Invalidated Motor Insurance

[sjnovis]

I think I will be clutching at straws but would welcome any advice/guidence from anyone

We have a Nissan Navara pickup truck that we have managed to crack the chasis on, we had a load in the back and hit a large speed bump.

Our insurance company are now saying that the crack was due to Metal Fatigue and therefore are not covered.

I have yet to find anything in our insurance terms and conditions that identifies Metal Fatigue as a get out clause
I always assumed if you had a Valid MOT, that was all that was needed.

Anyway, feeling a bit aggrieved at the moment.

[hertsman]

Insurer is probably relying on exclusions relating to 'wear and tear' or any 'gradually operating cause' - as opposed to a sudden, accidental and specific accident. If you can prove a specific incident, you might be in business. Could be very difficult of course without independent expert opinion on the cause of the damage - and that could get very costly, and might be uneconomic.

I suggest you keep pushing the insurer - they will be happy if you give up at the first hurdle. It's frustrating but keep on at them. Note that any claim you eventually make on your insurance will affect any 'no claims discount' you might have, so you need to do your sums to check that the claim exceeds the increased premiums.

There is an outside chance you might have a case against the local authority who installed the speed bump, but that might need solicitors to support you, so the economics might be against you again. Do you have any 'legal expenses' insurance as part of you motor policy or your business? This might help with a claim against the council (but probably not your motor insurer).

Motor insurance claims are wall to wall aggravation I'm afraid, but don't give in without a fight. If you use an insurance broker, enlist their help.

Good luck

[sjnovis]

Many thanks Hertsman, They have actually just called saying, as they expect us to take this matter further, and if we do, they would have to pay for an external engineer to inspect the vehicle, this would cost them approx £1000.00, so in light of this, they would be prepared to pay us £1000.00 and then consider the case closed.

He has actually qualified the matal fatigue as a mechanical failure, and this is what excludes us from their cover


We did think about the local claim, it happened on a narrow lane going upto the car park at Donnington Castle, there weren't any speed bump signs or the speed bump itself was not painted.

[Richard B]

How much would it have cost you to get some local garage to weld a plate on it?,

You must have been going some and had some weight in the back.
Used lots of 4x4s in the past on the farm and my best mate as owned the Navra crew-cab and abused it hard with no problems.

Would suggest you take it to nissan and let them have look,
Nissans are renowed for there brick house build.

[sjnovis]

We had approx 800KG in the back and weren't going very fast 15 -20mph

The speed bump was quite "tall" so I guess the shock load would have been quite large

I have to agree, the Navara has been a great truck.

Work takes me away for a week now, so I'll update when I get back

[old_git]

Post a photo, sounds interesting this.

To be honest you are unlikely to have cracked the chassis going over a speed bump.

Sudden failures don't usually result in cracks.

The important thing is where does the crack start from, usually it will be a weld or a hole and obviously has to be in a high stress region.

Going over a speed bump at all up weight shouldn't crack the chassis. The abuse testing we do on cahssis involves stuff like driving at a foot high kerb flat out and ripping a corner off.

Long term testing should discover any areas that are sussecptable to fatigue failure, but things do go wrong, as happened with the F15's.

If the chassis has cracked due to fatigue and is being used in line with the manufacturers guidlines, then the action is against the manufacturer for a vehicle not fit for purpose, and if the crack could cause a dangerous failure mode, then the manufacturer should take imediate action and possibly a recall.

Can you post some pics, if you look at the crack, you can often tell what the failure mode mechanism is.

Geoff