Engine Fire - Insurance Claim Considerations

Maybe I missed this in the thread, but do you have coverage for aftermarket parts?

Also… You guys know how public adjusters get paid, right?

 

I do not have extra coverage for aftermarket parts.....but...not much of any aftermarket parts were damaged. wiring to some aftermarket parts is destroyed but the actual parts are fine I believe.

 

Gotcha… So why are you not just taking these out and moving on? You won’t get coverage for them, unfortunately.

Don’t sign anything with an adjuster until you get clarity on their fee structure. They get a % of your claim. If you sign something where it’s based on the total claim vs incremental to your total claim, you could end up worse off than if you just took your check.

Good luck and sorry to hear this happened.

 

I am not going to go through the effort to start pulling stuff off until I have a better idea what the outcome is. Also going to be difficult to get the car to a repair shop and adjuster with no suspension or wheels and tires.

 

Might be too late at that point bud. They aren’t going to let you you part the car after you bring it to the repair shop and get a quote lol. Then you’d have to buy it back, part it, then sell it yourself. GFL with that on a fire totaled car…

Trying to help you here. This is from someone who’s totaled his fair share of cars.

You’re going to have to make some hard decisions and you need to come to terms with that.

Again, good luck, and get a good insurance agent who understand what various insurances/coverages you need.

 

The early consensus is that they arent going to pay a claim on it, so they wont be keeping it. If they do total it, I plan to buy it back. Its got $7000 in the suspension alone.

 

Dude… do you have comprehensive insurance is my next key question?

Of course they aren’t going to pay for an engine fire under your collision coverage.

This part of the policy also typically only applies to a single part rather than saying you’re SOL for the whole vehicle (it says it excludes “any part or equipment if that part or equipment fails”; this is for shit like people trying to get their alternator covered after it fails not your situation my dude).

Delay the inspection, swap your suspension/parts as you need, and make State Farm give you a check for the damaged vehicle.

If you don’t have comprehensive, then yeah—you’re fckd.

But I would make sure any electrical you did to it can be fully explained and shows that you did not perform a service or repair that wasn’t in spec or dangerous in terms of config.

Do you think they deny claims for people who have electrical fires otherwise? Absolutely not. Same with houses.

Get the stuff out of your car now. Best case, they write you a check. Worst case, you are in the same predicament you are now in buying your car back. They are going to total it 100%.

 

I do have comprehensive..I just dont have time to swap suspension out or other parts. Its just not in the cards and Iv got to have a car solution this week.

 

My understanding is that if you intend to remove parts you have to have parts to replace the ones you removed. Hopefully the outcome works in your favor.

 

I will probably buy it back in any case if repairs dont break the bank.

 

Would agree if relevant to the fire or damaged by the fire.

Else, you are just protecting your property by removing it. Unclear to you if this could happen again.

 

No plans to touch anything really, and no time either. I could probably pull the roof rack, fogs, and bumper light and they wouldnt know.

 

…

Up your bodily injury coverage.