Well, I just heard back from Precision...they were able to confirm the engine will need a rebuild. Like I thought, the car had been badly overheated (probably multiple times). They put coolant in and it basically went straight to the combustion chambers. They said it likely has blown oil control seals and the seals between the rotor housings are probably done for too. They haven't torn down the engine just yet, so I'm not sure about the condition of the rotors or the housings. They're going to send some info to the insurance company later today...hopefully the car will be up and running again with a rebuilt motor by the end of November.

 

Ouch.

 

Yeah, but it could have been a lot worse...I'm just glad I got the car back in decent cosmetic condition. My insurance should cover everything for the rebuild aside from my $500 deductible, so all in all I think I'm very lucky. I get a brand new motor out of the deal, and I get the chance to fix the cooling issues the car had. It'll be a fun winter project.

 

Yeah, they could have completely trashed the car, bust all the windows out, bash in the panels, but they didn't. As you said, good thing you got it back in the condition it's in.

 

Well the insurance company is now wanting to total my car...Precision told them something like $5400 for a mazda remanufactured engine and labor...which according to the insurance is 55% of the car's value. Supposedly this is "borderline" for them. Personally I think $5400 is way high...anyone else agree? Precision is probably just taking advantage of the fact that an insurance company is going to be paying for this, and they are trying to get as much money out of it as they can. I'm going to have another shop look at it for a second estimate, because if they total it I will be around $5000 out of pocket from what I paid for the car...and I can't let that happen.

 

I told you they'd try to total it. This is the normal operational mode for insurance companies but you don't have to take it if you're not satisfied.

$5400 doesn't sound too bad to me if you figure in labor. The next thing you need to do is to have the car appraised to show that it was worth more than $9800. That shouldn't be hard to do. First you have to insist that the insurance company send someone out to appraise the car, then you get that number. If you don't like it, you have a pro come out and appraise it (about $100) and fight it out with the insurance adjuster. Can you tell I've done this before?

That should do it. Make sure they cut you a check before you get any work done.

Absolutely don't cash a check for less than you are satisfied with and don't stop bothering them until you are satisfied and you'll get what you want.

 

5 years ago some Jacka** had his FD sitting in the same shop as my $12k FB. He had some repairs that needed to be done to the car that he couldn't pay for so he had some of his buddies break into the shop and beat up his car along with a couple others, including mine. That way he could total out his car for the insurance or over inflate the repair cost and pay for the work he needed. They could never prove it, unfortunately. I hope that low life is reading this and has since come down with a crippling and disfiguring disease because he's of no use to society.

Anyway, the bluebook for my car was like $1200 and the car had about $4000 worth of body damage. It took a very long time and a couple of appraisals before I got my money for the repair instead of the pitiful amount they wanted to send me off with for totaling the car. It was Farmer's also, BTW.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement, I certainly could use them. I'm hoping that the insurance company will come back and say that $5400 is an acceptable number. My claims adjuster couldn't tell me, since the damage amount wasn't quite to the point where it's required to be totalled, but very close. I should know within the next couple days. My intuition (and past experience from other people such as yourself) says they will total it though.

If they total it, and the value they claim isn't too low...I might let them do it, take my check and buy another one. I just looked up blue book on the car; it is $11.5k for "fair" and $12.5k for "good". I have no idea what they use to estimate value of the car, but if they gave me that much I'd be happy so long as I could get my aftermarket parts off the car. (I don't think they would have a problem with this as the car would probably just go to a scrap yard anyway.)

If I have to I will fight for at least close to what I paid for it, but I have enough stress in my life and don't need that right now. This whole thing has literally been sickening as it is. Besides, who can I have appraise it? I highly doubt any appraiser up here knows about these cars...and I would think that aftermarket parts do not increase the value of a car from an appraiser's perspective anyway. So they'd probably tell me it's not even worth book value.

 

First you need to understand that when they total the car, they get everything on the car. They won't let you take anything off of it. If they total it, they will give you the option to buy it back. If you do this, the title will be salvage but you do get some $$ out of it.

If this isn't the road that you want to take, you need to first insist that they have an appraiser come out and look at the car. This is an employee of the insurance company and you've already paid for the service through your premium so there's no repercussions of you insisting on this step.

This entire system is set up to wear you out and make you give up. Don't let them beat you down, you can get what you deserve.

 

They have already sent two appraisers out...one to assess any cosmetic damage, and one to talk with Precision about how much mechanical damage there was. Are you saying I need to have them send yet another appraiser out? Truthfully I didn't get to talk with either of them, so there was no way for me to tell them what has been put into the car and why I paid more than book value for it. But neither one of them had any clue about RX-7s, I guarantee you that. I'm tossing around the idea of taking a check for the car if it's the right price, but I would really hate to see this car be sold to some yahoo, or worse, go to the crusher...

 

If someone from the insurance company went out and assessed the value of the car, not the cost of damage, you should be able to call your agent and find out what that number is. If that number isn't high enough, you need to hire an outside appraiser to look at the car. If you Google it, you'll come up with a list. They will advertise that they are approved by insurance companies. Just double check with the insurance company and make sure they will accept the estimate before you do anything.

The car won't go to the crusher, it will be sold to a junk yard or parted out.

 

I would still buy it back, and part it out. The insurance company rarely knows the value of used parts.

 

That's crazy. Here in fountain people just like to vandalize cars a lot. I'm considering getting Low-jack on my FC though. I spend a lot of time in the Denver area too.

 

Eight business days later and they still don't know if they are going to classify the car as a total loss. Am I just being impatient here or is that not unreasonable? I'm having the hardest time getting any info out of these guys...the appraisal manager (not the official title) is the only person who gets to decide whether it's totaled or not, and apparently he doesn't talk to customers! I asked another "manager" to let me speak to this person but she refused. She basically told me I'm SOL (not in those terms of course) and I just have to wait until this appraiser guy gives the claims department the info they need. I'm thinking I might have to start seeking legal help here shortly...in my opinion what they are doing is completely unprofessional, and if they won't give me what I deserve then I'll have to play hardball.

 

Well, scratch that---I just heard back, they're going to fix it! Hopefully it won't take them too long to get me my check...

 

Good for you. If you and they have agreed on the cost to fix, they don't have any further reason to delay. They shouldn't take long to send a check if you agreed on a price.

 

We have not agreed on a price yet, but I know it's going to be the price that Precision quoted, plus the price the first appraiser quoted to fix the cosmetic damage. That's fine by me. I'll take my check and rebuild it myself, spend the rest on coilovers or something. I expect it to be no more than a week before I see a check...

 

sucks

 

Hey RMRanger,
Is your car still over at Precsion Auto? Just wondering if you are one of the cars that is holding up the line there, they only have 3 lifts!! lol I have my car there getting a check up but I told them that I was not in a hurry because I usually only drive it when it is nice out.

Dan 1993 silver mazda

 

Haha, yeah it is. I guess I haven't updated this thread in a while. My insurance company gave the green light to have it repaired instead of totalling it. It's been at Precision for over a month but they're just now pulling the engine out...mostly due to complications between me and my insurance company. I'm hoping the rebuild will be done within a month...I haven't driven the car since August

 

Well Precision called me today and said my car was done, get to pick it up Monday I will check out your car while I am there. Just hope the weather is nice enough to get it back to my garage, calling for snow again on monday. Do you have a rental car while you car is in the shop?

 

No I don't, but I have another vehicle I use as my daily driver. My insurance company wasn't going to reimburse the full amount of a rental car, so I didn't get one. I know they are busy, and I know our cars are a pain in the ***, but they seem to be dragging their feet on this (it took over a week to get the motor out). So I appreciate you checking up on it.

 

Well f**k me running, why can't anything be easy? I was really excited about getting my car back and now I wish I hadn't bought the damn thing in the first place. I just got a call from Precision, the damage to the car is much more extensive than we thought. Both rotor housings are trashed, eccentric shaft is trashed, wiring harness is melted, knock sensor is destroyed, turbos are in bad shape...and to top that off apparently all the emissions equipment has been removed, so it will never pass. Precision says $10k to fix all that s**t, not including turbos or emissions equipment. I thought that was a bit outrageous, but when he laid out the price of everything it made sense. I can't fix this myself since the title isn't in my name, and I can't get a title without having a vin inspection done, and I can't have a vin inspection done unless I tow it down to the police station, and I can't do that without taking time off work, and blah blah blah I think it might be time to take a loss and start over I may have an FD shell for sale soon if anyone is interested...

 

I live in boulder and have a garage you could store it in. On top of this, I would be happy to do do the R&R for you over a weekend.

I recently chipped a corner seal on my car and will be doing an R&R soon.

If you are thinking about taking a total loss on the car and parting it out, I will buy the core off you.

 

10k without the turbos? wtf?

i paid 10k for a full racing engine with everything brand new in +ianetti ceramic seals which cost then 3100$. i bet the price is increasing daily

I would suggest having your car taken elsewhere