Oil Pan Vulnerability?

I searched and didn't see an existing thread, so maybe it is buried somewhere, but I had an incident with my car in which a truck ahead of me dropped some metal object and I couldn't swerve to avoid it. But, straddled it the best I could to avoid tire damage. Of course, the Prius hardly has any clearance so it didn't sound great going underneath my car. I made it about 50 miles before I got the dreaded low oil pressure light meaning one thing, a hole in the oil pan.

After getting it to a dealer, and seeing underneath the car, the oil pan is definitely vulnerable to this happening. Especially on the highway when you aren't typically going very slow. Has anyone found any options for protecting the oil pan a bit better? I suppose I could put larger tires on the car when I get to the point of changing them...but that wouldn't make that big of a difference.

Any tips?

 

Not sure what it ended up being, I thought maybe a hitch, but it looked too thin to be that...it was really difficult to see, but I could tell that it was definitely something aluminum. Not a tool, that would have been a better scenario I think! Thanks for the link. It is still cheaper than an oil pan replacement. ;-)

 

Yikes. I definitely am thankful that it wasn't more serious. The Toyota dealership I went to wasn't the one I typically use because it is pretty far from where I live. But, after my experience, I think I will go to them from now on. It is amazing how a service experience can vary so much from one dealer to the next. I had to leave my car for the weekend because I needed to drive up to DC and they offered to pay for a rental for one day because they knew how important getting there was, they detailed my car for free and even replaced a burned out light. My regular dealer would have never done that. Heck, they talk to you when you drop your car off and never again. I have more of a relationship with the cashier at the dealer I bought my car from!

 

The parts including the oil pan were $171.28, the labor was $283.50 and the oil change was $27.95. I was getting close to needing my oil changed, so guess that took care of that! I got a bit of a discount, so out the door with the dealer detailing the car for free was $495.83. The labor costs were a bit insane, but mechanics have to get paid. So, it could have been so much worse. I was getting ready to drive from Atlanta to DC, so at least I was still close to home and my amazing Dad could help out. He dumped a few quarts of oil in the car and I drove over 90 mph to Toyota three exits away and hoped for the best since it was after hours.

Absolutely a freak accident, and I am hoping that it will be the first and last time I have to deal with anything like that.

 

That must have survived because there was no mention of that. Whatever it was had to have rolled, because nothing else was affected under the car. They let me look under the car when they were working on it. The hole was pretty small and isolated to the right bottom corner of the pan. The odd part was that I drove 50 miles before the low oil pressure light went on. One can only assume that my car was cold when I hit the object and had warmed up by the point the light finally came on.

 

I saw the hole. I don't see how a metal pan could crack, but if it had, we would had the option to just weld it. My Dad took a picture of the pan while it was still on the car, but unfortunately, the picture turned out blurry and you can see the dent, but not really the hole. The area surprisingly wasn't very oily, perhaps since all the oil had about 10 hours to fully drain out and all the oil was new from my Dad adding more to get the car to the service department.

 

Here is the blurry picture, not sure if it shows the plastic panel or not...but maybe it will help answer your questions.

 

Wouldn't the dealer have replaced the plastic panel if it has been damaged or missing? I didn't see it on the bill. I will check it out later. I assume that they wouldn't have been able to see the oil pan without taking it off.

Edited to add that I did look under the car today and saw the plastic panel. It looked fine to me, and since my bill did not have any line items relating to a panel replacement, one would assume that it wasn't damaged with this little adventure.