H22A7 Accord Type R
Ok guys, here is the deal! Upon leaving Scotland after my holiday, around 3 weeks ago, i hit a HUGE ramp in the road - from Roadworks. This Ramp was at the bottom oh a little hill, on a 60mph country road. I was cruising along at 60, sunny day, windows down, choons on, notices a sign, Roadworks, 400yards, ok, hill, the odd cone, looks down, hmmm, road looks a bit rough...........?................BANG!!!!!!!!!!! Thrown out of my seat, knocked the window wipers on on my way back down, felt a moment of nothingness (thats the best way i can describe it), then thought, ooooh sh*t, stop at side of road, as steering wheel is at 5 to 4!
Gets out, looks at car, hmmm yeah, much negative camber, tracking definately is out! still works tho, amazingly!! Stonger than i thought these clios LOL!
Anyway, to cut a long story short (very long story), the car is not very driveable, and i was brought home from Scotland by the AA. (Cheers guys!!).
Damage.......front wheels sitting at a stupid negative camber angle, all 4 wheels flat spotted, Apex struts bent at the point where they meet the hub carrier.......unknown if any bottom arms / steering arms are bent as yet. Also, a few little creases and peaks in my roof, around the sunroof area.....ooooo, nice!
Ok, so, thinking, b****cks, gonna need to do this via insurance to make sure EVERYTHING is ok, not just a case of changing struts n that. Woopee, another claim for which I wasn’t really responsible! (got council details etc, passed them onto insurance but can see me having to pursue it myself).
Insurance informed – car dropped off at garage they instructed me to. Courtesy car given, cool. Tells them the areas of damage etc etc. I goes off in my wee orange Kia Picanto! (lmao). Days go by, insurance inform me that they have instructed an ‘independent assessor’ to look at the vehicle. Oh, ok…..yup. Days go by, this guy goes to look at the car……..
I gets a phone call from the bodyshop, there is a problem. The assessor is not happy with a few things on the car, they want the courtesy car back in the meantime! Hmmm, alarm bells are ringing! (I have declared all the mods). I rings insurance and plays hell. Need to wait for this guys report to come in now.
Report comes in, I get a copy sent out to me with a cover letter. The cover letter states that the assessor has not authorised repair as he feels the tyres are too large for the non-standard suspension. (I have non standard alloy wheels declared too – and remember, I am running 15s at the moment – RENAULT ones!)
So, I read the report. A few interesting points. Firstly, it states ‘substantially lowered’ (its sitting about 20mm lower than normal as the struts are bent), a BODYKIT which INCLUDES sideskirts to the sills? (that’s all it has??), a BIG BORE exhaust, and ALLOY wheels? (standard fit Renault ones).
Ok, next, ‘the wheels at the front showed a visible negative camber’…….erm, yup, they do NOW, hence why it is in for repair????
Car placed on lift etc, ‘it was possible to see new suspension struts and springs of a performance type had been fitted’ – I had the car on a jack and could see the struts were BENT, never mind on a lift!!?? Ehhhhhhhhh lol. So, not noticed that they are bent, ok….
This is a good bit – ‘BECAUSE OF THE SUSPENSION FITTED……the turning circle had been reduced and in full lock, the front wheels were catching and rubbing against the front anti-roll bar’…….ehhhhh, of course they are NOW, Rob goes hunting for his MOT certificate!!!! I mean, WTF!!??
‘evident that all 4 wheels are out of shape and not as manufactured’, yup, I agree with that…….
‘There was no evidence of the vehicle having a substantial underside impact’…….ok, nothing caught the road….
The roof – ‘areas of damage on each corner of the sunroof (and also one 2 inches in front of the sunroof, and one 2 inches behind it). ‘IT IS NOT KNOWN IF THIS DAMAGE WAS CAUSED WHEN THE SUNROOF WAS FITTED AS NO DATE IS AVAILABLE’….EHHHHHHHH???? Factory fitted sunroof?!?!?
Blah blah, ‘in our opinion, the damage is not consistent with the accident description’ My accident description was that I hit a very big unmarked ramp in the road at 60mph, felt a very big bang as the suspension bottomed out, knocked my tracking out and forced my wheels to now sit at the wrong angle.
Did everyone enjoy that??? Needless to say, I have not accepted this report as ‘gospel’ and am meeting this same assessor on Monday morning to go over the car WITH him. My insurance inform me that if the report does not alter from this original, I will be charged for his re-visit. LOL LOL!! If it doesn’t change, I will get another assessor in!
So, easy to feel things – drivers side, I can get my foot between the wheel and arch, passenger side, I cannot. Passenger side, I can get my finger between strut and tyre, drivers side I cannot, hmmm, something not right there? I don’t think it will be too difficult to prove some points on Monday. I am taking pictures of how the car should be, camber, wheels, roof, tracking reports – 2 or 3, an MOT certificate to show that it PASSED, apex receipts and receipts to show it was fitted before the MOT………God, its not rocket science?
Why on earth do they think the car is in for repair and I stand to loose another NCB???? For fun???
Once everyone can stop laughing at this, please feel free to comment. I have not posted about this on here as I just wanted to get it sorted, BUT, with them being sooo funny about it all now, I know that there are a lot of people in here who can advise me well on this matter, and give me some good ammunition to hit the assessor and insurance company with.
Monday should see things moving in the right direction once I have pointed out the cause of the above (its not nice to think these people who assess our cars can miss so many key things?).
Once this is all sorted out, there will be a few letters being sent to various companies, and, I will be advising people on here, and other forums, regarding who these people are. My insurance have already sent me a customer feedback form, and it has a nice section asking if I have been involved with any engineers etc, and requesting my feedback……….
Batter in guys, Rob………MR Lucky.
