Esure & Co, Ruin My Car!!!

[Mr_OMG]

Having been insured with Esure for nearly 2 years

I was involved with a collision on Feb 15th 2013 ( was cut up and then car slammed brakes on infront of me??)

I tried to evade as much as possible and as such my drivers side wing (Right hand side) impacted with the left side of the rear bumper of the other vehicle.

 

The guy got out and instanstly claimed law of the road, stated i was my fault,

i refuted & said 50/50 due to his recklessness and so took photos of his reg & the damage and exchanged details.

 

My wheel was now rubbing on the arch whist driving but managed to get it to & from home.

I reported the incident as soon as i arrived at work and tried to establish fault & despite my version of events they insisted it was my fault.

They then arranged to pick up my vehicle, provide me with a courtesy recomemded a garage of thiers. (ADR/ AutoRestore),

This was my very first EVER claim and as my insurers i acted in good faith as i had no reason to suspect what would later unfold.

 

After a week the car was eventually returned on Tues 26th Feb & all seemed well,

so much so that the guy had actually driven it back to me with no issues. I didnt drive the car until Thursday & Friday albeit for 20 mins each way to and from work,

in the same week & again all seemed well.

 

On sat the 2nd March i left my house to go to Dudley which did require me to go on the motorway.

After joining at a 50mph restriction, the road soon opened up and i eventually hit 80mph & arrived at my destination to have my childs car seat re-installed.

On the way back, I headed downhill at no more than 40mph due to a speed camera.

 

After passing the camera i put my foot on the gas and heard a loud 'bang'!

The car had now lost power and wouldnt Rev. I managed to get the car off the road & called Esure to arrange the Breakdown service.

Esure were now also concerned as it did seem related to the recent repair.

 

After an hr the first technician had no idea what was wrong with it & ended up concluding that it needed recovering.

So 2hrs later the 2nd technician arrived who was instantly more proactive.

After 2 mins he claimed to know what was wrong with it ( The Turbo Intercooler pipe had come apart, hence the bang) & so he set about repairing it.

I explained it had just been repaired on that exact side & he said it looked as though they didnt secure it properly.

 

After 20Mins I was on my way & all seemed fine fine until i again reached the motorway, when i got to 75mph, I lost power again

I pulled over onto the hard shoulder and turned the engine off.

I then restarted the car & the revs were back.

Bemused & annoyed i drove home cautiously deliberating on what could possibly be wrong now &

 

after a lot of thought & friends & family input we narrowed it down to either the repairs undertaken by the garage

or something the garage had missed at the point of impact from the accident

 

Following day, Sun 3rd March, a friend of mine who works with cars noticed that the car wasn't actually aligned properly as the headlight was out

and one side of the bonnet was more to the left! I

was mortified and couldn't believe I hadn't spotted this sooner.

 

Monday 4th I arrange to take the day off & called Esure again and explained my concerns and agreed that it did seem related

but insisted that I would have to give the garage a final chance to rectify the damage.

Reluctantly i agree and wait for ADR to call.

 

Eventually they do & after fractions with some of the reps, releasing calls, leaving me on hold, then just being down right rude,

I'm told false information, to the extent that i could have my repairs done on the day, while i wait within the hour

This eventually turns into the following day where i am promised a callback as i explained I'm due back at work in the morning

so would need to know what was happening asap so i could let my employers know. No phone call was received

 

The next morning i called at 9:30am and was given a feeble excuse as to why no phone call was received

& the following day was now the earliest the car could be collected.

 

( Pls bare in mind i have not driven the car since i broke down on Sat).

 

Weds 6th March the car was finally collected & a courtesy car was left with a mere drop of petrol.

(The driver had said he was only allowed to put £5 in) and given the nature of the circumstances i thought this was pretty disgusting

I now decide to make a formal complaint in writing to both Esure & ADR, expressly pointing out I didn't want ADR undertaking anymore repairs on my behalf.

 

NOW FOR THE BEST BIT!!!

- Friday 8th Mar and I call for an update, im told the manager needs to call me in an hour.

2 hrs go by, so i call again but told he's away from desk.

I call again at 4:30pm and now told he's interviewing and will def call me.

 

Eventually at 18:45pm an apologetic manager calls and says they have realigned my bonnet,

replaced the hose (Turbo intercooler Pipe) and when they took it for a test drive,

the car got 2 miles down the road and it just died

I asked him what he meant by died and he said, the engine now doesn't turn over

and that he had booked it into Audi for a diagnostic on Tues 12th Mar.

 

Now Angry, Livid and extremely concerned, I call Esure who instantly advised me to raise a formal complaint

and explained it would go to one of there Chief Engineers,

 

Friday 15th and I call for an update who says he cant do anything as now awaiting report from Audi.

 

Thursday 21st March, I call Audi and they tell me that after conducting the Diagnostic on the ECU,

was that my engine had seized and now wouldn't turn by hand, causing the turbo charger to over-boost causing it to suck all the oil out of the engine.

However the report didn't say that it was caused by the initial accident but it also didn't state that it wasn't.

The reason it didn't was because after speaking with Audi Verbally, there was no way to actually determine this.

Due to this, Esure are refusing to repair the vehicle & have left me with a dead car & said if im not happy, go to the Ombudsman! - livid is an understatement!!

 

- They both now claim that despite me reporting a problem with the intercooler pipe,

this being referred back to ADR, & the manager of ADR calling me stating they had replaced it,

so if they hadn't touched it, why accept it back? and if they hadn't tampered with it, what exactly were they test driving it for??

 

Esure then had the cheek to say " The burden of proof is on me to prove both ADR & Esure wrong!!

So when you also consider the following facts which. I've already challenged them, on its plainly obvious that there garage ruined my car!

 

1) the car is regularly serviced & maintained. - proof can be provided!

2) it recently had an MOT & passed. Feb 2nd ( if turbo had gone this would have been picked up due to amount of revving needed to check emissions)

3) No warning light for low oil or engine management light

4) They both now claim that despite me reporting a problem with the intercooler pipe, this being referred back to ADR, & the manager of ADR calling me stating they had replaced it, so if they hadn't touched it, why accept it back? and if they hadn't tampered with it, what exactly were they test driving it for??

5) I was psychically present at its last service for 2.5hrs at the end of Dec 12 - proof can be provided!

6) The fact that they miss-aligned the car on the first instance, clearly displays incompetence & negligence.

7) Mechanical failures like this are extremely uncommon & don't just happen without any prior warning!

8) The Engine failure happened whist it was in their possession & was running perfectly fine before ADR was anywhere near it.

9) if the wing where the turbo sits was damaged, how can they say they were nowhere near or didn't need to touch the turbo intercooler pipe?

10) how is it that when the second breakdown technician who fixed the pipe back securely didn't mention/ or notice their was no oil trickling out of the pipe? But when Audi checked the pipe a week later they found a 3rd of the engines oil in the pipe? Surely there would have been some signs of early leakage?

 

I have no choice but to go through the Ombudsman but, if you or anyone can help me further, please let know?

Edited March 23, 2013 by Mr_OMG

[Conniff]

What model of Audi is it and what is the mileage ?

[Mr_OMG]

Its An Audi A3 - 56plate, 65k miles, full service history, & recent MOT

[citizenkain]

heres a tip for you,dont go telling people you were cruising at 75-80mph,its 70mph max in this country,anyone reading that will think you were tearassing around a lot faster

[Mr_OMG]

heres a tip for you,dont go telling people you were cruising at 75-80mph,its 70mph max in this country,anyone reading that will think you were tearassing around a lot faster

 

Thanks, any sound advice on what to do next?

[Conniff]

The intercooler pipe can't be put down to the repairers, that sort of mileage will have taken it's toll, so that might just be a coincidence. It could be, of course, that they didn't retighten it fully if they removed it.

 

The Turbo drinking the oil. I can't see this as anything to do with your accident. The turbo has force feed oil because of the high revs. The drive and the turbo are separate components separated by bearings and seals. The high temperatures involved and then cooling plus it's contact with oil and 65,000 miles will have done it's best to break down the seals. They aren't external, so I can't see any reason the accident or subsequent repair could have had any affect on the turbo burning the oil.

 

If anything the turbo would have had external damage due to being in contact with something. Even if the repairer removed and replace the turbo during repair, that wouldn't affect the seals. The only place I can see the repair being the oil loss problem is with not renewing the gasket between the turbo and the oil feed.

 

That is all supposition of course, without careful examination of the car that's all that can be made.

 

You need a more detailed report of where the problem lies before you can apportion blame.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Conniff

[Mr_OMG]

The intercooler pipe can't be put down to the repairers, that sort of mileage will have taken it's toll, so that might just be a coincidence. It could be, of course, that they didn't retighten it fully if they removed it.

 

The Turbo drinking the oil. I can't see this as anything to do with your accident. The turbo has force feed oil because of the high revs. The drive and the turbo are separate components separated by bearings and seals. The high temperatures involved and then cooling plus it's contact with oil and 65,000 miles will have done it's best to break down the seals. They aren't external, so I can't see any reason the accident or subsequent repair could have had any affect on the turbo burning the oil.

 

If anything the turbo would have had external damage due to being in contact with something. Even if the repairer removed and replace the turbo during repair, that wouldn't affect the seals. The only place I can see the repair being the oil loss problem is with not renewing the gasket between the turbo and the oil feed.

 

That is all supposition of course, without careful examination of the car that's all that can be made.

 

You need a more detailed report of where the problem lies before you can apportion blame.

 

Ok but even though this happened whilst the car was in their care, you still don't think that its a little peculiar, if not too coincidental?

Plus they didn't repair the car properly in the first instance?

And despite the Manager calling me & telling me that they had replaced the pipe & after taking it for a test drive, where it just later died?

now they say, they didn't touch the pipe? - so which one is it? - why lie? And like i said above, what were they test driving it for then?

 

Anyway in the meantime, what can i do about getting my car back on the road now without being out of pocket?

[Mr_OMG]

Ok but even though this happened whilst the car was in their care, you still don't think that its a little peculiar, if not too coincidental?

Plus they didn't repair the car properly in the first instance?

And despite the Manager calling me & telling me that they had replaced the pipe & after taking it for a test drive, where it just later died?

now they say, they didn't touch the pipe? - so which one is it? - why lie? And like i said above, what were they test driving it for then?

 

Anyway in the meantime, what can i do about getting my car back on the road now without being out of pocket?

 

Also, i strongly believe they didn't retighten the hose properly, hence why it came off, subsequently sucking something up in the pipe which affected the turbo. - Thats the theory of most but very difficult to prove as my word against theres now.

[chomerly]

If the intercooler pipe wasn't fixed properly then this would mean your engine was running at a higher temperature than it should have been while still trying to boost.

That turbo would have been cooking over time which would have resulted in the seals failing.

I know enough about turbo's to know that they never just blow without any sort of tell tale warning.

Common symptoms are either a loud high pitched noise, or a sound that seems foreign to the normal behaviour of the car and you only here when accelerating or, they allow oil to bypass the seals which burns off through the exhaust which in turn emits a blue'ish smoke which can be clearly seen.

Something like that will ALWAYS show up in an emissions test.

 

I'm surprised to read that the didn't notice, or get, any severe smoking coming from the exhaust and equally surprised that there were no strange noises coming from the turbo.

Especially after the first "bang" as you put it.

And for the mileage of your car, your turbo is only just about over 1/2 of its normal working life.

As far as i'm aware, Audi don't even check turbo's on their vehicles until around 75,000 miles as its about then that the bearings in them start to show play in the end float and they recommend replacing them at 100,000 miles.

 

I'm in two minds here.

Either you have omitted something that you didn't take notice of to begin with and put it down to the normal behaviour of the car, or

Something hadn't been done correctly at the repair centre which caused this huge failure.

Your only move here is to get an independent vehicle inspection done.

 

I'll tell you now, they are not cheap. But, it should reveal what work ADR would have had to have done in order to repair your vehicle.

To get the ball rolling, request a copy of the repair estimate from your insurance company, a repair log from ADR and their final repair statement.

Both should detail the repair work that was required for your car and any extra repairs that they billed for.

There should be details of an inspection prior to a repair and it should detail what initial damage there was to the vehicle.

Once you have those notes you can then pass them on to the independent vehicle inspector who should be able to see what they would have done to make the repairs and compare it to what they had logged.

At the end of the inspection they will give you a written copy for use as evidence should you take this matter to court.

 

Overall, i would argue that the car died in their care after they replaced a part which they are now denying they replaced and in my view it is their responsibility.

That being said, it is for a court to decide and if its you versus a company that deals with cars everyday then they are already in the lead in this race.

Get an independent vehicle technician on your side though and its going to be a different story altogether.

Especially if he concurs with turbo pipe being replaced.

Even better if he notes it down as being a new part.

 

 

Any calls you make to ADR or your insurance company should be recorded from now on.

The best way forward however is to get it in writing, using recorded delivery, so that way you have a hard copy of any communications between you.

Edited March 26, 2013 by chomerly