2016 Toyota Corolla 1.8 issue

I'm trying to help a friend with this car. She said that when the engine is cold it chugs, lurches, drives like crap and the oil pressure light flickers a few times. When the engine warms up it runs perfect and the oil pressure light stays off. She took it to the dealer, they noticed the oil pan was hit and saw yellow marks from a curb stone or speed bump that she ran over. They said warranty will not cover it and they need to change the oil pump. I'm not sure how much they quoted her but I believe she said over $2000 and she's broke. I looked at the pan, it's not terribly smashed up but it was clearly hit. According to her she drove over a speed bump at night at high speed and she heard it hit the bottom of the car. I'm going to order her a new pan and change out the oil and filter and assess the oil pump and pick up. There are zero codes and no check engine but when I disconnect the cam phaser solenoid or oil control valve on bank one, the engine runs perfect on cold start. The low oil pressure light will still come and go until the engine is warm and then will not come back until the next cold start. According to her these problems started a few weeks after she ran over this speed bump. She's from Bulgaria and her English is hard for me to understand. My theory is that on a cold start the oil is thick and maybe the pan and pickup are touching, not letting enough oil through until the oil is warmed and thinner. The cam solenoid could be good but the phaser may not be getting enough oil pressure on the cold start to operate correctly. The engine has to warm up for about 5-7 minutes before it runs good. I'm open for everyone's thoughts here.

My first instinct was it could be damage to the oil pick up resulting in it drawing air but looking at the pictures I am in doubt there is enough of that kind of damage, I am wondering if it could be an oil grade or oil filter issue.

I can agree with that. She said she has another 1000 miles left on that oil. I'll be replacing the pan, oil and filter in a few days when the parts arrive. It might be a bad filter bypass or wrong grade oil.

Here's a second for Andy's thoughts about the pan. Banged up, to be sure, but causing this issue? :huh: I dunno. Symptoms beginning a few weeks after the speed bump is too long to be correlated, IMO.

I still like your initial plan of pulling the pan and changing the oil/filter. The oil light thing is kinda the exact opposite of what I usually see, which is great oil pressure when cold, and low pressure when hot. :silly: So, I figure there's an o-ring or seal somewhere that's leaking when cold, but seals up when warm. Just a theory!

Thank you Tyler. I'm changing the oil pan, oil & filter. As I said the dealer denied warranty because of the hit on the pan. I'm sure the dealer recorded this issue on her vin but just in case they didn't and she goes to a dealer for some other repair in the future maybe she will not have future warranty issues. Also, once the pan is off I will be able to see if there are any cracks on the pick up.