So last month It had snowed in the am, then rained and melted all the snow and caused the shoulder of the road to be real soft. I had ended up driving in the soft dirt and it sucked me right off the road. I ended up doing $3500 in cosmetic damage, but the thing i was most worried about was the noise it was making in the motor, which had previously not been there.

The vehicle was sitting at ~45 degree angle for over an hour waiting for the tow truck. The vehicle was not running at this time.

When the tow truck arrived I had to get in the vehicle and start it, and put it in reverse to help the tow truck pull me out. When i started it That's when the pretty loud ticking noise had started. I was able to drive it home (1/2 mile), and the whole way it made the noise. The tow truck had followed me home.

Afterwards I had him tow it to the body shop and mentioned the ticking noise to him and that's the reason i didnt want to drive it to the body shop.

He towed it to the shop, and mentioned the noise to the shop owner, which than he had told the insurance adjuster about it.

Insurance adjuster started the vehicle, took a look around it, and decided "there was a stick underneath the van that could possibly be making the noise".

Cosmetic damage was fixed, i show up after it was fixed, and took it for a ride. For the first few minutes it didnt make any noise. I got back to the shop and the noise started again, a loud horrible ticking noise. WTF?

So i go in and tell the shop owner, he talks to the adjuster. I get a call a week later saying that if it's due to it being worn out, and not accident related, then ill have to pay for it. So I told him everything that had happened. He still insisted that i may have to pay for it if it's worn out.

Now what i dont get is that it never started doing this prior to the accident. The adjuster never looked into it when he was told about it.

The vihicle is and '07 honda odyssey with like 180k miles on it. So they could easily say that it due to wear. But like i said, it is accident related, and never did this before, and i cant really afford it.

Is there anyone with some insurance advice out there?

how much $$$ are you talking? fighting this i think will cost you some money...

the obv 3 steps are some combo of 1) see an independent mechanic; 2) see an independent insurance agent; 3) see a lawyer....

and see what they have to say about it.......... i think #2 and #3 will give you 5-10 minutes general advice for free. might have to pay the mechanic and of course if you want him to give you an official opinion it might cost more $$$$$....

i'm thinking you just work out a settlement.............. but you have to find out how much merit their argument has. it sucks as i'm sure you are telling the truth. but their argument may have a little bit of merit too. but i side with you if i have to go 100% vs. 0%

it's like people i know who won wrongful dismissful suits. they mostly won their legal fees (i.e. legal fees = judgement won) but they were quite happy just for the principle of it

im guessing probably in the ball park of $1500. not 100% though. i mean should i call the mechanic and explain it to him? cuz the hwole time it's honestly felt like the adjuster is against me and seems like quite the douche. pretty much if the mechanic says it's wear than it's on me.

even if the mechanic agree that it's wear i still don't like it, but yes i think you would need to accept it partially and try to negotiate a settlement.

seems unfortunate for instance that my timing belt was about to snap and then it snapped when an unfortunate "act of god" type of accident occured.

but from the insurance company perspective it is somewhat defensible.

but yeah i would talk to an independent mechanic. pay him $20 or $50 to talk a look (be good though, if you pay him very little even free then i certainly wouldn't use his name or anything)

surprised you are taking it so well. even though it makes a little bit of sense i would go crazy if this happened to me.

well the more I think about it the more it bothers me. Especially since im paying $180 a month on insurance, and this is the first claim I've ever made in 10 years.

yes, it should bother you.......

a few more thoughts,

three further suggestions:

1) look up ombudsman both for your insurance company and the insurance industry in general. they are there for these types of situations.

2) find out in your area who writes in the newspaper about these types and write them a letter. do a BCC on the insurance adjuster and send him a copy. up to you if you want to mention his name in the letter or not.

3) might be far fetched but same idea as #2 but send a letter to Better Business Bureau


i am confused. and maybe you don't know the answers either:

note i have forgotten what "it" is but not sure it matters. i'll visualize it's a fan belt.

what are they suggesting about the wear? 1) that it was broken and you are pretending you didn't know?; 2) broken but you didn't know?; 3) that it would have broken very shortly anyway?

i remember a law and order where they mentioned a law school standard exam question. someone is falling 50 stories to their death. they pass your floor and you shoot them through the window. i think they said you are still guilty of murder if the bullet killed the person even though they would have died seconds later..... seems analogous to your situation. the fan belt was working and incident caused it not to work.

i also don't understand that they fixed it and they said it was "wear and tear"...... obviously they didn't "fix it" properly

anyway, i did straw poll based on my general understanding of your situation and people seemed to feel strongly that insurance co is in the wrong.

assuming i've remembered your situation right and/or you are describing it right.

basically i'm thinking of fan belt that was days from snapping but some teenage vandals decided to cut it.... basically insurance co should replace your fan belt, preferably new.

hope that helps.... btw, what about who you bot the policy from? or is it direct from ins-co?. buying from high volume agents can be good because they have leverage with ins-co

insurance is all state.

I talked to the mechanic that was working on my vehichle, and definitely said that the accident could have pushed the vehicle to do this, a more so since it was sitting and quite the angle for over an hour. So hopefully I'm in the clear.

as for them suggesting about the wear, the way he said it, he was implying that it was already making the loud ticking noise in the motor, or was about to start doing it, and is due to wear and not the accident.

assuming you are relating the facts properly, my bigger poll of people now are all unanimously in favor of you.

hope it turns out well for you....... basically you have to make judgement call on how much to pressure the adjuster. whether he will cave in easily or whether you will make a sworn enemy and nothing you do will change his mind.

in general though, the more other people know about this (newspaper, insurance ombudsman, his boss etc.) the more he may just capitulate (i.e. "give in") in my opinion.