Clutch Confusion!!

[dsmason]

Hi all, I'm in a bit of a pickle at the moment and hopefully I can get some feedback from some Piston headers! In January this year my Tuscan was sat quietly in a supermarket car park until some numpty in a big 4x4 decided to drive into the back of it and then just bu**er off!! According to a couple of witnesses the impact was quite hard and made quite a bang, also making the alarm go off. By all accounts the car was pushed forward 2-3 feet. The problem is that I had the car in gear and after a drive home of about 2 miles engaging gears was becoming progressively more difficult (Had to drive home in third). The next morning when I went to go for a spin it was impossible to select any gears at all. After rolling the car off the drive for the recovery vehicle to take it away it became apparent that it had dropped the clutch fluid. My problem now is that the insurance assessor is saying that this couldn't have been caused by the accident even though the garage where the car is now (a very well respected TVR specialist) says that the accident WOULD have caused the cluth problems without a doubt. The car had a new clutch less than a year ago and was fully serviced and inspected 3 months before the accident by the same TVR specialist who has the car now!! Any feedback would be very welcome!!
P.S. Sorry to be so long winded but I miss my baby and am getting very frustrated!!!

[trackcar]

I can't see how a bump would cause a slave cylinder failure .. that doesn't make sense at all

[jvr]

But the force of the bump could have damaged the box with it gear thus connecting to the clutch.Insurance payout me thinks.

[yzf1070]

jvr said:

But the force of the bump could have damaged the box with it gear thus connecting to the clutch.Insurance payout me thinks.

erm.....The man from Delmonte; he say "NO".... The slave cylinder is not engaged when the car is in gear, it is only engaged when you press down the clutch pedal. It smacks very much of coincidential circumstance, knowing this is a common fault on these cars to start with....but hey, if the author wants to while away precious sunny driving days arguing the case thats his perogative....good luck to him.

[Jay Ayegees]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your hit and run collision - does the car park have CCTV? Do none of the witnesses have a description of the vehicle?

Why do you think the impact damaged the gearbox? I can't understand how this would happen - can you explain the process?

Maybe the two aren't connected - just a coincidence.

Jay

[FLAT 6]

Commiserations my friend on this heinous act. I'd be

If the perp hit the Tuscan hard enough it would be like pushing a huge amount of bhp through the gearbox and clutch instantaneously. Most likely the clutch might slip a bit but since it's new then it will have transferred a lot of the force into the gearbox and it's probably buggered.

Can't see how that would affect the slave cylinder though - coincidence, sorry.