RAC Car Insurance Questions & Answers

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I have roadside assistance and one day my car was making a strange irregular ting ting .. ting type sound coming from the engine bay, I called out RAC roadside and the mechanic said not to drive it and recommended I get it towed to the nearest service centre and would then get the free 30 minutes diagnosis on what the issue was prior to any repair costs. Firstly they don’t advise you that if their diagnosis has to remove the engine cover which may I add, for my car, takes two minutes or less – they then call and you have to pay an extra charge for their labour. They diagnose my car with having a stretched timing chain, Which had been broken the guides which was allowing the chain to hit the cover creating the sound. This was correct, and I did not really have an issue with this part of their service. The repair was done within three or four days, and as my car is a 96 model I understood they would need to order parts etc so that time frame was reasonable. I then went to pick up the car when it was ready, and a young mechanic who had been working on it was the one who drove it around to the front of the service centre – This was in Embleton Perth W.A. FYI – I turned on the car and listen to the motor, there was no more sound, which indicated they had done the repairs and the car was now running better. I drive the car around the block, and started to hear a winding sound – I then drove back to the RAC Centre less than 400 m, and went inside to question the whining sound. The customer service representative at the desk then called the mechanic/technician who had worked on my car back to assist me at the front of the centre. I lifted the bonnet and turn on the car and pointed out the whining sound I was hearing to which the mechanic said it’s likely just the fan belts sometimes they squeal – he goes inside to retrieve a lubricant spray – comes back and sprays the pulleys, and waits... The sound does not disappear but he assured me that if I allow the lubricant spray to work the sound will be gone after driving a short way. After this encounter I drove the car a total of 30kms back to my house and parked in the garage which has a carpeted floor. My intention was to sell the car, because in the meantime I had needed to buy a cheap replacement vehicle to get to work. My regional car then sat in my garage for three weeks while I re-sprayed and sanded and re-sprayed 80% of the panels on the exterior of the car With aims to sell for a higher price. After my painting was complete I then drove my car a further 45 km and as I was then reversing out the driveway, The car would not engage my reverse gear. The shifter on the automatic transmission moved into HDR easily, however the car it self would not engage into reverse at all. The house I had pulled into was actually my grandmas house - which is 600m from my own residence . I managed to push the car out the driveway and shifted into drive - the car responded and engaged into gear - so I then drove at 15kms an hour and parked it again at my own home . I then spent 2 days googling what the issue could be, and Discovered that My transmission oil was far below the dipstick level - so much so, that it was not even registering, and initially I had difficulty estimating where the level sat - Only to realise that it was not registering on the stick at all. I filled up the fluid, move the gearstick, did everything as suggested online, and there was still no change in my gearbox or the ability for my car into reverse - I then called out RAC again and the mechanic said that it could be a problem with the bands, that I needed to get it checked out, and that in order to change the drive chain, RAC who serviced the vehicle would not have to touch or go anywhere near my transmission, and therefore there must have been a leak. My response to this was to explain that my car had been sitting in the dri I then called out RAC again and the mechanic said that it could be a problem with the bands, that I needed to get it checked out, and that in order to change the drive chain, RAC who service the vehicle would not have to touch or go anywhere near my transmission, and therefore there must’ve been a leak. My response to this was to explain that my car had been sitting in the carpeted garage for three weeks since the service, had only driven a total of 60 km, and that there was not a single drop of transmission fluid on my carpeted floor where the car had sat. I then took the car to a gearbox service professional as I did not trust RAC to not try and charge me for this issue which they seems to have caused. The service professional said that I will need to replace my entire gearbox at a cost of approximately thousand dollars. I was on Centrelink payments, and I did not know what to do, so my only option was to get it towed again to my friends house while I worked out what I needed to do to fix the car and if anyone could work out a solution that didn’t involve replacing the entire gearbox. And entire year later, I was able to acquire the knowledge that in order for RAC to replace my drive chain, they They would have likely had to drop out my engine whilst on a hoist in order to access the area. My car is a 96 Hyundai coupe, where the cooling system for the Transmission runs via hose through the radiator, therefore in order to drop out the engine, they would have had to disconnect this hose which holds the transmission fluid. The mechanic either did not realise it was running out or forgot to replace the fluid once they put the engine back in. I believe it is quite negligent for them to not even check the fluids after such a service procedure, not to mention the diagnosis that I paid for initially would have noticed if there was low transmission fluid when it first went in . I had to pay a years worth of registration fees, $500 for a secondhand transmission, $500 for installation of transmission, just to drive the car 300 km and realise that there is a huge oil Leak coming from the rocket cover gasket which they had replaced, and also noticing that the drive chain cover was not on properly, and the half moon cells we also leaking. I realise that because I did not drive the car initially There was not enough travel time for these leaks to become apparent - At this point I decided to get the car towed again to Rac service centre in Canningvale, where after checking the car, they called to advise me that they had noticed the faults in the work previously done by RAC Embleton, and we are going to call them and ask if they were willing to pay for the repairs out of goodwill even though you had passed – obviously because they noticed the extremely low kilometres after the last repair the work. They have now had my car for 3 1/2 weeks, and have never bothered to call me with an update, And only advise me of the progress when I called them. They did not provide me with a hire car either. I want to know if anyone has had any issues with the services provided by RAC roadside toe and repair, and if anyone has any idea the process which I will need to go through in order to claim back my expenses caused by RAC is negligence on my initial service, which is backed up by them finding fault in their own work, and something as simple as a rocker cover gasket, is just in support of my reasoning And accusation that they are to blame for my transmission malfunction

Hi. Has anyone made a claim with RAC and rented a car from Budget while the car is being repaired?

My car has extensive damage from a not at fault accident, RAC want to repair it and return it minus the vin number plate. What are the repercussions of this to me legally and financially as I have been told car yards and financiers won't touch it. Can I make a claim for the devaluation of my car against the at fault driver even though she is also insured with the rac? Thank you! Kay