car insurance...wear and tear ?

fast1eddie

hi all, my car got hit while parked in street in the early hours, third party left ,not leaving their details, my insurers are agreeing to repair panel damage etc, but not a suspected damaged wheel bearing from when it was pushed into the kerb, insurers state that damaged wheel bearing is `fair wear and tear`  and i must pay to have it repaired, car was fine before being hit...any thoughts on this ?     thanks.

Mildly_Miffed

A stationary car pushed sideways by an impact puts less force on the bearing than hitting a kerb while driving, and quite likely by a pothole.

If it'd hit hard enough to damage the bearing, the tyre and probably wheel would be damaged, and quite likely suspension arm bent.

Nobbie1967

My rear wheel was hit while parked breaking the rear sub frame and writing off the car, but the wheel bearing was unaffected and I’m still driving it. It could be that wheel bearing was already worn and this was noticed when they did the inspection prior to repair. When was its last MOT? If recent and it didn’t mention the wheel bearing then that would support the case that the accident was a likely cause.

Have you driven it since the accident? Can you now hear a noise that wasn’t there before?

fast1eddie

hi, no noise before accident, drove fine, 7 year old car, done 51000 miles, they will repair a small scuff on alloy...been told it is down to having a  worn, but still legal tyre on that wheel

Nobbie1967

51k is very low for a wheel bearing to wear out and I don’t see what a worn tyre has to do with it. On balance of probabilities it seems likely the accident caused this.

oldagetraveller1

Nobbie1967 said:

51k is very low for a wheel bearing to wear out and I don’t see what a worn tyre has to do with it. On balance of probabilities it seems likely the accident caused this.

I would agree, except with my Toyota (Yaris). I had a rear wheel bearing MoT fail at 30k miles and the other side an advisory (noisy but no detectable movement)! I changed both for Blueprint hubs - touch wood both still good after another 30k+.

I have read of similar experiences with other Toyota models too at not that many miles.

forgotmyname

Not uncommon for smaller "City" cars to need bearings and bushes at much lower mileages than a larger vehicle that's expected
use is miles and miles of motorways every day.

A few smaller cars still have cambelts that need changing every 3 - 5 years or 30k - 50k miles where many vehicles have 100k mile
or 10 year belt changes these days.

fast1eddie

hi, car is a standard hatchback,i have never had to replace a wheel bearing on any car, van or truck i drove , my car does about 4500 miles a year, i just think they are trying to save a few quid on the claim, worn tyre causing bearing failure is a `new one ` to me, perfectly fine before being hit, maybe something else is damaged ,wont know till i get car back..thanks for replys

fast1eddie

hi, quick update,  got my car back 10 days after accident, i was happy with the repairs they did, but they did not replace wheel bearings so my car was not usable,   i  got a local garage to investigate the same day as car was returned , they replaced both wheel bearings, car is now good again....contacted insurers who, after looking into it, finally agreed to re imburse my costs as they should have got a independent engineer to investigate further...took just over 3 months and many calls and emails to be reimbursed...thanks

facade

forgotmyname said:

<snip>

A few smaller cars still have cambelts that need changing every 3 - 5 years or 30k - 50k miles where many vehicles have 100k mile
or 10 year belt changes these days.

They still need changing every 3-5 years, but the manufacturers have simply crossed out 5 years/50K and written 10 years/100K in biro. (just like crossing out 12 months/12k and replacing it with 24 months/24k on the service recommendations)

Then we get posts on here about belt failure at 70k (or 35k if it is the dreaded "wet belt!) and the manufacturers just laugh and say "out of warranty/not serviced by us"