Car insurance - oil overfill damage

thatdude

Hi all. First time poster, long time reader. This site has got me out of many parking tickets over the years. 

So yesterday i overfilled my car with oil. We drove about 200metres and then pulled over because there was loads of white/blue smoke coming from the car. We called our roadside assistance and they came out and drained the oil and re filled it to a correct level. I asked them idf it was ok to drive, would the oil that’s had caused the smoke cause and more damage if i drove off. He said it would be fine. So I drove about 100meters and my engine choked up, made some horrible grinding/reving noises abs then died. 

The car then had to be recovered to home. Need to get it into a garage on Monday. Question is can i claim this on my insurance? I spoke to a friend who thinks that the engine is full of oil and the turbo is likely done for. 

Car is 7 years old. We still have 13 months on the finance. It’s done 60k, so still have life in it. We can’t afford a huge bill atm. It’s out main family car so would like to keep it in the road if possible. 

[Deleted User]

Highly unlikely your policy would cover neglect.

Check your policy.

frederick1950

I can't see how a self inflicted oil overfill issue has anything to do with comprehensive insurance that is taken out to cover you for accidents , vandalism , fire or theft.
It might not be as bad as it initially seems. The exhaust system may need to be removed and thoroughly cleaned out as it is probably full of oil.
However even this wont be cheap and you will have to make the decision as to whether you pay for the garage to carry this out even though it might not be the full extent of the problem.

missile

An expensive lesson learned

RBN20

Call you insurer and ask, they will either say it isn’t covered as it’s negligence or they will say they will cover it under the accidental damage section of your policy. 

No harm in asking, and you’ll get a straight answer from them

Sandtree

RBN20 said:

Call you insurer and ask, they will either say it isn’t covered as it’s negligence or they will say they will cover it under the accidental damage section of your policy. 

No harm in asking, and you’ll get a straight answer from them

Whilst I disagree generally with the "no harm" statement as it can mean you have to declare a declined claim for the next 3-5 years which you wouldn't have to declare as an incident if its clearly not covered. On this occasion it may be worth a conversation though as for example Direct Line's policy explicitly excludes mis-fueling under the Accidental Damage section and therefore they are clearly considering accidental damage outside of collisions.