A3 sump damage and engine seizure

[bainbridge]

Im after some advice!

I have a Audi A3 1.6 sport R reg. Unfortunately a large stone hit and pierced the oil sump whilst driving. We stopped the car within a minute of the incident once the oil warning light came on. The car was then recovered on a trailor and taken to a garage. At the garage it was discovered that the engine had seized completely. The insurance company are refusing to pay for a replacement engine as they are claiming that the sump damage and duration of time the engine was driven for after the incident would not cause the engine to seize.

Has anyone heard of or experienced anything similar?

Cheers

Jon

[onzarob]

well if you loose all the oil out the sump then it can sieze quite quickly, did the sump have a big hole?

[bainbridge]

Cheers for the reply

yeah there was a good sized hole. Once the oil light came on I pulled over and turned the engine of within 30 seconds. The temp gauge remained unchanged and there was still a good stream of oil coming from the sump when I stopped. The insurers are saying that wouldnt be adequate to seize the engine and that I would of had to drive for 30 mins to an hour to cause the engine to seize up. So they will replace the sump but say the seizing of the engine is unrelated to the damaged sump....though the car has not been driven since the incident!

Jon

[onzarob]

So they will replace the sump but say the seizing of the engine is unrelated to the damaged sump.

Thats a load of rubbish, you have a hole in the sump amd the engine has siezed, thats related in my book. I would keep the pressure up, you may need to involve an independent engineer, that will cost though.

Basically don't accept anything first time round with insurance companies they are trying to limit cost

[Nexus]

The engine would not sieze within 30 secs of the oil pressure warning coming on, it would take some time more but this would have many variables attatched to this such as previous engine wear/type of oil that was in engine etc, I would get an indipendant assesment and stick to your guns about your claim as thay cannot prove that you did not stop as soon as was SAFE to do so (safe to do so is a key word here,if you know what i mean?)
The insurance assessor can only speculate on the events and make a desicion from that, if you dispute his desicion then you are within your rights to have these presented to an indipendant assesor (possibly at your cost,but refundable if your claim is found to be viable) for further evidence to support your claim.
Stick to your guns and story as this would be very hard for them to prove anything other than what you claim.

[engineermk]

IMO you should keep pushing the insurance company to pay out. An engine may continue to run for a it (ie a minute or two) after oil presure is lost, or it can seize PDQ dependng on the speed and load it was running at when pressure was lost.

Assuming you pulled over as soon as possible I can't see what they are objecting to. Point out you pulled over as soon as you could and it was safe to do so, you could not turn off engine before you pulled over because it would be unnsafe (possble loss of brake servo assitance and power steering). make sure you emphasie you did all of this with in seconds as you knew teh severity of loss of oil pressure. Don't get angry, stick to the facts and remain calm, you can win this.

After you have given them all the info, if they still decine ask for these things;
- How do i rasie an official complaint about your decision.
- Can I have the company's chairmans name and contact details as I wish to raise an offical compalint.
- How do i contact your regulatory body to raise a compalint with them. it may be the General Insurance Standards Council110 Cannon StreetLondonEC4N 6EUPhone :020 7648 7810Fax :020 7648 7808

Raising an official complaint (and not just complaining) will focus thier mind.

Good luck.