had to post and I'm doing it here first rather than elsewhere for constructive feedback.

As many of you know the old black KJ got rear ended a while ago, all not too bad as the insurance fixed it all up. Then I drove it from the insurance body shop to ARB for the lift etc. Wad happy as a pig in mud for a while then noticed some problems - 500 ks later went back for a check and was told that the fronts were feathering and it needed an alignement.

Ok - such things happen. But after being sent to the shop that ARB send the "difficult cars" to I find that the front was out by a total of 19.6 and the back by 2.1. plus I get hit for the cost. ARB did refund the 55 but not the 95 they charged for the same thing.


Yep the front is easy to fix but no the back So here I am thinging bent rear axle !! So on the phone to the insurance they say take it to jeep.....3 hrs in I get a call to say the front cross memebr has moved back by 5 to 15 mm depending on which side and that needs to be fxed beifer the back can be assessed. With total wallet fear I said go ahead and made some calls to the insurance - no joy yet but... and this shocked me 170 for jeep to work this out, unbolt the whole front end, move it about and do the alignment !! Great price and great service.

But who's at fault, for all of this.. did the insurace stuff up the intiall assessment, did ARB stuff up ... or has it always been like this??? Who else has had anything similar?

Hey Steve,
Never had that, I did get rear ended within 2 months of getting my brand spanker but no problems (probably not as bad a hit as yours was). Personally I'd say the insurance company should be looking after it & making it there problem, you didn't have any problems prior to the acci so why now. I can't see how ARB would or could stuff up the positioning of the front cross member when installing your bull bar or lift kit. OK I don't have a front bar but still can't see how it would be related.

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Hey Steve,
IMO, definately insurance's problem. Maybe talk to the "customer service" department of the insurance company to get it sorted out. Also to make things smoother you can just appoint one person as your point of contact.

If I may ask, which insurance co is this?
Was it through the insurance co's repair center or "approved repairer"???

You would think that the insurance co. or approved repairer would of pick something like that up!! I haven't had that much to do with ARB, but they too should have seen it when doing the lift and front bar.

The "Approved" repairer was "Negligent" in accessing ALL the damage caused in the accident, and "Did not take full duty of care in repairing the damage or correctly checking that the vehicle was infact ROADWORTHY , before relasing the vehicle back to you". This could easliey have resulted in the "Unrepaired Damage to a MAJOR component of the vehicles structual integrity and road handling failing at a later time resulting in another incident of damage and or loss of life." In this case an error on the accessors part would obviously want to be addressed ASAP by both the Insurer and the Approved Repairers, as you have a report on the errors made and if the insurer or repair choose not to rectify their negligence, you would have no choice but to take it up with the Dept of Transport, and I think an Approved Repairer would have quite a few problems repairing vehicles after the Dept of Transport removes their ability to do Roadworthiness certificates..




Had a very similar thing happen to my GF car a couple of moths ago. Car was in a front and rear accident, repairer fixed the cosmetic stuff and relased the vehiclle back to her in a completely unroadworthy state, IE the front struts had been damaged in the accident, and this was not accessed or repaired or the vehicle even checked to see if it was infact Safe to be driven on the road. The damaged front struts ment that there was NO front suspension whatsoever, nil, the car was incredibly dangerous to drive, it swerved dangerously and was undrivable. She rang them 20 minutes after picking up the vehicle and was told Quote -"no its fine, just drive it around for a while and get used to it, you haven't driven it for 2 weeks you just need to get used to it again" ( in a very condecending way, talking to her that way because she was a young girl and obviously didn'ty know what she was talking about )

we took the vehicle straight back made a few noises about "unroadworthiness" "negligent accessment" "relasing the car without a safety check" and it was repaired in two days no arguements, no cost.

Be Clear with your staements to them, and use the right "words" (neglect, unroadworty, ect ect) and stand your ground.

cmohr

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The problem with dropping it off at the Insurer's repair center is they get 3-5 bids on repairing the vehicle.
So obviously the cheaper one gets it and cheaper is not always better....

Thanks all for the comments - the insurance guys are playing ball thanks to the comments made here.

As for the KJ its even better than before now - happy times!