After doing the Monday school drop off I headed off to work as normal. Cruising along the freeway I detect a noise that is coming from the rear, and the tone changes when putting more weight on the right, maybe a wheel bearing I thought. It became increasing urgent in the space of 10 - 15 seconds so I pulled up in the left emergency lane, hop out to find the right rear tyre shredded. Thats just part of driving a car, so I set about jacking the car and changing the wheel. I had the spare out of the boot (trunk for the USA) and had removed the flat, when I went to get the spare from the rear of the car, a large multi trailer truck went passed at freeway speed and toppled the car off the jack. Great, I walk back around the side of the car to see how I am going to address this and discover petrol pouring out of the hole that the base of the jack has just punched in the bottom of my tank. Thankfully the car was sitting on the brake rotor and not actually pinning the jack, so I wound the jack down, but there was no way it was going back under the rear of the car, so I jacked the front up, go the ruined tyre and rim and placed it under the middle of the car, lowered the car gently on the rim, moved the jack to the rear position and then finished changing the tyre. By the time it was all done there was about 30' of fuel in the gutter and there was plenty more to go (about 80 liters in the tank to start with). So I headed for my local Repco, purchased some fuel tank repair putty and went home to see what I could do. All up the whole exercise took about 2 hours including getting changed twice, having a shower and getting to work. I figure I spilled somewhere between 30 & 40 liters.
Not the right way to start the week.
Yeah, but I guess it could have been a lot worse on some many levels, I could have been under the car when the jack toppled, or maybe some source of ignition on the freeway or driving through the suburbs. All in all bad luck, but not as bad as it could have been.
I explained exactly what happened to the insurance company and they confirmed that it is accidental damage, similar to a scenario where you run over a bit of debris on the road and causing the same damage. I would have to pay the $550 excess because no other driver was at fault.
I know that the tank change over will be a right b!+(# of a job, drop the exhaust & tail shaft as well as removing the rear seat. I guess I'll see what the insurance company comes back with.
Well this week isn't finishing off the way I had hoped it would.
Went to the assessor and then the repairer, all good, new tank to be supplied and installed, my cost $550. The cost for the new tank $2000, plus 1 - 2 days to fit it.
On my way home tonight, stop to pickup a pizza, I parked parallel to the curb, (there is right angle parking on the other side of the road). Come back and some caring road user has backed into my rear door and fled the scene, I was away from the car for 5 minutes. Say hello to another $550 excess, making two in 11 days. Can anyone say with me, WTF have I done????
I could have almost purchased Greece at this rate.
Well to finish off the story. On the sunday after someone backed into my rear door, I had one person pull out of a side street and turn across my path which needed moderate to heavy braking from me (heavy acceleration & a change of pants for him), and another do a U turn in front of me which required heavy emergency braking from me, and a change of pants and seat cover for her.
Get some monster off road LEDs ad mount them behind the grilles. They have some really nice products that are stupid bright. I flash my high beams at people when it's dark, but two 130watt bulbs on my trucks grille would be 10x better.
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Thankfully the car was sitting on the brake rotor and not actually pinning the jack, so I wound the jack down, but there was no way it was going back under the rear of the car, so I jacked the front up, go the ruined tyre and rim and placed it under the middle of the car, lowered the car gently on the rim, moved the jack to the rear position and then finished changing the tyre. By the time it was all done there was about 30' of fuel in the gutter and there was plenty more to go (about 80 liters in the tank to start with). So I headed for my local Repco, purchased some fuel tank repair putty and went home to see what I could do. All up the whole exercise took about 2 hours including getting changed twice, having a shower and getting to work. I figure I spilled somewhere between 30 & 40 liters.
2011 BMW E38 728i
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