Can EML affect write off valuation?

JayR87

Hi,

My car was involved in a non-fault accident.My question is, can an emissions related Engine Light affect whether the car gets written off or would an estimator only look at the relevant damage? If they only look at the damage and still decide to write it off, would the Engine light play a part in its valuation?

motorguy

How would they know it didnt come on because of the accident?

They might not even start the car.

Either way, i cant see it impacting valuation.

Grumpy_chap

As @motorguy said.

Except, if they did know about the emissions related EML, which I understand is an MOT test matter, it may affect the vehicle value.  A car which won't pass the next test without attention must be lower value than one that will, depending on the cost to repair.

motorguy

Grumpy_chap said:

As @motorguy said.

Except, if they did know about the emissions related EML, which I understand is an MOT test matter, it may affect the vehicle value.  A car which won't pass the next test without attention must be lower value than one that will, depending on the cost to repair.

I honestly cant see they'll be that bothered tbh.

It could be £20 fix for all they know.  it would be like them trying to devalue the car because it needed new wiper blades.

Flight3287462

Plug in an OBD II reader and clear the code.

seatbeltnoob

In my case, they didn't even take posession of the car. They just wrote the vehicle off remote and gave me fair value of the car minus scrap value (which was also reasonable), scrappers would give me £150 for the car, but the insurance valued the scrap at £90 (which means they take off less from the payout)

justworriedabit

Hi

It all depends on what the valuation of the car is. if its under 3k i guess most would not bother but if it was a car valued more they will check more especially if value was around 25k or more imo.  They may just try to fire up the car and if the light was on and you had a jobsworth that came to check you car they could easily check and see if the EML was pre-exisitng.  they also look for modifcations to get out of paying, rightly so as some people have their old bmw's chipped.

bris

They look at the value of the car, a car with an EML light is worth significantly less than one without it on.

EML lights can be anything from a quick fix to a 2 or 3 k ecu.

born_again

JayR87 said:

Hi,

My car was involved in a non-fault accident.My question is, can an emissions related Engine Light affect whether the car gets written off or would an estimator only look at the relevant damage? If they only look at the damage and still decide to write it off, would the Engine light play a part in its valuation?

So we take it that you have been driving round with the light on?

I guess it will depend on the value of the car, & what the damage is like. As they might just sell it on to a 3rd party to repair. But give you the payout.

BOWFER

bris said:

They look at the value of the car, a car with an EML light is worth significantly less than one without it on.

EML lights can be anything from a quick fix to a 2 or 3 k ecu.

How would they even know?
Even if the assessor, for some hyper-weird reason, decided to start the engine, the light could just as easily be attributed to the accident.
I don't see this as an issue at all.

AdrianC

And, of course, the engine management light indicating a fault is an MOT fail on all post-2003 petrol cars and all post-2008 diesel cars.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles/8-nuisance#section-8-2

Would the light being on render the car unroadworthy?
Would it lead to the vehicle being prohibited from being on the road, if stopped for a random emissions test?
Not the light itself, but what fault is it indicating, and what are the effects on the emissions?
https://www.gov.uk/emissions-testing