What's the biggest part you've ever found in an oil pan?

The 1999 Mercury Cougar 2.5L V6 has been leaking oil since I got it last fall. I tried changing the timing cover seal for the crankshaft. That wasn't leaking much. I rebuilt the power steering pump. That wasn't the biggest leak. It looked like the oil pan gasket was leaking, so I decided to change that. If it's still leaking, then the timing cover gasket better be it.

The engine used to make a bad chattering noise when I started it until it built up oil pressure. I didn't know what it was, but then one day, the noise went away. That should have been a clue that something bad happened. Cars don't just fix themselves. If the noise went away, then something probably fell off, or broke.

When I took the oil pan off, the oil pump pickup screen was cram packed with debris. Again, not good. That was restricting oil flow. In the oil pan, I found some sizeable chunks of what looked like a timing chain guide.

Timing chain guide chunks

So without that plastic piece, the timing chain has been rubbing on metal instead of plastic. That's not good. The oil had a brassy metallic color to it when I drained it.

There's a baffle in the bottom of the oil pan that I removed to get the rest of the chunks out. 

1999 Cougar 2.5L oil pan, inside view

Oil pickup tube and screen, cleaned out

Bottom of engine, oil pan removed

Timing chain, looking from the bottom of the engine

Without the plastic piece on the timing chain guide, it will change the timing of the camshafts on that bank. The OBD-II scanner also showed a long term fuel trim difference between bank 1 and bank 2. That means there's an air flow difference between the two banks. So this was the cause of at least some of the missing horsepower.

H19txt Disassembly

I was moving a cabinet on a hand-truck when it fell off and I tried to catch it. My earpiece was in my pocket when I tried to catch the cabinet, and the earpiece got squashed. It still works, but the microphone no longer picks up sound well enough to hear.

So, for the sake of sharing, I decided to disassemble the H19txt. It was already broken, so any further damage wouldn't matter to me. Obviously, I'm not responsible for any damage caused by following the same procedure I list here.

First I removed the top gray cover. If you use a sharp knife and pry it towards the center, it should release the clips and pop off.

Next, remove the plastic trim by prying away from the body. These two pieces were already damaged from being squashed between my thigh and a falling cabinet.

The flip easily comes off by prying the clips wider. One end fits over a square side that activates a switch on the circuit board. The other end is rounded. It's the same basic style as the H17. I broke the flip on my H17 and ordered a replacement. The replacement was the H19 style. The replacement didn't have the rubber bumper on it that made it close softly. That's one feature from the H17 that I like better than the H19txt.

 The circuit board can be removed by first prying up on the USB connector end. Then carefully slide it towards the USB end of the earpiece.

Underneath the circuit board, we can see the lithium ion cell. It is taped in, and can be removed by prying it out.

For my replacement H19txt, the first thing to do is to hold the call button down when opening the flip to get to the settings menu. I turn off the voice prompts so that it takes less time from turning on to being able to talk when I answer the phone.

So, if you have an H19txt and want to replace the battery or something, I hope this helps.