Technical Terrible unfortunate accident

[Stephen505]

I was driving in Sicily at 70km/h straight downhill road where there was a railway passing across. I saw the signs to slow down, but I thought they were meant only if a train is crossing. Since there was no train, I did not slow down and having no experience of rails, it was a terrible mistake.

The rails are not at same level of the street and as a result, my Fiat Punto had a big thump and hit the lower parts of the chassis badly. The oil sump was torn and oil splashed out. I stopped the car in 20-30 seconds.

I tried to start the engine again, started normally without any signs of strange noise of jammed parts in the engine, but there was the strange symptom as if one press the accelerator throttle and release it and so the engine revs at 3000rpm and stops in cycles of about once in 1 or 2 seconds (vrooom - stop - vroooom - stop - etc....). The only warning light is that of the oil - the engine warning light did not lit up.

I turned off and never started the engine again. Oil was still dripping. Opened the bonnet and there was the air-filter out form its place: snapped out from the holding brackets. I also had the silencer out of place from the central part of the car. Brakes were hard during those 20seconds, maybe I've broken a pipe too.


The car is finally at the mechanic's garage and is a bit reluctant if it should be repaired. He asked me several times if I think the engine was jammed / concerned, but I think it was not affected, since I heard it running 'well'. He said the other things are minor, but he is worried if the engine is compromised, and changing a new engine is expensive.

My questions:

1) What do you think about the accelerating symptom?
2) Would you repair it?
3) Anyone had a similar fault or experience?

Many thanks
Sadly
Stephen

 

[Brendan W]

You don't say if the car is 8v or 16v but if the impact was enough to break the air filter loose from it's mounting brackets you could well have damage to the throttle body of the control cable or wire. You could also have pulled off the vacuum hose to the servo which could explain both the revving and the hard brakes.
It sounds like the motor ran up to 3000rpm with no oil. Depending on how long this will have caused damage. You could be very lucky and have escaped but I would be pessimistic about the state of the motor. Your mechanic is right to be reluctant as you could spend a lot of time and money and find out the engine is dead. A full strip down to check it out will probably cost a lot more than a replacement motor.

 

[s and b]

yes you really need to say 8 valve or 16 valve before words can be uttered

 

[Stephen505]

My Punto is 8 valve. Would the engine light turn and there will be strange sounds from the engine if there is a fault in the engine? The oil have not sank down completly in those 30 seconds. There was still oil during those 20-30seconds and it kept dripping 3 hours later. Sorry, I am trying to auto convince myself !!!

Would like to learn more on the servo / vacuum thing. Is it just a pipe or something more expensive ?

 

[Stephen505]

p.s. Probably I overshot my estimation, and would be more accurate if I would have wrote 2000rpm instead 3000.

 

[s and b]

how i would attack this as your mechanic
check integrity of oil cannister holder with view to simple replacement
check bottom of engine block where sump bolts for any casting breakages
look possibly with endoscope or mechanics mirror at inlet manifold with a view for damage caused where engine was violently wrenched causing damage

i recon you might well get away with a repair but obviously your mechanic is the eyes here
remember to also change or carefully inspect pick up pipe in sump as these break or hairline fracture so once built up wont pick oil up ,it could also damage the part of the block bolted to sump

 

[Brendan W]

The exhaust probably took a fair impact as well. so you will have to look at the manifold and the cat for damage.

 

[Stephen505]

Noted with thanks
I will report you this week...

 

[flisko]

sue the railyard and have them pay for repairs

 

[Stephen505]

Sure, in Mafia land , Sicily - I had to pay 170Euros for towing from road to ship to Malta ! To make it more interesting, the person at the towing said that he recovers 20 cars every year from that spot, and the police tried to make me feel better when he said that a young person died there last Xmas on the same spot (probably she was driving 100+). It's a road killer.:yuck:

 

[flisko]

Sure, in Mafia land , Sicily - I had to pay 170Euros for towing from road to ship to Malta ! To make it more interesting, the person at the towing said that he recovers 20 cars every year from that spot, and the police tried to make me feel better when he said that a young person died there last Xmas on the same spot (probably she was driving 100+). It's a road killer.:yuck:

make a picture of this interesting car killer

 

[oldhammer]

iwitnessed this a few week back,

theres been plenty more too,

 

[flisko]

wtf

before u are even able to see this its to late, here if u hit a pothole and it damages your car in any way u get money for repairs back, the road company have all the roads insured,
it may take longer but u will eventually get it, call the cops, they will write everything down, make pictures as evidence, if the insurance company refuses to pay which they rarely do, cuz they know if it will get to court it will cost them more, interest on late payments and so on

 

[YST]

That's crazy!

I can't offer any mechanical advice but flisko is right, you should be able to claim for that. It is far from a 'pot hole' more like a sink hole! Shocking really.

 

[Ziggy122]

Yet the OP has clearly stated he ignored road markings saying to slow down

So tbh, your own fault

Ziggy

 

[Westbeef]

iwitnessed this a few week back,

theres been plenty more too,

Is that the new metro? What area was that? Cause us drivers nothing but problems around Manchester it has

 

[oldhammer]

Is that the new metro? What area was that? Cause us drivers nothing but problems around Manchester it has

its the drivers that cause most of the problem's.
theyve been getting stuck on the lines for awhile now,

taxis use them as a car park too, mental :bang:

 

[Stephen505]

Hi folks, thanks for replying. As I said this took place in Sicily 9not UK) and the politics are different. Now the sump was fitted by my mechanic and the good news is that the engine was not compromised - it is working well. The bad news is that I have hit the Brake servo (hence the revving and no brakes) and the mechanics needs to replace the whole unit. Other names are Power brake or Brake booster according my mechanic.

We shall also change the silencer and mountings of the air filter - parts that we can find locally; but I need to buy this brake servo. can you kindly list some online shops? I've already emailed big mick of EuroCare (he does not have it listed under Punto Mk2/Brakes) but would be glad to email other shops

Thank you

 

[s and b]

why not ebay?

 

[David Dawson]

Yet the OP has clearly stated he ignored road markings saying to slow down

So tbh, your own fault

Ziggy

Correct, is you can see a railway crossing isn't flat, then you should slow down. I slow down for every railway crossing, regardless of situation. Lessons learnt here I feel.