A bad day

[TimJM]

I knew today was going to be a bad day when Npower accidently took £776 out my account this morning. I then started my “business” car which after about 4 seconds died and refused to restart (the starter turns fine and something in the engine is turning but the engine itself doesn’t turn over) and now it is making a weird whirr/grind when trying to start it.

So I used my Cerbera for work today – nothing unusual about that, I do probably 3 or 4 days a week but this morning whilst travelling down a duel carriage way a bar/pole about 5 foot high bounced up from under a transit van in front of my and straight under my car. After a tremendous bang which resulted in the car being thrown in the air (I hit my head on the roof) I pulled over to find oil leaking out the engine sump area.

I have just had a call off the garage and it looks like the sump is cracked.

Unfortunately they can’t find one in stock anywhere (mine is a 4.5) so it looks like it is going to be a weld job. Hopefully everything else has survived but I guess I won’t know until the car is stripped down.

Three questions:
1. The garage have said they think the repairs will be around the £1000 mark (maybe a little more if any other parts need replacing) as they have got to take the engine out to get to the sump. Does this sound about right?
2. Is a weld job going to be OK or should I try to find a new/replacement sump?
3. Should I try to claim on my insurance (£350 excess) or just pay it out my own pocket?

Thanks.
Tim.

[Steve_T]

Ask another specialist what you'd need to do to get the sump off. I don't know, but seems odd that you'd need to get the engine out to get the sump off. Sump gaskets sometimes need to be replaced and it'd be daft to need the engine out to do a simple job like that. Julian64 or Mad Mark would no doubt know for sure. I presume that you ran over said pole - are all your wheels, suspension joints, wishbones and so on ok?

Steve.

Edited by Steve_T on Wednesday 6th June 17:10

[morebeanz]

Did you get the transit's plate number? Can't you claim off them?

I would think that the BiB would be interested in this if the van failed to stop?

[Tvr_Edd]

I don't think you can get the sump off with the engine in situ so is an engine out job

Edited by Tvr_Edd on Wednesday 6th June 16:57

[TimJM]

morebeanz said:

Did you get the transit's plate number? Can't you claim off them?

I would think that the BiB would be interested in this if the van failed to stop?

It wasn't the transit vans fault - he/she ran the pole over that was already sitting on the road and threw it up in the air and into my path.

[Olly]

What an awful day ! Bad luck mate !

I would definitely give a few more people a quick call re "is it an engine out" job (Austec, APM, TCS). All cars I've ever worked under, the sump is fully accessible with the engine insitue...

[optimax sniffer]

All I can say is F@ck

[longbow]

It is an engine out job as the timing cover has to come off, which in turn needs to come past the nose of the crank. Oh, and the sump is sealed with silicone, no gasket. Sounds like just one of those days, luckily they don't come around too often.

[TimJM]

longbow said:

It is an engine out job as the timing cover has to come off, which in turn needs to come past the nose of the crank. Oh, and the sump is sealed with silicone, no gasket. Sounds like just one of those days, luckily they don't come around too often.

Lets hope not.

Thanks longbow - at least I know what needs to be done now.