I thought I would share my bit of bad luck this week.

My turbo charger stopped working. There is lots of smoke under heavy acceleration & no power & no nice high pitched whirring noise either.

I called the AA to check it out & they had a quick look & came to the conclusion the impeller had jammed.

So luckily I thought, I have AA parts & garage cover policy. The AA took the car away & dropped it off at a Halfords Autocentre, (AA recommend dealing with Halfords under their garage policy). 3 days later the garage stripped th turbo charger out & inspected the turbo with AA & came to the conclusion the impeller was damaged due to impact. The only way this could happen is if something got into the airpipe. So this type of failure is not covered on the policy.

So now the AA have stuffed me by taking my car to a garage I wouldnt normally use, they have pulled out the turbo & then have walked away. I now have to pick up the cost to put it back together or continue the work with the garage.

Halfords want either £750 for a reconditioned turbo with a lead time of 2-3 weeks or a new one for £1100 with a lead time of 1 week.

This combined with hire car costs is almost not worth the cost of the car.

I have at least managed to convince the garage that I will buy the turbo & they install, if I do not take a 1 year warranty on the work. So I have found a turbo from a breaking fiat off ebay for £70. This combined with installation should take me to about £350. Although this option is high risk as I dont know much about the turbo I am buying.

So to conclude, I thought I would just give a heads up, if anyone else is considering getting a parts & labour policy with the AA, I wouldnt bother as your better off without it.

Mike S said:

I thought I would just give a heads up, if anyone else is considering getting a parts & labour policy with the AA, I wouldnt bother as your better off without it.

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You can't really say that because you have a fault that isn't covered by the policy, nobody else should bother with it. I've had the same cover for several years and every claim I've made on it has been successful.

In your case, I would be asking them to prove that the damage was caused by impact damage and how the foreign body got into the turbo. If the air filter is present and intact and there no holes in the pipework, then the foreign body must have been part of the car, so should, therefore, be covered.

Davren said:

In your case, I would be asking them to prove that the damage was caused by impact damage and how the foreign body got into the turbo. If the air filter is present and intact and there no holes in the pipework, then the foreign body must have been part of the car, so should, therefore, be covered.

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Its not really for them to prove anything as they have already dismissed my claim so they can do what they want. Yes, they did check the air filter & pipe work & also checked the intercooler & did not find any bits coming off, but still they can come to that conclusion & not have to pay up.

So from my experience, I would advise the policy is worthless.

You give up to easily. It's an insurance backed product, never accept their first offer.

Read the section "How to make a complaint", page 19 in the current policy booklet.

You don't have to use the AA's recommended garage. I would have the repair done at another garage and get them to give you a report that there was no evidence of any entry point for a foreign body.

Davren said:

You give up to easily. It's an insurance backed product, never accept their first offer.

Read the section "How to make a complaint", page 19 in the current policy booklet.

You don't have to use the AA's recommended garage. I would have the repair done at another garage and get them to give you a report that there was no evidence of any entry point for a foreign body.

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Some useful tips there. thanks.
However, The reason I used AA`s recommended garage is because the AA suggest the claim process is a lot easier.

The problem is the turbo is out of the car now & my usual garage wont touch it unless Halfords put it all back together first. This would cost me £200. So I think my best option is for Halfords to complete the job now.

However, I can still see if Halfords can do the report & I will go through the AA complaints procedure.