car accident expose existing oil leak?

[fisher83]

Curious about everyone's thoughts on this... My wife was in a car accident in the Elantra yesterday. Not a serious accident and everyone is okay. She rear ended another car and there is minor front end damage to our car. I had checked our oil about a week ago and I regularly look for any leaks or low fluid levels, etc. on all vehicles I own. I had to add maybe 1/4 of a quart about 4500 miles into my 7500 mile OCI a week ago which is typical. Never noticed any leaks. Checked the engine after the accident to make sure there was no coolant or tranny fluid leaks or anything that would prevent the car from being driveable after the accident. I noticed a pretty decent amount of oil seeping from the valve cover down the front of the engine onto the exhaust manifold. This wasn't happening a week ago but the car accident did not push anything back into the engine. Are these two things happening at the same time purely coincidental? A friend of mine suggested that I probably had the leak and the jarring from the accident just exposed it more. Sound right to you guys?

 

[Roadkingnc]

coincidental

 

[OtisBlkR1]

Originally Posted By: Roadkingnc
coincidental


+1

 

[oldhp]

+2

 

[yonyon]

Probably coincidental. It's also possible the accident jarred the sealer at the corner of the half-circle and started a leak that would have begun in the near future anyway. Either way, don't bother trying to get your insurance to cover it. If you can talk them into covering that, you'd get better use of your skills selling ice makers to the Inuit.

 

[fisher83]

Thanks for all the replies guys! Sounds like everyone is in agreement that it is coincidental. The engine has one of those big acoustic covers on it which may be why I didn't notice the leak before. I replaced the valve cover gasket myself on our previous car (2001 Accent) with a very similar engine so I will probably just repair that myself then when the car is done in the body shop.

 

[earlyre]

only adding 8oz after 4500 mi, that engine is doing great.
I know it's not the same car or even the same engine, but my old hyundai(y2k Sonata 2.4l)always used a qt of vwb 10w30 every 1000 mi or so.
never saw any evidence of leaks. even switching it to maxlife didn't stop/slow the consumption.

 

[Kuato]

I'd have it fixed along with the other accident damage. Having done auto liability for more than a couple years, there is often damage which escapes the initial estimate.

There have been time when the initial damage estimate was less than 1/2 of the actual repairs.

 

[LeakySeals]

If a hard impact could collapse or crush a humans internal organs, would think a rubber or cork gasket, especially one of those factory forma-gaskets sandwiched between two metals could suffer the same fate. Today we survive accidents, only to die of internal bleeding or a brain aneurysm hours later. I say some accidents CAN create leaks!

 

[eljefino]

Don't forget the engine sits on rubber mounts so it'll flop around on impact.

A weasely insurance company would say that a gasket in good condition would have survived the bump, and your gasket was rubbish anyway.

Is it a big deal to change? Isn't the part $10-20?

 

[fisher83]

Good point. Didn't think of it that way. We actually had a friend who survived a bad motorcycle accident. Was released from the hospital and got dressed. Bent down to tie his shoe and a blood clot went to his brain and killed him instantly. That was just last year. I take the car in tomorrow so I'll let them know about the oil leak and see what they say anyway. If they say they aren't going to fix that I'm not going to fight it but I did not see it before the accident and I pop my hood and check stuff frequently. Damage doesn't look bad but it's also a 9 year old, 108k mile Hyundai so who knows what the verdict will be.

 

[fisher83]

You could have been losing oil through the valve cover gasket as well, only internally. There are separate small gaskets for the spark plug tubes that are prone to leaking on many overhead cam engines. The oil just pools up around the spark plugs and burns off slowly from the heat from the plugs. IDK if the 2.4 is any more or less prone to this than other engines. I have been pretty happy with this engine overall and it does seem much quieter and smoother than the 1.6 in our Accent we had previously.