screws from home depot but that might be too permanent and tear off the actual plastic if i hit something again...oh btw a new deflector sheid runs for like $75Does anyone know of anything that i could use inplace of the clips?

Most auto parts stores have generic, low cost items like that. If I remember right, some have a rack of parts like that called "Help" or something like that. May not find the exact clip you need, but something close that may work for alot less than that. Try Advance Auto or Autozone.

Don't go over the top line on the dip stick. If you've checked your oil level lately, you can look at your dip stick now and compare. If its about the same, you haven't lost significant oil capacity and all is good. If it's high, you'll need to take care of it. From the pics it looks like you're OK but we can't tell if there's any compression of the pan.

Hi there...I would honestly take it to the dealership and have them check everything out. As for the plastic protector thingie, I hit a racoon (twice, don't ask). Knocked the plastic thing off a connector and the dealership examined and rivitted the piece back on for me. took em 10 minutes to fix... a little longer to look things over. Looking at that damage, I'm glad the Vibe's oil pan plug doesn't face straight down like my old truck's did. That would be some nasty damage then. Sorry for the luck...Dave

between getting run off the road by crazy truckers and then trying to avoid metal chunks of road debris the size of toasters (not to mention killer potholes)...you vibs owners in NJ dont need vibes, you need HUMMERS h-2's at the very least!!!!! either that or armor the vibe with plates underneath and a turbo/sc for speed uner the hood...Jeez!!!

Your oil pan looks fine. They are designed to take hits everyday. If something was wrong it would have happened already. Put in 5 quarts of oil as usual. In old V8 engines the oil pans and the valve covers were always getting dings and dents in them. If it makes you feel better take it to a dealer but I do not see anything wrong. As far as getting clips do what you will. It is all cosmetic. Leave the duct tape if it makes you happy. With winter coming ask your local parts guy what he has that you can try. 6 cheap clip versions should cost a total of less than $5.00.

quote: Put in 5 quarts of oil as usual. LocDogs signature says "-Auto Everything (I wanted a manual)" so I am assuming that he does not have a GT/2ZZ, and 5 quarts of oil would be too much in the base engine, but you probably meant that he should use the standard amount for whatever engine he has.Still I wonder if you had a really caved in oil pan that did significantly reduce the oil capacity, would you be better off running it with the standard amount of oil in it or with less to match the dipstick? Seems like too high and the crank could dip into the oil and froth it up, and less capacity would age the oil faster, and maybe make the oil hotter. (Obviously if the pan was dented enough to matter the real answer would be to fix the pan)

Using the zip-ties is exactly what I did temporarily back when I had my snow/ice incident. I just zip tied those splash shields back on, works well.Speaking of running things over... I have no idea how this happened, but I found a good size (about 3x6") hole busted through my front driver side wheel splash guard, pretty much exactly behind the CAI filter! I found it a few days after I got back from my long road trip. I don't know if a rock some how flew around and busted a hole. There are no scrape marks anywhere, just a good size hole that looks like it was cut out. Kinda like someone cut a hole, but I have no idea why someone would do that and in that location. I ended up making a patch with some duct tape on the inside of the fender and black electrical tape to help blend in with the splash guard. I'm glad I noticed it that day, because the following day we had quite a bit of rain, and it would have splashed water all onto the filter.