great day yesterday... not

[ac606]

Driving along the motorway, somebody kindly left their exhaust on the inside lane. The car in front clipped it pushing it right in front of me, I had no option but to drive straight over it as any avoiding move may have caused a crash. The exhaust on the road made it under my front bumper, skimmed the skid plate under the engine, it must have then been kicked up and collided full force with the back of the gearbox - I'm guessing the transfer box for the 4wd. It's got a lovely hole in it and dumped it's oil within 5 -10 mins, the cross brace immediately behind the transfer case has been bent about 4" but fortunately no damage further back.

I'm not looking forward to finding out just how big an insurance claim this is going to be and how much hidden damage there is - I'm guessing its not going to be cheap given that there is damage to the 4WD system. Great day.....

[Chriseybaby]

Bad luck!

On the bright side

You will only have to pay your excess and not the full amount which means your insurance company is giving you alot of your years of premiums back

I don't know how old your car is but If the 4WD system needs replacing then it will be brand new, which would be good if yours has covered a few miles, and shouldn't cause you any problems for a few years

[joshA6]

That happened to me about 10 years ago. I drove over a truck exhaust in the same circumstances (so did 6 other cars).

Insurance did pay out, but I lost me excess as although it was deemed not my fault, the truck had been adequately maintained and therefore the insurers could not recover their costs.

Also, I would think the transfer box has got to be about £3k brand new!

[ac606]

Apparently audi won't supply just a transfer box - so we are having the full gearbox replaced. £5K just for the box according to my insurer. Ooch!

[nevbadger99]

At least you got good value out of this year's insurance premium.....