So about 6 weeks ago I was up in Simi Valley on some canyon roads in heavy rain early in the morning when it was still dark out. I came around a blind corner and as i got through the corner i realized the hillside in front of me had washed out, I hit my brakes and served to miss most of the large rocks on the road, ultimately I still hit some of them. This damaged the axle, oil pan, exhaust, bumper, side skirts among other things.

Well I had the car towed by my insurance company to a shop they recommended as one of their preferred shops. I let them do their thing they provide the estimate, do the repairs, etc. Which went pretty smooth minus the fact they snapped another axle while they had the car in the shop, so they call me and say whats the deal and my recommendation was maybe to raise up the coils and see if that fixes it. So they do and then they give me the car back.

Next day, axle snaps on the car again. This time I have it towed to a local MINI performance shop in San Pedro. They look at the end links and determine that the aftermarket ones had been damaged and were interfering with the axle movement. My insurance comes in and covers the axle again and we put the stock end links on. They replace the axle and drive it off the lift and the axle snaps. By snapping or breaking axles I mean the slip joint is coming out of the yoke on the transmission side. So we determine at this point there is some sort of structural damage to the vehicle. My insurance is pissed that axles keep snapping and refuses to cover anything else until the dealership looks at it.

so fine we have it towed over to long beach mini yesterday to look at it and diagnosis it. Well MINI says they dont want to touch my car because it is "highly modified". The adviser told me they would not even do a diagnosis due to the fact my car was modded even though none of the mods have anything to do with the area and problem in question.

But I am not sure what actions to take next, I have an adjuster who wants to blame my coilovers, a dealer who doesnt want to touch it, two shops who havent fixed it and still after 6 weeks no car. I am pretty tired of getting bounced around with my insurance as I have had to put money out to both shops to cover things they have not and its starting to get expensive and I am tired of being out of a car. I had to miss MFEST this weekend after registering for everything.

Any thoughts or ideas? I am ask for serious help, not smart *** comments.

thank you

 

Sorry to hear about all of the trouble. At this point you may want to get some legal advice. I'm sure that's the last thing you want to hear, but they can advise you on things like the magnuson moss warranty act and hopefully get the insurance company to pay for the repairs. It may take some time to sort out.

 

God you guys and the MM act! He's not being denied warranty work, he's just caught between an insurance company that doesn't want to keep spending money without a dealer telling them what's really wrong and a dealer who doesn't want to get stuck standing behind repairs to a modified car. Sheesh, read what the guy wrote fer chrisakes.....

Boosted, call around and find another dealer, even if you wind up paying the tow, it'll be worth it to get your car straightened out. Either that or find a shop that deals with modified cars on a regular basis and get it fixed on your dime, then give the bill to the ins co.

Good luck, buddy!

 

buy some 450hp axles from the driveshaft shop?

 

Sounds like Long Beach Mini sucks!

 

Sorry that I can't help with your insurance/dealership dilemma, but I'd really like to know which canyon you were in since I live in Simi and commute through Box/Black/Woolsey Canyon every day on my way to and from the SFV.

Here's to hoping you get your mess straightened out soon.

 

I'm going to ask around, I have some friends in the insurance industry and who do body work and then I'll get back to you

 

Finally after tons of out pocket by me, and getting its escalated to my adjuster branch supervisors they are sending out a private inspector to look at my car while it is at Long Beach MINI as they have agreed to let him come use one of their lifts.

So hopefully I will get some traction.

I was up in Moorpark on princeton during an early morning of heavy rain. They had flooded signs out but i didnt even think that it would bring down rocks like it did.

 

Here is what I have come up with so far:

Mercury Claim – 20120012006646.94

CARS Service Center:
City Auto Body
2150 Agate Court
Simi Valley, CA, 93065
(805)581-1671

Supplemental Shop:
Johnny's Auto Clinic
717 West Capitol Drive
San Pedro, CA 90731
(310) 521-0330

Insurance Adjuster:
Jennifer Chow
661-810-4979

Private Inspector
AUTOMOTIVE SOULUTION FORENSIC SERVICE
PO BOX 786
Placentia, CA 92871
(714) 290-2810
Contact: PETTY , PAUL


Date of Loss: 3-16-2012
Location of Loss: Princeton Dr, Moorpark, CA

I was driving in Moorpark, CA on the morning of 3-16-2012 on Princeton Dr, it was raining out and very early morning so light was limited. I came around a blind corner on the road and there was a wash out of rocks on the side of the hill. I did not see most of them until it was almost too late, I braked and swerved missing a good number of the rocks but was not able to miss them all. After I hit them the car would not drive forward as the axle had been damaged among other things.

My car was towed to City Auto Body in Simi Valley, Ca where Karl worked with my insurance company to get my claim approved and taken care of. During the time at the shop the car snapped another axle, karl and I agreed that we should try to lift it up and see if that fixed it. I did not say this was a guaranteed remedy but something they could try. Granted I am the customer and they are the mechanics they should have taken my advice and checked everything out on their end. They replaced my axle again with a NON-OEM axle and returned the car to me as they had deemed it was fix. Have it be noted that when I received the car back they stated they could not get my car to align within specs.

Next day the axle brakes in San Pedro, CA, again I have the car towed to a shop in San Pedro, Johnny's auto clinic that is a MINI specialty shop. They determine in order to get my car properly diagnosed they were going to need to replace the axle again and align the vehicle. Hubie at Johnny's got in touch with the previous shop in Simi Valley about my axle and they stated they would get with Mercury on getting them to cover it. Mercury initially refuses to help with any of the costs associated to the new axle, after a discussion with Hubie and myself she reconsiders and agrees to cover the axle.

Hubie orders the new axles and replaces my Alta Adj. End Links with the OEM sway bar end links because it seemed the axle was coming into contact with the end links under a full lock left handed turn. Now we have KW V1 coilovers on the car which I have had on the car for over 20k miles with no issue, they are set at their highest height setting. The new axle is put in along with a new diff seal, the car is driven 50ft off the lift and the axle comes out of the slip joint before it could even make it to the alignment rack.

Next Mercury takes the stand that the car needs to go to the dealership and needs to be diagnosed there. Johnny's agrees as they need to axle to be warrantied as it clearly didnt make it more than 50ft. So the car is towed to Long Beach MINI where due to engine modification the dealership would not touch the vehicle. At this point Mercury is standing to the idea its my modded suspension that is killing my axles and that they do not take any responsibility for this. Next they send out a private investigator named Paul Petty who went to Long Beach MINI and determined that it was the angles that my KW suspension place the axle that is stressing them and causing them to break.

Below you will find a link to KW V1 Coilovers for the R56 MINI Cooper S, on this page you will find the acceptable lowering for my car. All their warranty information, product information and policies. Clearly a leading race suspension company doesnt build coilovers for a car that would in any way damage that car or the axles.

http://www.kw-store.com/products/kw-...t-v1-1516.html

“Description
KW Variant 1: Sporty - Balanced. With KW factory pre-set dampening.
The ideal system for customers who like to choose the customer lowering of their vehicles while counting on the extensive driving tests of our experienced engineers who have preset the dampers for the ultimate balance between sporty driving, comfort and safety.

KW Coilover Kit V1 New Mini R56
Lowering
Front Lowering:
1.2" to 2.3"
Rear Lowering:
1.2" to 2.3"

How much can I lower my car with KW’s?

Each KW application is designed to operate in the usable suspension range of each car. KW’s engineers have done extensive testing with each application and have developed suspension that will lower your car as much as is safely possible. Please check our application guide to see the lowering range for your specific application.”

Again, I dont think a suspension company would put all this time and effort into their suspension if it was going to snap axles.

What it really comes down to is that Mercury did not fix my car properly the first time and is looking for any reason to not cover me. No one has yet to prove that the suspension is clearly not killing the axles. Instead it is expected that I will prove to Mercury that they are wrong that the suspension is not what is killing these axles, that something else is really wrong with the car. I find it interesting that the car never had axle issues prior to this incident and now I cant even go 50ft. I dont understand how if I could only go 50ft I would have gone far enough to even make it on the streets to have had the original accident.


What I have going on right now is I have Johnny's picking up the car, getting my stock suspension placed back on the vehicle, towing it to South Bay to get the axle warrantied and they we are going to align it and try to snap the axle on stock suspension and then mercury is going to take care of it. If it doesnt snap, I am going to part it out and sell everything and go back to stock and trading it in. This is going to cost me 1308.52 out of pocket. On top of the $500 deducatable, $480 I all ready paid them to remove suspension.

 

Really sorry to hear about your issues. Hopefully I can help by giving some insiders perspective. I work in the auto insurance claims business, and have for 15 years (I don't work for Mercury).

I'm sure you're frustrated, but remember that Mercury is simply the people who write the check for repairs. They don't repair the car, or have a ton of expertise in MINI's. Even if it's a "recommended" shop from Mercury, it's still an independent body shop, Mercury has no financial interest in them or any ownership.

From the insurance company perspective, they paid what was recommended to repair the car properly. It immediately broke. They paid to fix it again, and it has broken again. From their perspective, I can understand why they're holding off. From what they know, they've paid to fix it with proper parts and it's still breaking.

My suggestion is to find someone who can clearly document what the problem is and that it's crash related, not related to your modifications (not saying I don't believe you, I do, just giving you some tips). Once you have that, you can show it to Mercury to say "We've figured out exactly what's causing the problem, here's how it's related to the loss, and this repair will fix it". I'd bet they'll be much more willing to help out then.

Best of luck!!

 

I understand a bit of your problem as far as dealing with the stealership not wanting to touch your car. When I had my BMW, I went in because I was having their notorious high pressure fuel pump issues. It was my 3rd one. I never hand an issue with them, and had an intake and exhaust on the coupe. Well sure enough when I wanted to lemon it and I was throwing codes they said they wouldn't diagnose the issue because I had an intake and exhaust and it was possible those were the cause of my hpfp and turbo leak.

I literally had to uninstall all my parts, and go completely back to stock until they would even finish their diagnosis which in the end, weren't even caused by my aftermarket parts. I lawyered up and got it lemoned.

I doubt lemoning is your route, but what I'm trying to say is, for you to be able to take it in and get it checked, your best bet is go back to stock for LB Mini to consider touching your car.

 

My insurance is dropping me for:

"Unacceptable Vehicle Use"

They said my car is modified to a race car.. wtf?

 

Wow, truly sorry to hear your insurance dropped you like that...

 

Is it possible that Mercury is just finding that you have modified your car and you previously advised that it was not modified? The referenced article suggests that this could be a problem.

http://www.lelandwest.com/reporting-...ce-company.cfm

 

Nope, i asked upfront about it and asked if id be covered. They are now just using it as a way to not be responsible for screwing up my car.

 

You have to remember, they didn't screw up your car. The body shop did. Insurance companies only write the check, they don't do the work on the car.

I don't know for sure since I'm not part of Mercury, but this would be my very well educated guess as to what happened. Underwriters, the one who actually decide to accept a policy and what to charge for it, usually have some way of getting notice when a loss occured. When they saw yours and the issues your car was having in getting fixed, they didn't feel it was a policy they wanted to accept. They typically are used to insuring Accords, Camrys and the like. They'll do a modified car if they feel it's acceptable. But perhaps they felt that the mods on your car were creating "risks" they didn't want to take.

But that does not mean they can be off the hook for this loss. Even if they dropped you the day after the accident, you had coverage with them when it happened. Therefore, they would owe for any damages that are shown to be related to this loss, even if they don't insure you anymore. So they can't drop you just to get out of responsibility, but they can drop you to not have any responsibility if another loss happens later.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

This^

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles boosted. I personally would lawyer up. Maye he can even get back some of the money you had to pay out of pocket after the deductible? Just my 2 cents.

 

So after having the car at SouthBay MINI for a week they have called to report their findings. They confirmed the wheel bearing on the driver side is shot. The control arm is bent and hammmered to ****. There is a piece of the transmission housing that is broken.

A weird one is they put stock wheels on my car and the car stopped pulled and doesnt cause any steering wheel vibration. So does that mean my ESMs are bent or they are just unbalanced? Now I am concerned about the wheels being I didnt have any problems on my other wheels.

They are requesting my insurance dispatch someone to go to the dealership to look at the vehicle in person with them so they can go over all the problems they have found that were not fixed. I have provided the dealer with my insurance adjusters information and I have left messages with my insurance to contact them.

They are also requesting a frame alignment after seeing the damages underneath the car that remain.

 

If memory serves, you went to a "network" shop which was recommended by your insurance. I don't know who the insurance company is or the specifics of the program, so I'm going on generalizations here. Typically, an insurance companies network shop program includes a warranty on the repairs. So if the issue is repairs that were already noticed and paid for but not properly completed, then the warranty should cover it. As you wrote, the insurance adjuster is going to need to look at with his/her own eyes. The typical process is to bring the car back to the original shop to give them an opportunity to correct the problem. But I believe you already gave them a chance. So you can tell your insurance that the shop has already tried to fix it and failed, so you want the Mini shop to fix it. Insurance should cover it, and they may go back to the original shop to recover some of the money.

If it's damage not previously found, your insurance should cover it as a supplement.

Either way, from what you're describing, you should be covered. Stay involved with your insurance to make sure they're moving things quickly. Keep in mind that even if the initial shop was a "recommended" shop by the insurance company, it's still an independent shop. That same shop is probably on State Farms' prefered list, Nationwides, etc... The company I work for has a program too, and it's all independent shops.

 

 

+1

My car was in the shop twice for damages over 4K and each time once they started digging, they found more problems and they would send an adjuster out for a supplement. I also agree with the others. Lawyer up and have really good documents with ALL the details of EXACTLY what happened. That's always helpful. Every document, every receipt, every conversation.

 

I would say high time that your car is fixed. I'm so blown by the whole situation still

 

Insurance Information:
Provider: Mercury Insurance
Adjuster: Jennifer Chow
Contact Phone Number: 661-810-4979


Mercury Preferred Shop: City Autobody
Address: 2150 Agate Court, Simi Valley, CA 93065
Phone: (805) 581-1671
Contact: Karl Norheim


Supplemental Shop: Johnny's Auto Clinic
Address: 717 West Capitol Drive. San Pedro, CA 90731
Phone: 310-521-0330
Contact: John J. DeGirolamo - Owner


Forensic Specialist
Owner/Operator: Paul Petty
Address: 909 E Yorba Linda Blvd 172, Placentia, CA 92820
Phone: (714) 290-2810




MINI Dealership – South Bay MINI
Address: 18800 Hawthorne Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90504
Phone: 877-846-2119
Contact: Alex – Service Writer
Cell: 310-667-0449


Frame Shop
Prestige Too
Address: 530 Alaska Avenue, Torrance, CA 90503
Phone: (310) 787-8852


On March 17, 2012, I was involved in an accident in my 2007 MINI Cooper S in Simi Valley, CA. I was coming home from a friends around 9am on a rainy Saturday morning when I came around a blind sharp curve and the hill side next to the road had washed out. I did my best to avoid the rock slide, but to my best efforts still hit various rocks and debris. This most notably damaged the driver side axle and the car was unable to be driven. At this point I called my insurance company (Mercury Insurance) and filed a claim, they dispatched a tow truck and we agreed to take my car to a shop close to the scene of the accident since it was a preferred shop for Mercury. I should have pushed harder for it to go to the dealership for all repairs, but the representative pushed their preferred shop, I figured this would speed up the claim and repair.


During my vehicles time at City Autobody I worked with Karl to restore my car back to its original state prior to the accident. Once City got an axle under the car, they shortly broke another axle. The axle was slipping out of the slip yoke at full left handed lock. Karl contacted me about this saying that it was due to my vehicles ride height. My car is lowered on KW V1 coilovers, I told Karl he should try to raise them up if he believed that was the issue. City goes ahead and spins up the coilovers to their highest setting and puts a new NON-OEM axle under the car. Believing they had resolved the issue they released my car to me. In the time City had my vehicle they did NOT place my car on a frame alignment rack, nor did they take it to the dealership to be looked at as requested by my Insurance company. They also noted they were not able to properly align my vehicle.


Next day during my lunch hour I made a U-turn and the axle again came out of the slip yoke and was damaged. I called City Autobody in Simi Valley which is roughly 60 miles from my house and explained what had just happened. They asked me to have it towed to them, but upon hearing the distance of they tow they asked if I had a local shop I preferred to use. I said yes and had the car towed to Johnny's Auto Clinic. City agreed to help with this as they have a warranty on all their work stating the repairs are warrantied for the life of the vehicle.


Johnny's Auto wrote up an estimate for a new OEM axle, alignment and a new differential seal as it was also damaged. Mercury approves this work to be done so that Johnny's could further troubleshoot this issue to try to find the root cause of my axle loss. Johnny's gets the car back together with a new fresh axle and makes it all of 50 ft of the rack before the axle again fails. At this point my insurance is upset by this and no longer wants Johnny's to look at it. I try calling City to ask them what they wish to do as well, they told me they would no longer be helping me or working with me that I needed to contact my insurance. Mercury now requires me to have the vehicle taken to a MINI dealership before anything else can be taken care of. I now go through the pain of having it towed over to Long Beach MINI so they can look at it. We were also trying to get Long Beach MINI to warranty the part that had failed as it only made it 50ft before failure. Long Beach MINI ends up denying service for the vehicle due to my engine modifications being to extensive (I have full bolt-ons and tune – nothing crazy at all). So Mercury now sends Paul Petty an “automotive investigator” out to my vehicle at Long Beach MINI as they agreed to let him come look at the vehicle while it was still there.


Paul Petty decides that it is my KW Suspension that is causing my axles to fail. At this point my insurance notifies me that they will be no longer able to cover anymore damages being they are directly linked to my coilovers not the original accident. I argued with them that there is no way my suspension is causing such failures if they vehicle was fine prior to the accident and I had had coilovers on my vehicles for many months at this point and had over 20k miles without a single problem on them. They continue to stick to their guns on this stating the only way they would look at changing their mind is if I put the vehicle on stock suspension and had the dealer look at it and state their was a problem still that was not related to my axle.


Well left with a broken axle and few options I had Johnny's Auto tow my car back to their shop and begin work swapping out my KW suspension for stock suspension and replacing the axle with another new OEM axle costing me another $1700 out of pocket. At this point I have without a vehicle for over 7 weeks now. Upon receiving my vehicle back to me I take it to South bay MINI to have them look at it and try to diagnosis my car so that I can in fact prove that it was not my KW suspension that had caused this failure.


South Bay agrees to do the diagnosis for me, once they looked at the vehicle they determined that further investigation needed to be done at a frame shop. My vehicle was sublet-ted out to Prestige Too for the frame alignment and measurements. Once Prestige takes the measurements they determine that my sub frame had shifted up most likely causing my axles failures. At this point I contact my insurance as I felt I had done everything in my power to prove them wrong and had successfully done so. My insurance again sends Paul Petty out to look at my vehicle at the frame shop to determine what they next plan of action would be. At this time Paul admits to the frame shop that the first go round he had been very close minded and found it easy to blame my suspension.


Mercury contacts me yesterday to let me know they would not be covering the repairs to the sub frame that are needed another ~$400 nor would they cover the diagnosis ~419 and that I would need to take care of this out of pocket. Their stand is that there is no way to prove the sub frame damage occurred during the original accident, even though my car was fine prior to this accident. I argued up and down and she used excuses like when various shops swapped my struts for coils that they had tampered with my sub frame causing it to be off. And if I could prove anything further they would again look at covering me, my reply was that I had done everything asked and proved them wrong and still I was being blamed and left out to dry.


I argued multiple points on the phone with regarding the sub frame such as the fact swapping suspension requires no tampering or adjustments on the sub frame. I have had multiple professionals from Johnny's and Prestige state there is no way my coilovers were destroying my axles and that there is no way the sub frame shifted by itself. Again Jennifer Chow blamed my suspension and ride height, she then proceeded to blame the other shops who had worked on my car. And I repeatedly stated to her that had her original shop done this correctly the first time we wouldn’t be where we are at today.


I do not see how this is at all right, I pay for insurance so that when I am in an accident I know I will be taken care of, not turned away and left to fend for myself. If Mercury didn’t want to cover the vehicle due to modifications – which I was very upfront about when I had the policy written for this reason – they should have not repaired it in the first place and turned me away then. Had City Auto properly repaired this vehicle the first go around and had put the car on an alignment rack the car would have been fixed properly and I would not be where I am today. I feel I am being taken advantage of by my insurance. I am currently seeking legal counsel against Mercury in hopes I can sue them and re-coop some of my losses. I also wanted to share my experience to let others know what I have gone through and the unjust actions my insurance has taken against me.

 

I cleaned up your post for you. You had some extra HTML junk floating around.