Hey guys,
As some of you already know, the motor in my VR4 has let go. It's lost compression on one cylinder and has subsequently dropped vacuum so fuel usage has gone through the roof, it's blowing heaps of smoke, and is filling the catch can with oil.
About 6 weeks ago I received a little knock in the ass which pushed me forwards into the car in front of me, which had a tow bar which gave my cooler a nice dint. The driver that hit me had no insurance, and since I'm fully comprehensively insured, I left it in the hands of my insurance company to fix it.
I do not have a choice of repairer, so the car went to the insurer's nearest repairer and was in there for 2 weeks. Given that I didn't know them from a bar of soap, I reset my trip meter when I dropped the car off so I could tell if it was driven when I picked it up.
They re-painted the front and rear bumpers bars, which I thought was unnecessary (a cut and polish would have done the job) and replaced the intercooler with a new one. This was all well and good. I received a call after the work was done saying that they couldn't get the car to start, or get any power, lights, etc. wouldn't work, so they said they would get an auto-elec in to sort it out. They called me back later to say the problem had been fixed (the battery wasn't grounded) and that the car was running rough.
I went and picked up the car after hockey training late one night (it was left on the street) and couldn't get it to start due to a flat battery. I jump started it off my girlfriend's car but then couldn't get it to idle.
Once there was enough charge back in the battery I decided to try to get it home but it wouldn't accellerate properly, was backfiring, and blowing an absolute shitload of smoke, aswell as popping big flames out the exhaust due to what turned out to be fouled plugs. The car struggled to get to 60km/h and stalled if it dropped below 2000rpm when I was stopped.
The next day, when I had some light, I discovered that the cooler pipe was disconnected from the cooler, but the hose-clamp was done up and still attached to the silicon joiner. I can only assume it had blown off, but now while I was driving it, as I couldn't get the car to build any boost.
I rang the repairer who completely deny driving the car at all, except from the hoist out onto the street.
I have been trying to sort it out with the insurance company over the last month or so who told me I "should not make accusations when I don't know the facts". Basically they don't want to know about it!
They have asked for a written report on the damage to be faxed, which I have faxed 3 times now, but they continue to say that they can't receive faxes because their machine is playing up, and refuse to discuss the matter verbally.
I'm extremely bloody pissed off... somebody should be accountable for this, but nobody will take any responsibility. It's also quite hard for me to prove.
I'm a bit stuck as to what to do now. I can't afford the ~$5,000 re-build cost, nor do I feel I should be the one having to pay for it.
As some of you already know, the motor in my VR4 has let go. It's lost compression on one cylinder and has subsequently dropped vacuum so fuel usage has gone through the roof, it's blowing heaps of smoke, and is filling the catch can with oil.
About 6 weeks ago I received a little knock in the ass which pushed me forwards into the car in front of me, which had a tow bar which gave my cooler a nice dint. The driver that hit me had no insurance, and since I'm fully comprehensively insured, I left it in the hands of my insurance company to fix it.
I do not have a choice of repairer, so the car went to the insurer's nearest repairer and was in there for 2 weeks. Given that I didn't know them from a bar of soap, I reset my trip meter when I dropped the car off so I could tell if it was driven when I picked it up.
They re-painted the front and rear bumpers bars, which I thought was unnecessary (a cut and polish would have done the job) and replaced the intercooler with a new one. This was all well and good. I received a call after the work was done saying that they couldn't get the car to start, or get any power, lights, etc. wouldn't work, so they said they would get an auto-elec in to sort it out. They called me back later to say the problem had been fixed (the battery wasn't grounded) and that the car was running rough.
I went and picked up the car after hockey training late one night (it was left on the street) and couldn't get it to start due to a flat battery. I jump started it off my girlfriend's car but then couldn't get it to idle.
Once there was enough charge back in the battery I decided to try to get it home but it wouldn't accellerate properly, was backfiring, and blowing an absolute shitload of smoke, aswell as popping big flames out the exhaust due to what turned out to be fouled plugs. The car struggled to get to 60km/h and stalled if it dropped below 2000rpm when I was stopped.
The next day, when I had some light, I discovered that the cooler pipe was disconnected from the cooler, but the hose-clamp was done up and still attached to the silicon joiner. I can only assume it had blown off, but now while I was driving it, as I couldn't get the car to build any boost.
I rang the repairer who completely deny driving the car at all, except from the hoist out onto the street.
I have been trying to sort it out with the insurance company over the last month or so who told me I "should not make accusations when I don't know the facts". Basically they don't want to know about it!
They have asked for a written report on the damage to be faxed, which I have faxed 3 times now, but they continue to say that they can't receive faxes because their machine is playing up, and refuse to discuss the matter verbally.
I'm extremely bloody pissed off... somebody should be accountable for this, but nobody will take any responsibility. It's also quite hard for me to prove.
I'm a bit stuck as to what to do now. I can't afford the ~$5,000 re-build cost, nor do I feel I should be the one having to pay for it.
