TIMMY22

Making a long story short, The wife hit an ice chunk tonight with her Jetta causing a gash in her oil pan. She shut it off right away.

Looks like the engine would have to come out to change the pan, I'm pretty handy with my mig welder.



Anyone ever welded an oil pan on a car?

will the oil ignite inside the pan?

will it burn and leave a crusty residue that will contaminate the oil?

DmaxEter

You would never get a good enough bead to seal it up. The oil residue will go to the heat and blow your bead out. It will look ugly and wont hold oil to well. Sorry.

TIMMY22

what if I clean the area real good with break-kleen?

DmaxEter

You will never get the oil clean enough on the inside. Even if you did, the heat would just find more to pull to it.

Deezel Nate

I bet you can do it. I'd be more worried about catching the residual oil in the pan on wire than anything though.

Lary Ellis (Top)

Put a pan on it, if you don't it will spring a leak and she will end up toasting the engine. You will be mad at her for running the engine with no oil in it, she will be mad at you for not fixing it.

Save yourself all that aggravation and do it right the first time

Oh and check with your insurance, might be covered

DmaxEter

Mr. Ellis always has good advice. I never thought about the insurance end of it. I just know that welding oil pans on engines never works. Even with it off you have to clean it very good and usually heat it cherry red with a torch to get any oil that has pickled the metal out.

kevellis32

Don't try it, thats all anyone can say. It will always leak and the damage it can cause if you try it will cost more than just fixing it the right way!

Dean Snow

not a smooth idea. i was four wheeling with my woods beater, and i cracked the oil pan. we took the pan off in the woods, cleaned it up really good, could have sworn a bomb wouldn't break the weld, had it welded by a man who has been welding 40 years everyday for his job. we then went back and put the pan on the truck and brought it home, we went back out the next weekend and started it up getting ready to go back out to the mud pits. well thats when we found out the pan lost all of its oil, we drove about 10 min before the engine crapped out though. don't weld it, especially if its on a car you need to be dependable. PM me on what kind of jetta it is...i have oil pan..

12valve@heart

Don't know what year Jetta your wife drives but on the older 1.6L and 1.8L, the pan could be changed w/o pulling the motor.

If changing the pan isn't an option, you might be able to clean the outside VERY well and weld or glue a patch of metal over the hole. If the metal is clean, something like automotive seam sealer might work or you might be able to mig a patch onto the pan knowing that oil will get between the layers so your weld needs to be leak-proof. I don't think that trying to weld the hole in the pan will be a good option. You might try try purging the crankcase with CO2 or nitrogen to reduce fire tendancy but I'd sure make the next oil change a short one to flush out any ash or tar that was caused by the heat of welding.

bentwings

I've gas welded a patch on an oil pan. It was on the side however. I heated it up pretty well to burn off the oil inside. It wasn't a pretty weld but it held untill the motor could be pulled.

It may be possible to braze a patch on it.

good luck.

ofcmarc

Try brazing it. There's a brazed part on my oil pan that holds just fine.

Bark

I have not tried this stuff but it looks interesting. http://www.aluminumrepair.com/
Also, depending on the size of the gash/hole, Napa used to sell a bolt gizmo that had seals on both ends. You slipped the bottom of the bolt thing sideways through the gash than tightened it up with a screwdriver so both of the flat sealing surfaces pressed against each other. I used one on my old VW rabbit. It did seep a little but worked. Not sure I would trust it on a car that was worth money.

1-2-3

If you can get the pan off it can be welded.

tbarbee1

I think you could easily weld a patch on it the only problem you would have other than the obvious possibility of fire is stress cracking around the heat effected zone. If it was mine Id try welding it before I would pull the motor just keep an eye on it. At the same time as I'm typing I'm thinking would I trust it to go long distances I guess it all depends on how well you can weld. If you do decide to weld it a patch is the way to go so that you can get away from the gash and the oil trying to leak out and contaminate your weld.