Damn Rocks can go to hell

ando

F**king rock the size of Mars was laying waiting for me around a country road near Malahide this morning. Ran over it and BANG, WALLOP ... BANG BANG .... next thing I know the car's beeping at me wildly, I look in the mirror and see an oil trail coming from my car. Lucky enough I had somewhere to pull over fast. One & half hours later the AA come out to tow the car away. I had a visit from the Garda aswell, they called the council out to clean up the mess







The sump (the thing that holds all the engine oil) is destroyed underneath. The rock just ripped through the bottom of it. There's no oil left in the car



Hopefully its only the sump thats gonna cost me

knifey_spoonie

Bye Bye MR sump.

RicardoSmith

Unlucky. I've heard of people with lowered suspensions or soft suspension ripping the sump off through grounding but never from a rock. Can't believe you didn't post a pic of the rock...

ando

RicardoSmith wrote:

Can't believe you didn't post a pic of the rock...

If I go back and take a pic of the rock do you think I could get some kind of compensation from the council? The dealer says its gona cost 500 euro's at least

Drag00n79

I can see some serious rocks at the side of the road in second pic (presumably to stop parking around that gate?).

boardsee

Was it a stray rock from the collection at the gateway, in 1 of the above pics. I hate people that put rocks outside lawns, ect,,, near the side of the road. Should be illegal. If it was one of their rocks, make sure to bill the fooks, and if they wont pay put it thru their window.

Fine car ya have by the way.

Guy:Incognito

ando wrote:

If I go back and take a pic of the rock do you think I could get some kind of compensation from the council? The dealer says its gona cost 500 euro's at least

Will an insurance claim of €500 affect your policy much?

Not much use if you ar TPF&T or have an excess of €300 or the like.

RicardoSmith

ando wrote:

If I go back and take a pic of the rock do you think I could get some kind of compensation from the council? The dealer says its gona cost 500 euro's at least

Unlikely.

boardsee

Nah, it is likely. They have to compensate fotr damage to wheels from potholes sometimes. If its a big pothole, and a genuine case. Youl`ll get something anyway.

Wibbs

boardsee wrote:

Nah, it is likely. They have to compensate fotr damage to wheels from potholes sometimes. If its a big pothole, and a genuine case. Youl`ll get something anyway.

Agreed. I've known 2 people(plus myself) who've successfully prosecuted the council for pothole damage. It's long winded and it helps if you've a tame solicitor, but it's worth it. I myself are currently pursuing a council to compensate me for a buckled alloy after hitting a vast (nearly 1 ft deep!!)pothole that had filled with rain. I got reimbursed for damage arising from a pothole in Terenure some years back. Broke a wheel, track rod end and strut in that one.

We've some of the worst maintained roads in the EU(if not the worst) and the sooner we all hit them in the pocket, the sooner we may get the roads our taxes(and the vast EU monies) are paying for.

That said it may be difficult in this case as it's not a (permanent) pothole and they'll probably just say it was out of their hands. I feel for you, especially with a car as nice as that.

RicardoSmith

I stand corrected. Never heard of any one being successful before

ciarsd

ah sh!t Ando, thats terrible luck. I would go back and take plenty of pics of the scene and the rock in question - might be an idea to have the guards details too.

it's most certainly worth your while checking to see where you stand for damages/costs...your car is damaged, whoopee it can and will be fixed, what if you lost control?

hope ya get sorted out asap

ando

Thanks for the support, appreciate it. I went back at lunch time to see if I could take a pic of the rock that did the damage. The council has already put down some kind of dust to absorb the oil. The rock seems to be out of place lying on the roadway.... as you can see:





My only guess is that the rock came from one of the gardens like the one from the second pic because they just dont belong on that road

There was 2 rocks lying on the road, it has to be this one but from memory I would have taught the rock would be bigger, maybe the top of the rock is in the sump of my car, it looks like the top of the rock has been sheered off. I put my phone in the pic to give an idea of size

RicardoSmith

Well it obvious from the trail in the photo where it happened. Are the council responsible though?

BrianD3

Bad luck ando. I have hit a few rocks in my time and have been lucky in that the worst damage was a wrecked tyre. TBH I think you will find it impossible to get any compensation off anyone over this as you won't be able to prove where the rock came from.

mike65

A serious issue has been raised here, home-owners who place rocks by the side of the road even if technically on thier property (and thats a matter open to debate from the picture below)



should be done for wreckless endangerment or whatever the correct term is.
Such objects should be tethered if allowed at all. Clearly any such object can form a hazard with nothing more than a malicious drag by the local "wasters".

I would get back to that spot and photograph all the rocks close up and in context of the driveway entrance. Get back to the local cops and see you can get an opinion on this matter.

Mike.

RicardoSmith

You can see from the photos that he hit the rock a long way from that driveway in the picture where he pulled in. It could have fallen out of a truck/trailer just as easily.

Our man in Havana

Proving ownership of the rock will be difficult.

dawballz

Jaysus.
It's things like this that are just about fatal to bikers, even the aftermath - The oil on the road and the "dust" or sand that was put down to dry it up.
They're all very dangerous for bikers.[/obvious]
Uh.

Alun

Feel sorry for you mate. Did exactly the same thing last year in the UK in a hire car (Renault Megane Scenic). Stupidly I'd refused the Damage Waiver so ended up paying £500 as far as I remember

unkel

From the oil spill you clearly hit the rock well before the suspect driveway with the rocks on display. Fair play though, ando, for obviously making a controlled and smooth manoeuvre to stop the car

AMurphy

Sorry about your incident. What speed were u doing at the time?.

Another observation, you appear to have traveled quiet a distance before teh lights came on.
And, it appears your engine has no underside shields. I'mnot sure if it would have helped in this case. But I't something I have noticed on most ROI cars. Not sure why they are missing.... mfgrs trying to save a buck?.
If nothing else they keep road dirt out of the engine.

BrianD3

Good to see that there was still oil coming out when you pulled over. So the chances of any engine damage due to lack of oil are virtually nil.

500 quid sounds a bit much to fit a new sump. Maybe the subframe, engine, steering rack etc. have to be moved to get sufficient access to replace it. Nice car BTW.

ando

AMurphy wrote:

Sorry about your incident. What speed were u doing at the time?.

I'd say about 35mph. It was just after a junction so I was'nt going that fast

AMurphy wrote:

Another observation, you appear to have traveled quiet a distance before teh lights came on.

Yea it looks like a long distance in the picture but its not that far really, maybe its the wide shot of the camera that gives the affect of distance I dunno:



You see the grey van in the distance to the right, thats where I parked the car

AMurphy wrote:

And, it appears your engine has no underside shields

I've never heard of that, I dont think I've even seen one on the cars I've worked on in the past??

ando

BrianD3 wrote:

Good to see that there was still oil coming out when you pulled over. So the chances of any engine damage due to lack of oil are virtually nil

Phew!

My worry now is that the car is sitting in the sales department of the dealers... The service department was closed yesterday. It has to be towed to the repair shop about 500 meters away across a busy road next week. I just hope no engineer tries to start the engine to see if it will go across on its own... I'm going there first thing tomorrow to see an engineer to explain the situation with the car, rather than leave it to the sales staff to tell them. Better safe than sorry

boardsee

They`re mechanics, not engineers

mike65

AMurphy wrote:

And, it appears your engine has no underside shields. I'mnot sure if it would have helped in this case. But I't something I have noticed on most ROI cars. Not sure why they are missing.... mfgrs trying to save a buck?.
If nothing else they keep road dirt out of the engine.

I have one and its er...in the shed! I took it off to clean the underside of the engine and just never got round to putting it back. Howver after this I may just get out there today and re-attatch it.

Mike.

Dave!

Woah, that's a big-ass rock! :eek: Sorry to hear about the incident. Nice car

HashSlinging

hmm ando where abouts in malahide was this he hehehehe :rolleyes:

ando

HashSlinging wrote:

hmm ando where abouts in malahide was this he hehehehe :rolleyes:

not sure of the name of the street but if your coming from Donaghmede shopping centre, go towards Portmarnock past the swimming pool complex, you come to a blind T junction, turn right, then left... go on until you come to another junction, right is to Portmarnock and the Dart Station, straight on is Malahide. About 30 feet after that junction is where the rock was.
Whats with the 'heheheh'? You know something I don't? :cool:

HashSlinging

ahh this happened to me before in malahide! i drive the same car just weird...