Learn me: Comprehensive Insurance/Hydrolock coverage

Insurance peoples, learn me. Hydrolocked my engine on Monday driving through a puddle in a downpour, 5 feet from my work. I KNOW it's hydrolocked. Currently at a friend's house where there's a lift.

I just added comprehensive to my insurance Wednesday. $35 a month, whatever. I can deal with that. Is this claimable now? How should I go about this process? Take it to a shop and have them give me a quote? Call a shop and ask for a quote? Go to friend's performance shop and get a quote? Call insurance ASAP? Wait it out(it's supposed to rain this weekend, too) since it happened on Monday and I added it on Wednesday?

Pro-tip: The first rule of Insurance Fraud Club is to not talk about Insurance Fraud Club.

Sorry to hear about your car. If I read this correctly, you broke your car on a Monday and then two days later upgraded to comprehensive insurance and now are wondering if this new enhanced policy will cover the damage that was already done prior to having the coverage?

time frame for coverage does not compute for coverage, even if the issue would've been questionable as to whether it would have been covered anyways.

beans wrote: Insurance peoples, learn me. Hydrolocked my engine on Monday driving through a puddle in a downpour, 5 feet from my work. I KNOW it's hydrolocked. Currently at a friend's house where there's a lift. I just added comprehensive to my insurance Wednesday. $35 a month, whatever. I can deal with that. Is this claimable now? How should I go about this process? Take it to a shop and have them give me a quote? Call a shop and ask for a quote? Go to friend's performance shop and get a quote? Call insurance ASAP? Wait it out(it's supposed to rain this weekend, too) since it happened on Monday and I added it on Wednesday?

posterity

Blah. So no dice then? I don't mind paying out of pocket for this, and the coverage is nice for future events that may be covered.

oh dice is a very popular game in prison, dice and cards

Figured as much. I'll keep it on my policy for future coverage. Time to go junkyarding!

Posting about a crime online is always a bad idea.

Drop back to bare-minimum-legal insurance, comprehensive would be unlikely to cover this anyway (on a car this age/value).

Ignoring the timing of the policy change, would comprehensive have covered it? I mean, it is a road condition, and the damage was caused by an incident on the road while moving. Seems like a comprehensive claim to me. If it was a jersey barrier across the road and you hit it, it would cover it. So why not water? Are their exclusions in the standard auto policies for water?

I know someone that had a 2000 Celica GT-S insured through Geico that got a new engine after being hydro-locked. I dont know for sure if it was a brand new engine or a used one they put in there, but it was paid for by Geico.

He did have the insurance while it happened though.

USAA covered my brother's hydrolocked E46 M3 10ish years ago.

GameboyRMH wrote: Drop back to bare-minimum-legal insurance, comprehensive would be unlikely to cover this anyway (on a car this age/value).

my comp coverage doesn't make any distinction with regards to the age of the car … if I'm willing to pay the premium, they're willing to pay if covered

dculberson wrote: Ignoring the timing of the policy change, would comprehensive have covered it? I mean, it is a road condition, and the damage was caused by an incident on the road while moving. Seems like a comprehensive claim to me. If it was a jersey barrier across the road and you hit it, it would cover it. So why not water? Are their exclusions in the standard auto policies for water?

wouldn't that come under the heading of collision coverage, not comp ?

Hitting a jersey barrier would be collision coverage. Hydro locking would typically be covered by comprehensive. With any coverage though, the coverage needs to be in place before the loss/event itself, not added after the fact.

Sonic wrote: Hitting a jersey barrier would be collision coverage. Hydro locking would typically be covered by comprehensive. With any coverage though, the coverage needs to be in place before the loss/event itself, not added after the fact.

Exactly. Hydro locking is treated like a flood claim. It falls under comprehensive coverage. If you have that type of coverage on the car, it doesn't matter how old it is. Only differnece age will make is the value of the car (i.e. if it's a total loss or not).

Engines on newer cars are stupid expensive. I once totalled a brand new Audi Q7 diesel simply because the driver put gasoline in it.

You're supposed to post your criminal activity on Facebook, not GRM. That's what everyone else does. Duh.

Stock air intake? A friend caught his mustang on fire and insurance wouldn't cover it because it was "overly modified."

Comprehensive covered my wife's '95 Neon in 2004, when it had 100k on the clock. She drove it into a deep puddle and hydrolocked it (don't get between momma bear and the cubs during a hurricane). No deductible. Now, they totaled the car, but they paid the claim without a moment's hesitation.

It wasn't stock, either - not even the intake - but they didn't look closely enough to see.

Why don't you just pull the plugs out, crank it to get the water out, shoot some oil in the cylinders and try to start the damn thing?

I've seen a few hydrolocked engines and only a couple were truly berkeleyed.

I had one that was ruined by water, bought the engine for parts and it had two holes in the block and three broken rods. Still got more than my money's worth out of the motor, though!

Trans_Maro wrote: Why don't you just pull the plugs out, crank it to get the water out, shoot some oil in the cylinders and try to start the damn thing? I've seen a few hydrolocked engines and only a couple were truly berkeleyed.

Check the last two pages of my build thread. Tried that already, no va.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to keep the comp on it just in case something happens in the future. Gonna eat it this time since I'll have a bonus coming within the next couple of weeks and can sort-of afford to do this out of pocket.

Dr. Hess wrote: You're supposed to post your criminal activity on Facebook, not GRM. That's what everyone else does. Duh.

myspace.