Expertise sought

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  • #222760 Reply
    David Hewitt
    Guest

    We are in a difficult situation with our insurer over a write-off car. They will not allow our mechanic to speak to their experts because they won’t honor the claim. But to honor the claim, we need the experts to speak to each other, as the call handler keeps mis-stating what happened. So circular debate that goes nowhere.

    I was making a very short trip into town, when the oil light came on. I looked for the next opportunity to pull over, which was not easy in a busy town centre but within I estimate 500 metres I was able to pull into a supermarket car park. The dipstick showed no oil which seemed odd. I bought some oil, poured it in, and watched as a large puddle spread under the car. I’m no mechanic but I knew not to move the car. Recovery eventually came out and said I had a big hole in the sump – I must have run over debris in the road but honestly didn’t notice anything other than the oil light. I arranged a flatbed truck to winch it up and take it to my local garage. At no point was the car started at all, to avoid any damage to the engine.

    My mechanic ordered a sump, when it came in repaired it, put new oil in and then tested to see if the engine was damaged. He started the car, took it 50 meters and was unhappy with the way the engine sounded. He took apart one of the bearings and it was obviously very damaged, along with other telltale signs. So we’ve called the insurance company to say the car is a write-off because the engine was damaged at the accident scene.

    The call handler, who goes off to speak to others and will not allow us, nor our mechanic to speak to an engineer who can speak the same language, returns and says, the damage happened when the mechanic drove it after repairs.

    We keep having to repeat he did the oil sump replacement and had to test it to find out. It could only be done after the repairs were completed and new oil was put in.

    But we go around in circles, that it was run without oil (and I am sure that many of you mechanics would take great issue with an insurer claiming that a mechanic would ever run any engine without oil!) And our mechanic has said basically there were only two choices, test it as he has done or take the engine to pieces. Either way, the damage happened during the accident, and all the dismantling of the engine would have done is more work, for more time, for more money to achieve what a 50 meter ride would also tell him.

    So we continue with the insurer saying they won’t allow an engineer to speak because there is no claim, but we cannot prove the claim because we can’t have the engineer speak to our mechanic.

    I’ve said, I will seek other independent expertise to corroborate this. I am seeking mechanics only, not public (sorry but I need mechanic expertise specifically) to say if the damage happened at the accident time or by the mechanic. Please respond to that only as that seems to be the sticking point that they claim the mechanic damaged it and it would be preferable to not tangent as I need to present the responses to the insurer so I am only seeking if you agree with my mechanic’s actions, and if he damaged it after repair.

    Thank you in advance for your expert insight!

    #222761 Reply
    David Hewitt
    Guest

    They will pay for the sump and repair, as they see that as a legitimate accident but claim the engine, which is the write off part of the car, was due to the mechanic. They are not arguing about the accident, only that the engine was damaged when the mechanic had to test it to see if the accident had damaged it.

    They told us to go after our mechanic for the engine, and I support our mechanic as I do not doubt his expertise that we’ve relied on for 4 years, and I suspect that the engine was damaged but no one could tell until the first repair was done, or at the very least, it was the most efficient way to test what was already the result. I do not think the result would be different, only the process to get to it. But the car was a write-off at the start, and a test drive of 50 meters, with full oil, after the repair, didn’t damage it.

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