My 2003 XKR just blew the engine oil pan gasket (lower) the other day. Fortunately I got home before all the oil was gone so no damage. Is this a common occurrence or was I just unlucky? Although the car is 10 years old it still has only 40K miles on it. I'm assuming there was no other underlying cause such as excessive crankcase pressure since there were no DTC or any other fault codes which would point to a faulty PCV etc.. I already have a new gasket ready to fit. Any comments please?

Thanks,

Neil

 

Strange . . . .

Never heard of a blown oil pan gasket without severe blow by from cylinder compression.

Best understand what cause the gasket to leak rather than just replacing it.

 

Odd. Were the bolts loose maybe?

 

An unusual and possibly even unique event.

Is the Oil Pan damaged?

Graham

 

I did have a Ford Taurus 3.0L that blew out the front oil seal due to backfires caused by failing spark plug wires.

Had any such issues?

 

First time I have heard that one. The crankcase vent system should be capable of handling any pressures that could do something like that. If it happened to me, I would look around for blockages in the cranckcase vent and carefully torque the new gasket down. Unless you have a lot of piston ring blowby, this is probably caused by a loose pan. You can verify that all is well by doing a compression test and a leakdown test to be sure what is in the cylinder stays in the cylinder.

 

I could kick myself! I misdiagnosed the problem. The oil cooler hose was leaking at the ferule which DOES appear to be a fairly common occurrence. I guess I didn't look closely enough as to where the oil was coming from. Ordered a replacement hose (C2N2208) so should be up and running again in a few days. Thanks for all your comments. Anyone need an oil pan gasket! I paid $40 including shipping so I'll send it to anyone who wants it for $30 incl. shipping.

Neil

 

Yes...that is a very common issue.