I am brand new to the forum first of all... Secondly I just picked up my '02 Z a week ago. My first canyon run with my buddy turned out to be a disappointment. I was running with a '05 Lotus Elise and a '04 Mazda RX8...

Performance wasn't an issue but clearance was... Our run was mapped out for some back roads in Gold Country.... Not the best roads to begin with and the rain did them no favors at all.....

After avoiding several wheel ruts in the ashpalt I ran over a few peices of chunked out asphalt (none bigger than a 4 inch section of 2x4) when all of a sudden my brand new to me beauty begins dinging and smoking....The DIC was flashing something I didn't catch all the way as I shut it down, but I hope never to see it again..."Loss Of Oil Pressure" or something along those lines. I remember a thud..then the dinging...then the smoke(OIL)... then the sinking stomach...

We were 20 miles from 3 surrounding cities on a sunday morning in an area with no cell reception.....no sholder to the road just a ditch on either side of the narrow two lane road.....

Being brand new to the car I bought slightly used 13k miles....I assumed the worst. I didn't think it had anything to do with the road... and everything to do with an '02 with 13k miles on it....

The 1 foot wide by 30-50 foot long oil trail (remember the dinging) and the 3 foot diameter puddle (where I stopped and shut it down) under the car sure looked bad. The good news is I am a wrench...and tried to see if I lost a cooler line or threw a rod.. Again I hadn't even been under this car yet and had no idea what it could have been....But assumed it was going to be a small fortune to repair.

Visibility is an issue as you all know...Remember that asphalt that's failing??? Turns out it makes for a good ramp if stacked properly... The initial survey showed a severly oiled underside.. no dangling lines... and a dent in the bottom of the oil filter.... The filter is a long arm reach in from the driver side... but I felt compeled to touch it....HOLE!!!!! that small chunk of roadway tore a hole in the filter..... Easy fix... Long way from anywhere that might have the filter and Synthetic oil.... AAA to the recue (after a mile long walk to get reception)... Half our oil change at home...Hour of de-oiling the under side and she is good as new (I hope). Smelt a bit like a 82 toyota celica with 400k miles for the next couple outing but she seems to be OK.

I assume this was a once in a lifetime deal... But I thought I should ask/warn against running over any debris...The only thing I can figure was that the air damn put it into to a tumble and WHAMO!!!!

Need some help to post a pick..remember NEW...

 

oh yea i hear ya. It was dark out and i ran over what at first looked like a crumbled piece of paper and as i began to run over turned out to be a rock. Yea, scared the heck outta me and made me check the underside. From now on i even avoid paper in the road. It doesnt help that my car is slammed to the ground either. You'd think that building descent roads was rocket science. Glad to hear it was an easy fix for ya. Good thing for sensor and warning lights huh?

 

Wonder if the wrong oil filter was used? There's a larger model that fits, but it hangs down abotu 1/2" below the oil pan.

Glad it all worked out well for you.

 

The Corvette God's were watching over you! Nice ending to a bad situation.

 

Let's all hope that is the worst thing that ever happens to you and your Vette. There are horror stories on here aplenty, and they all didn't have as good an ending as yours. Glad to see you are back on the road again.

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I was thinking of lowering mine but you've convinced me not to.

Thanks

 

I remember i was driving with a friend of mine in his F body and we hit a piece of concrete highway that was higher that the section before it, well the car was low enough that it tore open the tranny pan. We had to get the car towed home.

 

There's a good chance that this is what happened, the short filter doesn't hang below the pan, and the longer "Truck" filter does, and I've wondered about wacking it on something.

 

Yikes! And I was thinking of lowering mine, too...I upgraded my AAA to the Plus membership just for the Z06 - for $14 more a year you get 100 miles per tow. Sounds like you were lucky this time.

 

The filter was the Car Quest cross referenced number to the stock filter and didn't sit below the pan.... There were some minor scratches on the aluminum in font of it..??The front cross member, by the jacking point???? New to the car remember.

AAA Plus... yeah!!!!!... I only had the basic.. first 5 miles.. that got me back to the highway....$140 for the tow..$7 for the filter...$50 for the oil.....$10 for the beer so I could get over the incident...Total cost $207 for a lousy mornig, but a good story!!!

 

Glad that had a happy ending. The first thing I did was unknowingly tear off one supporting arm for the front air dam. I hear all this scraping down the highway and I'm thinking "MYBABY!!!!"

 

Wow bad senerio turned out good. You only needed to spend ten dollars on beer to feel better? Good to hear it worked out for you.