My Jag was in a fender bender causing several thousand dollars worth of body damage to it which got repaired by the offending party's insurance who admitted to be at fault.

About one month later the car "goes up in steam" when driving it normally with no warning signs, after getting it towed, taking out the spark plugs and cranking it water shoots out the engine, with the water out it won't start and it leaks coolant. I'm thinking head gasket or engine swap :|

Could this last incident stem from the fist one? Is there any possibility to make another claim against the offending party's insurance by getting the latest damage inspected? I can't afford the repair, I don't have a garage to work on it myself and I would hate to sell my XK8 "as-is" for a couple thousand bucks

 

Sorry about your car.

Each state has different insurance laws but, I believe you have up to 2 years to make a claim.

If you can prove the accident is the culprit of your problem they will be obligated to pay.
But you will need experts and since they already "fixed once" you may have to take them to court.

If you have good and reputable repair facility, that will help a lot, to prove you case. It will be up to them to show the insurance companies inspector the problem, then the inspector will make the report and recommendation to company to pay or not. It is certainly worth a 2nd claim or addendum to the first claim.

What does the repair facilty say about the problem?

Good luck and
Happy Motoring...

 

I am no lawyer, but I think you need to show cause and effect. Or find a mechanic that can point directly to what made your car overheat and how a body repair shop would have caused it making repairs. (for instance, coolant hoses swapped, caused coolant to run out, overheat situation)

 

I believe you'll have to be willing to take the offending party to court and prove your case there. It can be done - I successfully took a diminished value case to court in early 2010 against the guy who plowed into our S-Type. I documented everything to the Nth degree and paid for a professional inspection, plus I had the inspector in court with me that day. The money I won still serves as my maintenance fund for both of our Jaguars....

Be aware that this process is time-consuming and requires your full dedication to follow it through to completion. Our S-Type was plowed into on August 3, 2009. I battled the guy's insurance company for months with my diminished value case, they made me two low-ball offers that I just laughed at, so I took both the guy and his insurance company to court. My court date was January 11, 2010, more than five months after the accident. The good news is that our car was repaired to my satisfaction by six weeks after the accident (over $13,000 in total repair costs) by the preferred shop of my choosing, and the insurance company paid my diminished value claim to me in full just four days after they lost to me in court....

Good luck whatever you decide to do....

 

I think that the laws vary by state. If I were you, the first thing that I would do would be to try to find out why your car overheated, and if it possibly had some relation to the accident. If so, I'd contact my insurance company and tell them that the claims adjuster must have missed some of the damage to the car and to take another look at it. They would then have to contact the company that repaired it to try to figure out if the accident caused this problem as well. I got run into a couple of years ago (in my van, not my Jag) and I recall them telling me something about something going wrong after I got my car back and getting back in touch with the insurance company. They told me that sometimes they miss some damage that might show up later on. Hopefully, you can get the insurance companies to work it out without having to sue. Hope it all works out for you.

 

Fill the system with water and pessure test it to try to find where the coolant originally leaked out from.

For example...If a hose simply burst and was not abraded...probably not so much of a case. If the radiator side plastic tank cracked ...maybe more of a case.

 

Ok I will tow it to my mechanic on Wednesday and they will diagnose it, I told them about the accident and they can make a report. Diagnosis alone is only $90..

Quoted the head gasket job at $1400 labor only and engine swap $1950 labor only.

 

Ok, mechanic got back to me, the leak was from the water outlet housing. I asked him if he would recommend doing a head gasket job, after some thinking he said he'd "feel comfortable" about starting a head gasket job, although not guaranteeing the engine isn't beyond repair. The tear down alone is $750 and will give me a definite answer as to whether it can be rescued. Then it's at least $1000 more to get it fixed. These guys are legit Alameda Import Automotive, LLC - Alameda, CA so I trust them not to scam me.

Full disclosure:
After the engine overheated and stalled on the road, I used cold bottled water to fill up the reservoir and the car literally started shaking. I did manage to make it start once after that though, but it would not idle.

Question:
1. It still throws and ASC/trac error, has 111k miles and a manual latch conversion: could I feasibly sell it even post repairs for > $5000?

Options:
1. Go for $750 tear down - risk engine being shot and wasting that money.
2. Sell car as-is for ~$2000
3. Find a place to garage car and start parting out (don't feel comfortable attempting a repair myself)
4. Find a cheaper shop?