trev Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 Hi, has anyone had any experience with having to cancel their motorhome holiday and as to if the travel insurance company is likely to pay out or not. My 1993 Fiat Ducato has apparently blown its head gasket and I am due to leave for France (Vendee) on Thursday morning. Van has been in and out of the garage for the last month (following service to make sure everything was ok for trip) and lots of investigation has taken place to try and find slight water leak (pressure testing dye tests etc) was sent away on Friday with new expansion bottle cap as possible cause ,but after 120mile round trip yesterday found frothy water up the dipstick. Insurance company only dealing with emergencies at weekend and must ring again Monday evening by which time I should know if repair is possable (in timescale)and at what cost! At the moment stuck with two very unhappy kids :'( Would be gratefully to hear from anyone that has had similar experiences and maybe what I should expect to pay for headgasket replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 B-) Hi Trev. What you need is:- Kalimex K-seal engine & gasket sealer. My son has used it on several Motors and most have lasted MORE than 12 months with one treatment. :-D You can buy it on ebays:- http://tinyurl.com/358kv3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g4oip Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 I personally would not 'gunge' it as it will ruin your holiday even more if it fails disastrously as Vendee has 2.5 million French there at the moment and repairs will be difficult. I dont think that my insurance would look favourably on me if I cancelled for any reason but severe illness with proof provided but perhaps your insurance can offer alternative vehicle? Sort of situation we all dread is'nt it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 Hi Trev, Who is your insurance with, if it is 'Red Pennant' you may well be covered as it covers both the vehicle and the passengers against cancellation for a valid reason. I can't speak for them, but a blown engine would seem to be covered reading the text in our policy. Also I personally wouldn't use any additive as in my experience they don't work reliably and you are a long way from home plus a ruined holiday if it fails, far better to get a 'proper' job done, you certainly have the time its not a long job. I'd question your choice of garage as well if it has taken so long to diagnose it, reminds me of a Peugeot 405 GTDT I owned took a main dealer three months to agree it was the head gasket and do it problem was it only showed up under towing conditions where it would consume the water but never when solo. They said it couldn't be the head gasket as it would be there all the time, however when they eventually removed the head there was a track between a waterway and the inlet port that was clearly visible. Bas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W3526602 Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 Hi, It might all hinge on whether your van has a proper service history. 602 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crinklystarfish Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 Personally, I'd ring my insurers, explain the situation, ask them about my options, and make a judgement based on their response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 :-S The thing that really annoys me? Is when someone comes along with a SIMPLE idea that ACTUALLY works and has been PROVEN to work? They poo poo it and say get the job done by a professional mechanic. Wake up people. A professional mechanic is JUST as likely to use that SIMPLE method as anyone else and charge a fortune for doing it. >:-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 But John, all they are saying is that they would not peronally rely on such a sealant for a long trip. Neither would I, frankly. And it does depend on how badly the gasket has gone and what, if any, other damage has been done (water in a cylinder, for example?). No-one's poo-pooing your suggestion. Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel E Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 Be warned: Travel Insurance is now a commodity product sold mainly on price. There are good policies, but many of the most advertised ones exclude almost everything. A very common exclusion is terrorism; as those who suffered in Egypt found out, they were not covered for medical expenses, repatriation, etc., and nor were thye Egyptian or UK Governments even vaguely intersted in helping them. It cost many several thousand pounds! But terrorism won't affect you, will it? Sure? What about ETA in Spain (cease fire called off recently), Al Quaeda in France/UK and almost anywhere else, as examples. Sure the risk is fairly low for your own involvement, but isn't that what you buy insurance for - to cover a small risk for a very large amount of payout? Be especially careful to check cancellation cover. If you haven't declared a back condition from 30 years ago, they can and will renege on cover. If your aged parent dies from an unexpected heart attack and you failed to declare that they had one 20 years ago, no payout. And so on Mel E ==== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trev Posted July 30, 2007 Author Share Posted July 30, 2007 Thanks Guys for help/advice. Fingers crossed may now not need to cancel. Friendly garage has re-arranged schedule and fitted in van this morning (cost £4-500) by now head should be at engineers for examination. Thanks John for link to kseal just happened that the seller lived just down the road from me spoke to him about it yesterday and was going to give it a go. (only problem being if I had tried it today and it didn't work would have been impossable to get van done by Weds evening) Also spoke to a couple of experienced mechanics who have used the product sucessfully to seal cracked and porous heads, but were a little worried about its effectiveness on mine as it is losing so much water. ps spent a lot of time researching kseal yesterday and read a lot of positive reviews from various forums the only negatives were from people who had never used it before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 read a lot of positive reviews from various forums the only negatives were from people who had never used it before. :-D Exactly. (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Meldrew Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 johnsandywhite - 2007-07-30 2:06 PM read a lot of positive reviews from various forums the only negatives were from people who had never used it before. :-D Exactly. (lol) Don’t make the mistake of poo-pooing the poo-pooing John, by poo-pooing the poo-poo of the poster who poo-pooed your poo-poo, he may go on to poo-poo others who poo-pooed their poo-poos. In the end we may have to disband the forum, morale totally destroyed by poo-poo. (Inspired by Blackadder) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsandywhite Posted July 30, 2007 Share Posted July 30, 2007 8-) That sounds like an awful lot of Poo to me? (lol) (lol) (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 Hi JSW, I wasn't 'poo pooing' the use of the addative, which incidently I have used successfully but in the short term. My feeling is that for a local run about that matters little if it broke down then yes go ahead and use it it will definately delay the inevitable. But, personally speaking I would not be sufficiently happy to use it in a situation where I was going on a long journey as my own experience of this very substance used as directed, shows that the fault will reappear at some indeterminate time in the future. Therefore my advice based on my own experience, is that given that there is the time for a 'proper' repair to be carried out then that is the route I would take, but each to their own. For me temporary repairs are what they are however good or effective they are at the time . Bas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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