Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax SUMP WARNING

Although I rarely ( never) contribute......maybe I should intervene here.
In my 2012 Plus 8 I had the misfortune to drive through a private gated entrance with a slight ramp up through the gates. The gates were designed to latch onto a slightly up-standing steel plate set into the ground.
Having driven through the gates I stopped the car to close the gates and noticed a river of oil flowing from under the car. The steel plate had pierced the sump as the car had dropped down the slight ramp.
75 miles from home so called the RAC to recover the car.
Been with them 20 years without a call-out.
They regarded it as a traffic accident as the car had made contact with a stationary object & would not recover the car until I agreed to pay £300 recovery.
Car recovered to my home in Lincolnshire & then I paid to have it taken to Melvyn Rutters- another £300.
Melvyn's excellent technicians soon sorted it & fitted a sump guard to my spec. to avoid the same ever happening again.
No onward problems because I stopped the engine immediately before any oil starvation etc could take place.
The mess in the private gateway was on a par with the Torrey Canyon disaster. Be warned !

Welcome to the thread...!!

Another Plus 8 owner is always very welcome: we are quite a rarity here!

An unfortunate little accident, 6.5L of hot oil is going to go a long, long way!
But because the RAC deemed it to be a traffic accident you would probably had grounds to make an insurance claim, and then your car policy underwriters would then have claimed on the third party insurance of the owners of the drive.

In the litigation riddled world in which we live everyone is responsible for all their property and their actions!

BTW, do you have a photo of the sump shield you designed and had fitted?

Many thanks Peter.

Don't think my friends who owned the private gates would have been very impressed with a claim on their insurance !

Needless to say - I didn't make a claim.

Melvyn Rutter did take photos of the sump guard and used them in one of his magazine adverts at the time ( last late spring )
and has added the mod. to his fund of offerings should anyone else fancy having one fitted.

'Design' of the shield did not need a lot of technical know-how !
The brief was for something as small as possible to shield the problem area so that the minimal ground clearance already on offer was not compromised any further.

Of most importance was to chamfer the leading edge of the steel plate to allow it to ride over any obstruction with which it made contact in the future. This has already proved its worth a couple of times.

On the subject of rear valances on Plus 8's - I had the original number plate upstand removed and an earlier Plus 8 style rear valance fitted when I got the car. Must post a photo at some stage.

Should also mention side exhaust rear mounting brackets.
The standard offering can shear from the pipe bracket as I found to my cost when I arrived at Beaulieu sans offside exhaust in September !

A local firm( Gantspeed Porsche at Mareham Le Fen )fitted a much improved bracket ( both sides ) to ensure this never happens again.

Thanks for the background..most informative.

Time to talk to Mr Rutter I think!