Insurance question

[cooltt]

Hi All

Ok so it looks like i've totaly killed my car. Went through a puddle this morning sucked up water into the air filter and the engine died.
I've charged up the battery but it won't even turn over and it gave 3 loud beeps when i tried to start it.It's a 98 gti turbo.

Can i claim on my insurance (i have full no claims and fully comp) and what do i tell them? Insurer is direct line.

Any advice would be apprieciated

Thanks.

[leeroy20vt]

a friend of mine had same thing he claimed and got the car back and put new engine init

[GazB]

As long as they know about any mods you have done, otherwise they will just laugh

[Ivor Mk4 Turbo]

If your lucky, some one might be able to get it going with a can of WD40 & get the water out.  Worse case is you've sucked some water in & bent some valves in the head.

Bit of a grey area with insurers, this one.  Some will payout, some won't.  As long as it wasn't an official ford i.e. with roadsigns, then you might stand a chance??

You running an OE airbox or aftermarket I.K.?

[cooltt]

Hello
It's an after market induction kit but it was on the car when i bought it 4 months ago, i'm just going to plead ignorance!

Anyway i had some bad news today the garage recons the car is a complete write off because the cost of repair is more than 60% of the car value but the insurance guy hasn't seen it yet, he comes on Friday. I can't understand how i can get it repaired for about £1000 with a straight engine swap but the gargage quote for the same work is way above that. Sounds a little strange to me, i'm hoping the assessor will not write it off on Friday and authorise the repair.

It's got full vw service history and i've just had £800 worth of work done...new timing belt and water pump, major service, brand new disks and pads all round and suspension replacement all in the last 6 weeks.I'll be F**king pissed if they write it off!

[AndyMitton]

they'll want to use all new parts and what have you to do the repair, plus their labour rates....

unfortunately ignorance is no excuse for the insurance companies, it's 100% your responsibility...theylll find anyway not to pay out, belive me! id try and whip that induction kit off mate!

[Holgate End]

I'd agree with Andy.  If you havent declared the I.K. they will never pay out. 

You're in a grey area with this as it is, and if they dont want to pay out, they'll just say your insurance was void because you hadnt declared an aftermarket mod.

You've got 24hrs to find a scrappy/go to the nearest VW stealers and get it swapped over.

You should also try a different mechanic.

[GTi-Matt]

hi mate,

sorry to hear about your sad loss of your turbo . how did you get on wth the insurance bloke today? did u whip the induction kit off? fingers crossed for you bud

[cooltt]

Well the situaton so far is that on friday i went to the garage without them knowing because they told me in the morning that the insurance guy isn't going there until Tuesday!
I walked in while they were busy doing stuff and inspected what they have done to my car. They have taken the engine head off to expose the pistens and look like they were cleaning them. I spoke to a lad who was working on a car nearby and he told me that his mate was working on my car and that he said once the engine was cleaned out it would be fine.
When i told him that i was told that it was proberbly a write off he wouldn't say anything else to me.

Anyhow if worst comes to the worst i've got an engine lined up identical to mine but with only 38000 miles on it and a garage near me to fit it. Should cost me a grand supplied and fitted. I've got to wait to see what the insurance say on Tuesday but i got a feeling their either going to invalidate my policy or write the car off either way i'm going to get my car back and fix it myself.

[GazB]

 They have taken the engine head off to expose the pistens and look like they were cleaning them.

Cant see why they would be doing any work on it, not unless they had been aurthorised to do so