road has damaged my car

whare do i stand???

the a16/a17 roundabount is currently being resurfaced as is some of the a156 in both directions.

pulled up tonight on way home waiter for traffic lights to turn green followed traffic through. i slowed to nearly a stand still next to a ramp sign to go down the ramp, accelerated away looking for next ramp sign and then i see the ramp but no sign to late thud!!!!  tyre also catches arch. on way home i hear tyre on arch every so often. thats strange i thing. so i pul over and look and the front drivers side spring has snaped and its also pulled my arch slightly. so i go back to take a pic of the place and now theres a sign up!!!! (there working 24hrs on it)

where do i stand and what can i do about it!!!  arch will pull back but spring is fooked and there only 18 mnths old and done about 2k on the car!

if i ring council i fear there just going top fob me off cause i got no proof

Give council a bash, just have to tell them there wasn't a sign up first time

Hairyarse said

Give council a bash, just have to tell them there wasn't a sign up first time

come on man they will jus say the sign was ther. unless you can get a witness

alexHxC said

Hairyarse said

Give council a bash, just have to tell them there wasn't a sign up first time

come on man they will jus say the sign was ther. unless you can get a witness

I know it's a L    O    N    G shot, but worth a try, nothing to lose I guess!

Hairyarse said

alexHxC said

Hairyarse said

Give council a bash, just have to tell them there wasn't a sign up first time

come on man they will jus say the sign was ther. unless you can get a witness

I know it's a L    O    N    G shot, but worth a try, nothing to lose I guess!

true, jus give em an ear bashin an hope for the best

I got a saying when it comes to complaining 'Nobody likes a pain in the a**e' so just be as much of a pain in the a**e as possable until they give in!!

Alternativly, drive round till you find a nice big pot-hole in the road and blame it on that instead!

take some pics using a tape measure to show the scale of the ramp. there should be a regulation which states min/max dimensions. then bash the council/contracter

I remember a few years back when i was working in Leeds, some person with too much money hit a speed ramp/sleeping policeman thing a little too quick in his ferrari, it caused some major damage to underneath, from memory it was around ?24K's worth, he did the same as suggested, took some photo's and measurements of ramp/bump and claimed, and i f i remember right the council paid out for the car, costs and some compo as well..

worth a shot tho mate,

Find a pot hole take some pictures and claim they pay out striaght away it will be a bit of a fight with the council and the contractors with the ramp!

yeah worth a bash at the council

unfortunatly like in me old mans case he was driving his new tt home from work and hit a man hole cover that wasn't properly seated, damaged front suspension and body, as far as the council were concerned they inspect all roads and covers like this every 3 months and when there last inspection was carried out there was nothing noted and all was ok so in the end my old man had to claim on his own insurance, i reckon he should have pushed and pushed on them untill they gave in and atleast payed half as the car was only 3 weeks old at the time

sorry if this puts a downer on the conversation atall

No council will pay out on any road issue unless it has previously been pointed out to them.
In other words, they are ignorant until informed.
Once informed, they are liable, which is why they fix things very quickly - once they know about it.

I agree with above, try and be a pain and see what happens.
But i think you will be wasting your breath.
Good luck.

I hit a pothole some years back which damaged the alloy wheel ,tyre and leg stut. Phone the council told them I had pictures of the hole and surrounding potholes in the road, met up with the highways in the road who took more pitures and was informed to put a claim in.

However got a letter to state that it would take months to sort out. So i phone and stated thats ok you can pay for the hire car while i wait for you to sort out.

Result council paid for repairs within the week.

It's very common for Mk1's to snap front springs.

My dad did his on his series 1 1100 reversing off the drive.  It went down the curb and never came back up again! lol

Done my Mk1 Driver on nothing more than a slight pot hole (hit it at about 105!)

Springs are cheap and easy to do, best to replace them all together if you can, or at very least both fronts.

In future, practice "vehcile symathy", always pull up in the distance you can see and make sure you are looking ahead!

You might have some success pursuing the traffic management company that put the road signs up.  They will have to have submitted plans of the roadworks and if they show a "RAMP" sign where the ramp was, you might be onto a winner.  Don't hold out too much hope though.

Steve_Matthews said

It's very common for Mk1's to snap front springs.

My dad did his on his series 1 1100 reversing off the drive.  It went down the curb and never came back up again! lol

Done my Mk1 Driver on nothing more than a slight pot hole (hit it at about 105!)

Springs are cheap and easy to do, best to replace them all together if you can, or at very least both fronts.

In future, practice "vehcile symathy", always pull up in the distance you can see and make sure you are looking ahead!

You might have some success pursuing the traffic management company that put the road signs up.  They will have to have submitted plans of the roadworks and if they show a "RAMP" sign where the ramp was, you might be onto a winner.  Don't hold out too much hope though.

that is quite correct. it is often the case of when driving through roadworks, where there is a bump on the way down, for there to be a bump on the way up. was it neglegence of the road works or a lack of attention on drivers part? i'd still chase it, but also use it as a lesson learned.

been driving the same road today and half the ramps have signs but other half dont. and its all new shocks and springs.

but this moring i jacked the car up and this resulted



so i removed the wheel looked up and found



so i forced the suspension back down with help of a big hammer it dropped with a thud back to normal



put wheel back on lowered down and all is normal again!!!!



i know i have no bump stops on i do have poly ones ready to go on so there going on asap!!!

well if you have no bump stops on that's why you damaged your car hitting a bump!  they are there for a reason and using a car on the public road without them is indefencible.  pull those struts off and sort them out now, before you venture out onto the roads again.

also, would you be offended if I said I didn't think that the council would entertain a claim for damage to the car of more than a couple of hundred quid based on the condition of the car?

I tell you what, I'll run around without rear brake shoes on, or maybe with a handfull of driveshaft bolts missing eh?  I can't believe you'd take a car out on the road without bumpstops then have the audacity to try and blame the council when you run over a bump and surprise surprise, the suspension binds up?!

I don't want to offend you but at the same time, can you understand that driving a car in such a state could cause serious injury to you, your passengers and other road users.  Both myself and my father are ex-fire service, we've both seen the tangled twisted bloodied mess that a car becomes when it all goes wrong.

Steve_Matthews said

well if you have no bump stops on that's why you damaged your car hitting a bump!

:naughty:

come on rov. no bump stops?????

To be fair i would say ALL the damage occured to you car from negotiating the councils roadworks! see if you can get a paint job too

and you have probably foobared your shock now as its likely to have bottomed out the piston and blown the oil seals :roll:

i didn't have any when i assembled the suspension and have recentl;y aquired some to put on.  didn't realise that running without them could cause damage. are the rears supposed to have some aswell? as the kit did not include them.

tomorrow bump stops on, rear strut poly top mounts on and poss rear arb on pending on how well it comes of the other rear axle.