Thread: Who is responsible?

Nearly 3 weeks ago I was involved in a slight rear end shunt. (Someone ran into the back of me). Drove car home.
Informed insurance who arranged collection to garage. They came and drove car to garage for assessment.

Four days ago, garage rang to say 'the con rod has been put through the block and the engine has a hole in'. (Why did they wait 2 weeks to inform me of this?). I had no idea what that meant but now I understand its pretty MAJOR. Also, theres no way it could have been done at the time of the accident, as it could not have been driven.

Garage are denying responsibility. Insurance are denying liability.
Insurance want me to pay to have car transported to a different garage for assessment to engine and take it from there.

Where do I stand? Please HELP?

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Honda accord exec. 2.2 TD 2004, approx. 110,000 miles

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!

Thankyou for your help and prompt response.

Incidentally, if I can't afford the repair bill, what will happen to my car?

I disagree, about co -incidence; con rods just dont fail at low revs or speed; if car was delivered to garage and engine was ok at the time ( no knocking or noise ); the problem must of occured there by overreving or some other mis-use, very suspicious to me. have you done a check on the mileage, when handed to garage and since the damage. It has been known for garages to borrow customers cars! check where and when this happened out on the road or in the garage? If out on the road why and where were they driving it!

Unfortunately, I don't know the exact mileage. Their mechanic drove it to the garage, then 2 weeks later they phoned to tell me of this problem.

I would ask for a written report/statement from the garage, explaining the exact circumstances and location when/where this occured. Engines these days are pretty strong and 100k is not really that much.
Depending on the report; you could get an engineers report on the engine to see what the probable cause was, abuse,faulty part or even normal wear and tear.
suspicisous because con-rod would not break just moving a car around the yard.

Just come off the phone to SAGA. They have agreed to send an independant assessor to the garage for a full report.

Will keep you posted!

If the con-rods gone through the block I would say it's more than likely that the engine was out of oil.

Thats why you need a report, what were they doing with it to get it that hot or run for any length of time for this to occur! were there any warnings; low oil light, high temp on gauge, knocking etc, before bearing seized, if it was that!
Could be a manufacturing fault, but why was it being put under stress?

every hole in the block i have ever seen has been caused by oil starvation, and in every instance it happened due to the engine being driven with no oil in it continuously, and all happened at fairly high revs,
not the kind of slow speeds a car being driven around a bodyshop would do.

Spoke to Honda dealer who said 'highly unlikely' this could have been wear and tear or a fault, but to await the report.

Vehicle has FSH with Honda and was in perfect working order.

Originally Posted by riget

If the con-rods gone through the block I would say it's more than likely that the engine was out of oil.

when engines run out of oil a loud knocking can be heard from the bearings, this can last a few hundred mile until they eventually go bang or sieze solid, most likely been over revved or just pure bad luck, as it happened in the garages posession when it went in for a bodywork assesment then they should be accountable.

Originally Posted by jungle vip

when engines run out of oil a loud knocking can be heard from the bearings, this can last a few hundred mile until they eventually go bang or sieze solid, most likely been over revved or just pure bad luck, as it happened in the garages posession when it went in for a bodywork assesment then they should be accountable.

A few hundred miles? Your joking a few hundred yards if your lucky.
And what "goes bang"?
The rod through the block.

Originally Posted by riget

A few hundred miles? Your joking a few hundred yards if your lucky.
And what "goes bang"?
The rod through the block.

have had many a car with big ends knocking for a couple of weeks, as i said a "few hundred miles"
and yes result can cause rod through the block, but often there are plenty warning signs first. P.S Have been a mechanic for twenty years and now work on wrc rally cars, if that qualifies to make a judgment !