So it begins

[911hillclimber]

^^ Good Tactic^^
I did once get a good response from the one company in recent years, so it does do something.

[neilbardsley]

I finally got a camera down the cylinder. Quite a lot of petrol/dirt from no ignition. Looks like the walls have a back scratch in them? I'm not quite sure what to look for.

https://youtu.be/zErUmyl8AY8?feature=shared

I've also created 50 cm of space infront of the 356 to roll it forward so I can drop the engine

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[neilbardsley]

Carbs off. Should make dropping the engine a little easier. I have them and external clean before storing.

Im waiting for the 914 engine to be working again before rushing into this so a sloW burn.

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[neilbardsley]

I think it's about time to start looking at legal options with the RAC.

It took them 2 weeks after I sent the invoice for them to send me the claims form. Which I returned the same day. It's now been 9 days since then. No messages returned. Call backs promised and nothing.

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[Nine One One]

Check your house insurance to see if you have legal cover with that, and also whether you have legal assistance with your car insurance, but bearing in mind they screwed you on the recovery, if your policy does have it, at least it will stop you from paying out for legal advise, unless of course they have a caveat on that as well as to the sum they will support you up to?

[Hugo 356]

Hi Neil, was enjoying following your trip before the engine problem

Probably worth taking up with the FOS before going the legal route. Insurers bear the cost of this so are incentivised to resolve

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/ ... /insurance

The outcome of any FOS complaint may influence whether you take things further, however the small claims court (up to £10k) is designed for self-representation ie no lawyers and people are increasingly using AI for legal advice / drafting.

[neilbardsley]

Today it's becoming clear my form was never sent on to the claims team. Maybe??

Today I was given an email address that is slightly different from the website site and a telephone number that doesn't work. The website telephone number for the claims just cuts off when you select new claim.

It's beyond frustrating.

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[Nine One One]

Trying to get to speak to a human today is nigh on impossible. Yes you can go down the FOS route, but having done this in the past, they require you to have had a final resolution from the company you are dealing with, and seems as you cannot actually contact them, that is a bit hard to do.

You will find it very frustrating, as all these companies are affluent in non conversation/contact, hoping you will just go away........just preserve, but expect it to be a bloody frustrating, and banging your head against a brick wall. Where they are supplying you with fake telephone numbers/wrong email addresses make sure you record these, and take screen shots.

A company has 8 weeks to investigate and issue a final response before the FOS can be involved (more time you have to wait)

The claim form went in 9 days ago, chase this up by email today, to both the correct one you now have, and the fake one they sent you, putting them on notice that unless this is resolved before 3/8/2026, you will be sending a complaint to the FOS.
As Hugo says, they have to pay for this investigation by the FOS themselves, and all such complaints to the FOS are recorded on a data base, which none of the companies like at all.

They will string it out as close to the 8 week period as they can, but just record and keep copies of everything for the FOS