Unfortunate Tuesday with my Mach 1 - engine oil mess (not as bad as BP)

[Rapid Red]

Why on gods green earth did you stop near a drain.
That is why the clean up is a 4000.00 bill.
Never ever stop at, near a drain. I'd have pushed the car if I had to, so the oil leaking was no where near a drain, and used my shirt if need be to keep it from running toward it.

I'd like to see that one, Monday morning quarterback, 10qts of oil versus T-shirt..... oh boy

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[ay1820]

Here is what my M1's factory oil cooler setup looks like:

So this emblematic of the biggest problem with the S550s, poor design choices. Curbs, speed bumps, rocks, whatever all happen in the real world and a design that leads to a complete loss of engine oil based on scraping a curb is just poor.

Whether it's body seems that fail near window corners, strut tower studs that snap, A pillar seals made from tape that fail and let in water, or this Rube Goldberg inspired oil cooler plumbing, there is a pattern of bad design choices that may make sense on paper but just don't hold up in the real world. Ford has a huge quality problem and it starts right here with poor design choices.

Sorry for the (slightly) OT rant.

 

[WD Pro]

Why on gods green earth did you stop near a drain.
That is why the clean up is a 4000.00 bill.
Never ever stop at, near a drain. I'd have pushed the car if I had to, so the oil leaking was no where near a drain, and used my shirt if need be to keep it from running toward it.

I'd like to see that one, Monday morning quarterback, 10qts of oil versus T-shirt..... oh boy

WD

 

[Bobn57]

Wow right on the bottom. Looks like it sure wouldn’t take much to crush a fitting.

yeah...I'm surprised but where did he take the initial hit? Thought it was at the wheel which is back from the lines. Didn't see any body or splitter damage in OP's pics. If wheel went sideways into curb I would expect to see damage there. Will be interesting to get final evaluation.

 

[RagmopInKona]

Probably didn’t know there was a drain there. If your car’s puking oil it’s not the first thing that comes to mind.

Ya, get that, but instead of standing there taking a photo, I'd have put my shirt at the drain edge, and pushed the car. But that is just me.

 

[fast306stang]

yeah...I'm surprised but where did he take the initial hit? Thought it was at the wheel which is back from the lines. Didn't see any body or splitter damage in OP's pics. If wheel went sideways into curb I would expect to see damage there. Will be interesting to get final evaluation.

I was literally about to post the same. I can't believe there's no wheel/tire/body damage or marks. Which would explain why he didn't feel any impact. I wonder if it's possible he ran over something that flipped up when he drove over it, doing the damage underneath.

 

[RagmopInKona]

I'd like to see that one, Monday morning quarterback, 10qts of oil versus T-shirt..... oh boy

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking there was much less oil in it, by the time he stopped, looking at the trail in those photo's. I'd have at least tried. As soon as I saw that photo, I had an idea a huge clean up bill was coming.
But today, We take photo's first.
Sucks either way. but to me, stopping or limiting anything going down a drain would trump taking a photo.
I do keep a few rags and an extra set of threads in my car(shirt/pants, underwear/socks.), just in case I need them, Taco bell waits for no one.

 

[Bobn57]

I was literally about to post the same. I can't believe there's no wheel/tire/body damage or marks. Which would explain why he didn't feel any impact. I wonder if it's possible he ran over something that flipped up when he drove over it, doing the damage underneath.

I was literally about to post the same. I can't believe there's no wheel/tire/body damage or marks. Which would explain why he didn't feel any impact. I wonder if it's possible he ran over something that flipped up when he drove over it, doing the damage underneath.

Why on gods green earth did you stop near a drain.
That is why the clean up is a 4000.00 bill.
Never ever stop at, near a drain. I'd have pushed the car if I had to, so the oil leaking was no where near a drain, and used my shirt if need be to keep it from running toward it.

funny you say that...I was just thinking if that happened to me I would be so embarrassed and in a rush to fix it would of been wiping up the oil with my shirt! I used to drive around with a full tool box in the trunk back in the day. You just never knew when they would be needed.....not anaybe some bags of speedy dry should be

My thought originally. I hit what looked like a body molding on the highway the other day with my explorer. Made a hell of a racket bouncing around before it was spit out. Luckily no damage. I was expecting to see puddles of fluids when I stopped. OP could have hit something in road before he got to hotel. The rub against the tire could have been the final touch.

 

[Bobn57]

Why on gods green earth did you stop near a drain.
That is why the clean up is a 4000.00 bill.
Never ever stop at, near a drain. I'd have pushed the car if I had to, so the oil leaking was no where near a drain, and used my shirt if need be to keep it from running toward it.

funny you say that...I was just thinking if that happened to me I would be so embarrassed and in a rush to fix it I would of been wiping up the oil with my shirt! I used to drive around with a full tool box in the trunk back in the day. You just never knew when they would be needed.....not anymore but maybe I need to pack some bags of speedy dry!

 

[RagmopInKona]

funny you say that...I was just thinking if that happened to me I would be so embarrassed and in a rush to fix it I would of been wiping up the oil with my shirt! I used to drive around with a full tool box in the trunk back in the day. You just never knew when they would be needed.....not anymore but maybe I need to pack some bags of speedy dry!

Hard lesson to learn, costly one. I keep rags in every vehicle , mostly worn out tee shirts, towels. but yes. my first thought would not have been lets take a few photo's while oil is doing down a drain.
I feel bad for the o/p shelling out 4k is a hard pill to swallow.

 

[OutWest]

Any other S550 models that have similar oil cooler setups? I am thinking of carrying a bag of kitty litter in my trunk now

 

[raidernixon]

Any other S550 models that have similar oil cooler setups? I am thinking of carrying a bag of kitty litter in my trunk now

I believe the GT350s and GT500s run very similar setups. Not sure about the PP2.

 

[ORRadtech]

So this emblematic of the biggest problem with the S550s, poor design choices. Curbs, speed bumps, rocks, whatever all happen in the real world and a design that leads to a complete loss of engine oil based on scraping a curb is just poor.

Whether it's body seems that fail near window corners, strut tower studs that snap, A pillar seals made from tape that fail and let in water, or this Rube Goldberg inspired oil cooler plumbing, there is a pattern of bad design choices that may make sense on paper but just don't hold up in the real world. Ford has a huge quality problem and it starts right here with poor design choices.

Sorry for the (slightly) OT rant.

Well, I've found that if you watch enough YouTube car videos you'll find that Ford may not be perfect but they are far from the worst when it comes to poor, and even unsafe, vehicle design.
Just yesterday I watched one where a BMW could not be safely pulled onto a wrecker because there was no way to place the transmission in neutral without the car running and it would not start. Turned out to need a new starter which requires the intake be removed because the main power wire cannot be accessed with the intake on.

 

[fast306stang]

Well, I've found that if you watch enough YouTube car videos you'll find that Ford may not be perfect but they are far from the worst when it comes to poor, and even unsafe, vehicle design.
Just yesterday I watched one where a BMW could not be safely pulled onto a wrecker because there was no way to place the transmission in neutral without the car running and it would not start. Turned out to need a new starter which requires the intake be removed because the main power wire cannot be accessed with the intake on.

Remember the older BMW's with the integrated fuel pump? When the pump went bad, you had to change the entire gas tank...like $8K

 

[ay1820]

Well, I've found that if you watch enough YouTube car videos you'll find that Ford may not be perfect but they are far from the worst when it comes to poor, and even unsafe, vehicle design.
Just yesterday I watched one where a BMW could not be safely pulled onto a wrecker because there was no way to place the transmission in neutral without the car running and it would not start. Turned out to need a new starter which requires the intake be removed because the main power wire cannot be accessed with the intake on.

I tend to agree, but after 15+ years of BMW ownership what I tended to see were choices that may make service difficult, but really no issues that led to failure during routine operation of the vehicle. Those are the problems with the S550 that I find most disturbing.

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