AA - NO Winch Recovery

[bonzo007]

Please can I have some opinions/advice on the following, when I called the AA for asistance due to my Land Rover Discovery overheating, I was driving along motorway when I noticed that the temp gaue had risen slightly above its normal position so I kept watching & noticed it was slowly rising further so to avoid damage to the engine I quickly pulled over on to the hard shoulder, please note at this point the gauge had not it the red danger mark or even that near to it on the gauge but was higher than usual hence pulling over so it could not do so, at this point I called the AA so they could check it out & if need be relay the vehicle to a garage, there was no signs of excesive heat from the engine no leaking oil or water, when the recovery vehicle arrived it was a sub contract garage the AA had sent which I did not have a problem with until that is the chap driving it said this could be a problem because my winch is broken, he said he would have to drive it on to the lorry, I told him that I did not think that it would be a good idea to start an over heated vehicle & I would prefer it if he did not, he did so regardless both to load & unload it, by the end of it the vehicle sounded like a bag of spanners & the garage sid they thought that he had scored the bores in doing so hence one engine now rendered useless, the AA have been no help, quite rude & denied all responsibility, please advise, thank you.

[raydetinu]

I think you should have stuck to your guns and refused to let them drive it on to the truck, ( they can only do it with your permission ), however damage may have already been done by then.

But what did the problem turn out to be? dont think bores could be damaged for such a short time if oil was ok.

[riget]

From a mechanics point of view, I would have thought that by the time the recovery truck got there the engine would have cooled down enough to be driven onto the truck, also to be driven off when at your destination, what were these times?

With you saying "by the end of it the vehicle sounded like a bag of spanners" makes me think it was more than overheated.

I agree with a suspected damaged engine the recovery guy should not have driven the vehicle, but with a diagnosis of only overheating, the engine would have to be started to determine the cause.