Drove over a cattle grid, which had sunk into the road, which has resulted in the oil sump being badly scratched. At the moment it doesn't look like it is leaking, but haven't managed to get a good look under the car yet.

So to prepare, any know how hard it is to replace the sump and what sort of costs I'd be looking at - both for the sump and labour if I don't do it myself.

Engine is 1.9Tdi with Manual (NOT PD Engine)

Cheers

IIRC it was in the region of £200-300 for having it replaced from what other people have said on here.

Really must get a group buy sorted for the Metal sump guard for the octy at some point or see if we can get the fabbed up one when people have some free time time.

TBH if the sump itself was leaking you would know about it pretty damn quick as you would be out of oil in no time.

I take it the little piece of plastic went for a wander rather rapidly

When I bust the sump on my vRS parts and labour at a dealer were about

Sump is cheap, £55 IIRC. Long life oil is expensive £60. Fitting is easy (the sump comes with the sealant). The plastic undertrays are pricey too. Labour would be about 30-60 minutes (at dealer rates. Easy enough to do it yourself.

Thanks, still not managed a proper look, oh if only I had a ramp.

Anyway - the plastic tray had already gone walk about before I brought the car - had just got another one to replace it (currently sat in the garage) - but this this would have gone.

All the damage seems to be just in front of the sump plug area. I can't at the moment tell if there is oil weeping from around the sump plug, or it just oil that has been left there from all the oil changes over the last 150k miles.

Also the slight metallic nosie seems to be only a idle - sounds like a metal heat shield knocking, have written to the council - don't hold out for much though

iirc the none PD diesel engine had a steel sump pan not the aluminium one ,i may be wrong , so unless you've really badly mangled it , it should be ok and not need replacing , if its badly bent in , you can take it off and knock the dent out then refit with fresh sealant on the joint , obviously an aluminium sump that has been hit would be a different problem altogether

All the sumps are aluminium on the Octavia 1 bar the 1.4 16v iirc and even that might be.

Sumps dont come with sealer, but however if your parts man has a brain in his head he may include it as you will need it. Make sure all the old sealer is cleaned off first. And get a new bung

The cattle grids in the new forest are equally bad, it's a mental situation that they can take the road tax, not repair the roads and then not pay out when peoples cars are damaged quite clearly due to them not repairing the roads.

Right. I'll get off my soap box now....

Regarding the metalic noise, i don't hear one on my diesel, but i have pretty much driven diesel since i first passed my test and am used to engines a lot less refined than the TDi. I'll definately agree that is sounds like a bag of spanners when cold though.