Ok so yesterday I was jacking my car up to fix a tranny leak and as I was jacking the car up the jack slipped. I bent my center link up into the oil pan. The center link is shot and I have a nice dent under the front of my oil pan. Has any tried one of those stud welders to pull dents out of an oil pan with out pulling the oil pan off. My oil pan is galvanized steel. I tried using the stud welder but just cant get the studs to stick good. I cleaned any oil off the pan and even sanded of the some of the coating. I dont now why it wont work. There is still oil in the pan, so I dont know if that causing a problem with the stud gun. If I dont get the dent out It looks like I will have to pull the pan off and that is going to be a huge PITA. Any suggestions.

 

I would suggest taking the time to pull the pan and bang it out from the inside. The do it right or dont do it at all rule applies here. I wouldn't risk turning the oil pan into swiss cheese. Just my opinion though.

 

You can use a stud welder if you grind off the galvanizing first. The only "right" way to fix that is a new pan. It's a PITA 3-4hr job, but worth it in the end. Even if you get the worst of the dents out, it's going to look crappy.

 

I made the same mistake a few years ago. Solution is a new pan. Its not terrible, at $80ish brand new

 

Yeah well I want to see if I can save the pan first. It was a $180 pan. Even if I have to take it off Im pretty sure it might be ok. If not then I will get a new one.

 

Just an update I did eventualy replace the pan. I tried to take the dent out with a stud gun, but in the end I made a hole in the pan and tried to weld it but it leaked anyway. So I wanted to put a tubular K member in anyway so when I removed the stock k member I replaced the pan.

 

old post i know... I just did the same thing today. Did you have to replace your center link? I'll be trying a stud gun tomorrow too.

 

If you bent up the center link yes. And the op and no success with a stud gun so I'd probably be a lot quicker to just replace the pan

 

If you bent it yes. If its 20+ y/o, yes

I had the unfortunate experience of one failing on the highway. Its a part that falls into the "when in doubt, replace" category

 

Yea i bought a new center link but im still gonna try to use a stud gun on the oil pan. Mine is just the factory pan so hopefully it works out.