My niece has a 1.4 16v Fabia. It was badly rear-ended and pushed into a bus in front of her. I thought it would be written off as it is 7 years old but the insurance co. sent it to Sewards for repair.

When she got it back she immediately saw that they managed to respray the new panels the wrong colour so the delivery man took it straight back.

On the way home after re-spray, it boiled over. Turned out to be water pump impellor broken which was replaced "as a gesture of goodwill as it was nothing to do with the accident".

On the way home this time, awful noise from engine and car slows to a stop. This time according to Sewards it's a broken camshaft and nothing to do with them or the accident. They want my neice to pay for a new engine.

So I'm trying to get my head around what would cause water pump and camshaft failure in this context. Could it be something to do with the accident? I thought Sewards might have drained the oil for some reason and not re-filled it.

Apologies for a long post but this has been going for months and it's a bit of a saga.

I will stick with my '96 Felicia!

Goodwill jesture!! My arse

I can't stand this sort of thing,

If it were me i'd lose the head and probaly drive it (which you can't) through the showroom window

I was close to doing this with my focus st or run over someone

Fundamentally, I believe it is the insurance company's liability to restore the vehicle to pre-accident condition.

When the water pump was replaced, I would have expected the ins. co. to pick up the bill. Maybe Sewards didn't get authorisation for the cost of this, that's why they say it's their goodwill gesture.

Now they would have needed to remove and refit the cambelt to replace the water pump, which makes me suspect it was refitted incorrectly, leading to camshaft damage, however that is just my guess.

I am not a lawyer, but I think it will be best to avoid getting drawn into arguments about how and why the damage occurred, and simply tell the insurance co. you haven't received a satisfactory repair to your vehicle.

Edited 2 September, 201015 yr by bnjyn

I'd get the insurance to fix it.

Was ok before the accident and if it was your fault, they wouldn't have done it on goodwill.

Thanks for the advice, I'll pass it on.