Help / Advice regarding legal claim against AA breakdown please!

Ellie007

waynedance wrote: »

as said they are road side recovery, for the love of god leave the AA alone and I hope you get nowhere with your claim.

It is i guess a K series Rover engine which are prone to head gasket failure, live and learn.

Thank you, as ever very much appreciated :cool:

steve-L

waynedance wrote: »

as said they are road side recovery, for the love of god leave the AA alone and I hope you get nowhere with your claim.

It is i guess a K series Rover engine which are prone to head gasket failure, live and learn.

Its not that simple...
The policy does (I'll assume) state it's a roadside repair.
The AA man 1 did a roadside repair and 'got the car home'

However, he might reasonably have explained the roadside diagnostic was not definitive and that being the case she should get it checked out properly by a garage, not just replace the blown filler cap.

However, the majority of the damage PROBABLY occurred because Ellie007 then left the car on the drive for weeks and the water inside the engine then corroded it and also as a consequence of not being turned over seized it.

Did AA Man 1 assume that would be the case or did he act in good faith? Should he have towed to a garage (were they open at the time) and if one was would it have been the 'right one'.

I doubt Ellie said 'I'll take it home and leave it on the drive for several weeks' (and even if she did she would have to convince a magistrate she did if it goes through small claims)...

AA Man 1 just needs to explain WHY he did a roadside repair (their stated job) and WHY he didn't say strongly enough WHY it should be taken to a garage the next day and that a roadside test for the CHG was not definitive but 'a roadside test'.

... and that is the whole problem.

The AA didn't do anything wrong (or a team of experts can swear the likelyhood was the CHG was ALREADY GONE but the drive home did no further damage and that leaving the car on the drive caused the FURTHER DAMAGE (difference between the CHG being changed that Ellie would have had to pay for anyway and engine rebuild)

On one aspect Ellie has £500 or so (court costs and expenses it will cost) to lose and a theoretical sum to win...

Magistrates at CC small claims can go either way, nothing is a certainty and there is a SMALL (IMHO) chance she might win all costs back... HOWEVER she might lose and be £500 worse off or the magistrate might come up with a compromise of say £1000 in which case at some point in the far future she might get £1000....

The AA have a lot of staff lawyers .... they will prepare their defence and the whole thing is down to 'he said' and 'she said'.
(Personally I think if he had said, BE SURE YOU TAKE IT TO A GARAGE and WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T LEAVE IT STANDING then she would be facing a bill for a CHG and possible skimming (depending what happened to the engine block)....

It's a question of if the probability of reclaiming enough is high enough to take the risk and extra investment.

Ellie007

Thank you Steve L - a very comprehensive reply that gives me some idea of where I stand. I appreciate it.

Yes - the crux of it is that I was not advised that there may be a further issue beyond replacing the cap. I am not irresponsible, and would have taken it straight to the garage had I been advised that this would be neccessary / advisable. I have (had..!) a comprehensive level of membership so could have been towed. I was on the North Circular so several garages within a couple of miles, at 1pm on a Wednesday.

Incidentally, according to AA man number 2 (and he showed me one), there is a disclaimer sticker that the AA should put on the report in the event of any issues involving coolant, which says that the vehicle should be taken straight to a garage for checking. This was not given to me on the first report. Had it have done so, I would have been straight in the garage.

It is unfortunate that I did not drive the car for a couple of weeks, but as I had just moved projects I was commuting into central London for the next couple of weeks, so no need. I did not of course explain this to the AA man, but as the only problem was apparently the lack of cap, and my own 'forgetfulness' in replacing it, according to AA man number one, there was no need to go into my daily movements!

Really appreciate the responses everyone. I have no intention in launching a vendetta against the AA, and am not usually one to consider claiming against anyone, but equally feel that I have been given poor service / advice which has resulted in a massive cost to fix my car, rather than a manageable cost.

Thanks again all.

mattyprice4004

Hackman wrote: »

On Rovers petrol engines, yes.

Wrong.

Rover's T series and KV6 weren't prone to HGF and they're petrol. It was only the 4 pot K series that really suffered.

The T series and the KV6 were both used in Land Rovers, so to say they all suffer is incorrect.

If it's a 1.8 the head gasket failing wouldn't have blown the cap off, they very, very fail in a mode that pressurises the cooling system. The cap was either loose or already missing, causing the head gasket failure.

When the breakdown guy attended, did he check how the oil and water looked? The K series engines usually fail oil-to-water and vice versa.

They are however very sensitive to overheating - even a slight overheat can cause head gasket failure.

If you go to the right place a proper HG job is about £300, plus £100 for a new head if yours is warped. Done properly the engine will outlive the rest of the car.

If you need any more help and I don't come back to the thread drop me a quick PM, I've done a lot with these engines and they're not as bad as everyone makes out.

C_Mababejive

It is my view that the cap somehow went missing and that this may well have occurred during the previous topping up episode.

It would be impossible for there to be sufficient pressure developed to blow the cap off and for it to go AWOL by that means. Even so,it would likely just blow the top surface off and leave the threaded portion behind.

One has to ask why topping up was necessary?

I think the original AA chaps assessment was fair and reasonable.

I think that any damage done was as a result of the original loss of water. Was it a significant loss? How did you know about the loss of water?

steve-L

Ellie007 wrote: »

Really appreciate the responses everyone. I have no intention in launching a vendetta against the AA, and am not usually one to consider claiming against anyone, but equally feel that I have been given poor service / advice which has resulted in a massive cost to fix my car, rather than a manageable cost.

Thanks again all.

Let us know how it goes......

I think my summary would be small claims is risky and the AA have good lawyers!

You're more likely to get good will out of the AA than legal proceedings IMHO... but small claims is a lottery (in many ways) ...

The AA don't have anything significant to lose.... either in court or being nice/fair! Even of they go to court and lose they cannot lose a 'meaningful' amount at small claims by definition.

Compare that with say you had an independent garage come out ...
They would face potential legal fee's, the owner missing half a day's work, court costs.... etc. etc.
In their case this might be a very significant risk..... if they lost it might be for £5000 vs £2000 and that might be quite critical for a small indy garage to survive! Hence they cut their losses to avoid the uncertainty of court.

The AA £2000 or £5000 makes no difference to their financial viability as a company. The risk on the company is ZERO... so they can afford to take say a 50/50 chance. If their lawyers think its 51/49 in their favour they'll take it...

So I'd really try the 'please be fair' route as far as possible?

Sorry, I know its not what you want to hear..... but I think that's what I'd do! (and yes I know exactly what switching project means ) ... about to start a new one Monday and wondering if I need to get winter tyres..... given predicted weather!

need to get car serviced anyway as who knows what hours I'll be doing in the initial 2 weeks and client site is 2-2 12 hours by train and 25 minute drive! (and I get my 45p/mile)

The_AA_Company_Representative

Ellie007 wrote: »

Thank you Steve L - a very comprehensive reply that gives me some idea of where I stand. I appreciate it.

Yes - the crux of it is that I was not advised that there may be a further issue beyond replacing the cap. I am not irresponsible, and would have taken it straight to the garage had I been advised that this would be neccessary / advisable. I have (had..!) a comprehensive level of membership so could have been towed. I was on the North Circular so several garages within a couple of miles, at 1pm on a Wednesday.

Incidentally, according to AA man number 2 (and he showed me one), there is a disclaimer sticker that the AA should put on the report in the event of any issues involving coolant, which says that the vehicle should be taken straight to a garage for checking. This was not given to me on the first report. Had it have done so, I would have been straight in the garage.

It is unfortunate that I did not drive the car for a couple of weeks, but as I had just moved projects I was commuting into central London for the next couple of weeks, so no need. I did not of course explain this to the AA man, but as the only problem was apparently the lack of cap, and my own 'forgetfulness' in replacing it, according to AA man number one, there was no need to go into my daily movements!

Really appreciate the responses everyone. I have no intention in launching a vendetta against the AA, and am not usually one to consider claiming against anyone, but equally feel that I have been given poor service / advice which has resulted in a massive cost to fix my car, rather than a manageable cost.

Thanks again all.

Hello Ellie007,
we appreciate you have already spoken to someone from The AA regarding this, however if there is anything outstanding which you would like to discuss, please email into chat@theaa.com with reference number FOR31232. Regards The AA