Wednesday, September 5, 2012

How far can you get in a car without oil?


Some one mysteriously deposited about five quarts of oil and some metal and body pieces on our front yard sometime in the very early morning. It appears they didn't see that the road came to a "tee" and ran about a car length over the curb.


Among the pieces was one with a part number. A quick look on the web told us we were looking for a late model Jetta VW.
  

Amazing, they had decided to back out and drive off. It was easy to follow the diminishing oil trail to see that they were determined to make it back to Corvallis, heading south on 99W.

Given the complete loss of oil, it was easy to figure they didn't make it far. With only three tow companies in Corvallis, it only took two phone calls to find out who had towed what where. The offending vehicle was parked in front of a auto shop in South Corvallis,

I drove down to the shop to verify the missing  body pieces matched. The missing grill pieces were a dead give-away.  Underneath, not only was a majority of the oil pan gone, a large portion of an engine mount was dragging on the ground. That must have made enough racket to drown out the dying screeches of an oil-starved engine.
The tow operator told me he picked up the mess near Arboretum Road, just about a mile from our house. That, is apparently has far as you can go without oil.

The only questions remaining? Was the person drunk, and if so, will a $4k repair bill sober them up? Fortunately, this time the only injuries were to some German engineering, but I fear this driver is in for further bumpy roads.

6 comments:

Eldon and Janeil Olsen said...

Amazing sleuthing. Would the tow truck driver know if the owner was drunk or not?

Neil said...

Very cool. But it reminds me of the time we ruined your truck for lack of oil.

Eldon and Janeil Olsen said...

lWhat a writer! "The dying screech of an oil-starved engine."

EO said...

You brought a smile to my day!

Anonymous said...

A good "piece" when you can laugh out loud, chuckle and snicker, all on top of a glimmer of empathy!

Reminds me of the DU-propelled auto that plowed into our truck parked on the street, way back when. Impact woke us up. Larry came back in with the news it was a hit/run, but he didn't have to sleuth it ... left the plate behind along with the bumper.

Chuck said...

do you remember the curb smash in front of the cypress house? as i remember, once edo determined there was no damage to your saab he efficiently went back to sleep.