Perhaps someone could help shed some light on something for me. Several weeks ago I drove over a pot hole in the road and punched a hole in the oil pan on my 2005 Kia Rio. I had the pan replaced and a day after I got the car back from the mechanic, my car would no longer go into gear and it made an unusual sound as I tried to drive it to the nearest gas station. Now I’m wondering if perhaps something got messed up in the manual transmission as well when I hit that pot hole. Since I do not understand what the underneath of my car looks like and just how close in proximity the oil pan is to the transmission … could it be possible that the two are close enough where the transmission was affected?
Shouldn’t the mechanic I brought the car to for the oil pan notice that the transmission was affected as well? I’ll be bringing it to another mechanic to check out the transmission … but I guess I just wanted to know if anyone knew if the transmission or something having to do with the transmission fluid vessel was located near the oil pan of a 2005 Kia Rio Standard Transmission.
Just curious about something. You knocked a hole in the oil pan so what happened directly afterwards?
Did you stop immediately and have the vehicle towed?
Did the engine lose all or most of its oil?
Was the oil light on at any time during all of this?
A manual transmission does not have a fluid pan on it and if this incident did have something to do with the vehicle being hard to shift, etc. I would think it would be due to either the shift linkage becoming bent from the impact or a clutch slave cylinder was damaged.
Thank you for your reply. I ended up driving the car for about 3 miles after I hit the pot hole to the nearest gas station … and yes, the oil light had gone on. About 10 days later I managed to get it towed to the mechanic. I would imagine most of the oil was gone?
Could you tell me … if it was either one of the things you mentioned it could possibly be … what sort of cost are we looking at? Thousands?
Thank you kindly …
Teri
I feel that the engine in this vehicle has been severely damaged based on what you’ve said. The oil light being on and continued driving is the kiss of death for an engine.
It’s possible that the shifting problem could be related to engine damage and I’ll try to explain this as simply as possible. There are a number of main bearings in the engine and one of these is called a “thrust bearing”. This bearing keeps the crankshaft from moving back and forth too much. Lack of oil can wipe out the thrust surfaces of this bearing, allow the crank to move too much, and this affects clutch operation because the clutch assembly is attached to the crankshaft. In other words, it affects the clutch pedal movement and adjustment.
One thing I would not have done if I were your mechanic is replace the oil pan without some further investigation of the engine after the oil pan was off. The pan is off anyway so why not spend about 5 minutes wiggling rod bearing caps, checking the previously mentioned crankshaft play, and even removing a couple of bearing caps to inspect the bearings?
As I mentioned, my feeling is that the engine is severely damaged goods and estimating a cost to repair is difficult. Rebuilding the engine is expensive and replacing it is also pricy; just not as pricy.
There should be a couple of tests performed on the engine to verify any problems. One is a compression test (checks piston rings/valve seating, etc.) and the other is an oil pressure test (checks the wear of the crankshaft and crank bearings).
Hope some of that helps.