Not strictly a technical question, but........

[Paul Mason]

Traversing speed bumps, the sort you get at the 2 ends of a village where half of the road is blocked and you have to go over the square type, roughly 2m x 2m rubberised blocks with tapered sides

I do it with nearside wheels “off” the bump as that seems to be the sumps/oil filter housing/oil line for pressure gauge lowest point - so avoid like the plague. But I get a scrape under my backside which I’m pretty sure is the seat bolts.

Anything under the offside of the car that I could be missing and damaging in so doing?

All of the good roads near me seem to have this inconvenience at one end or another!

[Jonathan Kay]

What model of 7?

I'd check if it is the seat bolts... and some are considerably longer than needed.

What's your current minimum ground clearance?

Jonathan

PS: I go either way on those.

[Paul Mason]

Series 3 I believe standard

Didn’t have a can of coke Jonathan hope this makes a decent proxy. Not sure why image has gone upside  down?

About the name on a Heinz tin is my ground clearance, perhaps a tad less at the bottom the oil pipe

[John Vine]

These things are an abomination, especially with a low-slung car, as the room for manoeuvre is so limited.  I navigate them the same way you do (and very cautiously at that).  

There's a particular hump here (southbound into Kirtlington, Oxfordshire -- perhaps JK knows it?) that I hit full on at 30mph recently in my R400D.  Judging by the scrapes, others have done the same thing.  I didn't see the warning sign (always assuming there was one), and had merely reduced my speed to match the 30 limit.  Fortunately, the only damage was a few scraped fins.  But it did raise the question of whether you should be able to negotiate such bumps AT the prevailing limit, and if not, why not.  I even asked Oxfordshire CC, but got a non-commital (that is, useless) reply.   

By the way, that oil pipe looks mighty vulnerable.  Does it feed a remote sender?  Do you have a dry sump?  Is there a way to re-route it to avoid that downward section?

JV

[Paul Mason]

Oil sender is my greatest fear to be honest.

Car is drysumped yes. Pipe appears to route around engine and into the pressure gauge from what I can fathom. Only thing I can think of it to look for a different fitting and elbow to remove as much of the drop as possible 

That, or raise the ride height? Which I am trying to avoid as it’s been flat floored and  set up properly by all accounts and don’t want to mess that up

[Jonathan Kay]

Jonathan

[elie boone]

You should use a banjo on the flex hose connection.

[SM25T]

Definitely need to change that oil pressure gauge feed pipe fitting so it comes out horizontally ... or upwards.

[MADMALC]

Having taken out 2 dry sumps I agree with the two above. I would not drive in anger till you sort that pipe work out, it WILL get wiped out.

[DJ.]

It does look very vulnerable. Once it has been moved up as much as possible, I think I would try and make some sort of metal shield, just in case a stone hits it.

 

[Golf Juliet Tango]

Having broken the casting which holds the oil sender (and filter) (ouch, expensive), I would endorse getting more clearance here.

[Paul Mason]

Forgive my ignorance Elie, what’s a banjo?

In terms of set up there is a pipe outlet on the bottom of the oil filter housing (oil feed for gauge I believe) and another outlet on the top of the housing which I think of for the oil pressure sensor sender which has a big red light on the dash. Could the top outlet be used for both?

[Paul Mason]

Also, from the very technical “Heinz” scale measurement, is the ride height on the car too low?

[Dave J]

*rofl*it’s conventional to turn the calibration can 90 degrees 

[Jonathan Kay]

Banjo fitting. There are probably some in your brake lines.

Jonathan

[Paul Mason]

Ah! So ride height possible correct, the numpty in charge of measuring is the problem?

Everyday is a school day!

I do hope this forum is full of patient folk as I have tons more stupid questions to ask yet!

[Jonathan Kay]

"Traditional minimum is a free-rolling Coke can: 66mm diameter. Common recommendation for road cars is ≥ 80mm."

Jonathan

[Jonathan Kay]

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

:-)

Jonathan

[Paul Mason]

Thanks for both Jonathan. Now your picture of a coke can makes way more sense!

Slowly but surely this stuff will sink in. 

[Paul Mason]

I am going to go buy a banjo bolt, banjo fitting and crush washers to create a little more margin underneath the car per advice received.

If I take out the fitting to the filter housing and elbow joint and associated fitting to oil pipe, will the weight of the oil in the dry sump canister (which feeds into the back of the filter housing) push all of the oil out through the open oil sender hole on the bottom of the filter or as the pump isn’t running, will the only loss be what’s in the filter?

I’m wanting to remove the current pipe work so I can take it to Pirtek or similar to ensure I get the exact sized banjo bolt and fitting to join with the current filter housing and pipe work- but don’t want to com back to a empty dry sump tank (I have spare oil, just don’t want to mess on with anything that doesn’t need it)