Hi everyone could use your help on this one!

I recently did a like for like engine swap on my friends car, nothing has been modified.

He wanted to make sure all the paperwork was done properly so he has sent off to get his v5 changed, he rang up his insurance and they cancelled his policy on the spot (elephant)!

Now looking for another insurer and noone wants to insure him because the engine has been changed :S

I could understand if it was a larger capicity engine but surely it should make no difference if it is exactly the same?

Any help appreciated

Thanks!

Chris

How interesting.
I would have thought that the only problem would be notifying DVLA to get the VIN No. on the block put onto the official docs (and maybe noting the mileage of the new lump?).
Swapping out the lump is a fairly common thing & there are plenty of ads for second hand or recon lumps as well as garages offering these services.

why did he ring insurance? its a fix not a mod no need to tell insurance

He was worried about there being a problem if he crashed due to engine numbers etc

OH used to own a 1.6 sierra. A common problem with oil not lubing the shells on the cams properly resulted in the thing dying. Fortunately, we knew a bloke who did recon engines. Sadly, he had to charge us a bit more than normal as he couldn't swap loads of the bits over as he had hoped to - turns out that the book & badge said 1.6 but the engine was a 2.0!
We were told that it was fairly common to chuck in whatever was lying around when they ran out of the correct engine - which went a long, long way to explaining why I struggled to get the correct bits.

So where would we have stood with insurance if she'd have pranged and the investigator took a close look? (I assume an engine's VIN is logged at the point of assembly so whoever built it would have logged it as a 2.0 litre? but throughout its life, MOTs etc would only be checking the vin plate with the number stamped inside the car?)

In the OP's case, I still cannot see why insurance is getting @rsy. The ONLY thing I can think of is that it's a DiY job and so there is no official paper trail?

Very interesting!

New insurers wont do it because it wasn't done by a qualified technician like you said. Does this mean no one can do thier own changes to a car and have to spend 1000s in garage costs? Im sure this is done by other people everyday!

dont tell them its not a mod its a repair, you dont tell them when you fit new standard tyres, brakes or and other parts, you are just confusing the bloke on the end of the phone as no one else would have ever rung to say engine is new unless its a diffrent engine

If it's a like for like replacement, I'm shocked the policy has been cancelled.

Feel free to give us a try, we insure many people who upgrade the engine, your friend's swap shouldn't be an issue for us, link below:

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk//engine-swap-insurance.html

Ollie
Sky Insurance

dave said:

dont tell them its not a mod its a repair, you dont tell them when you fit new standard tyres, brakes or and other parts, you are just confusing the bloke on the end of the phone as no one else would have ever rung to say engine is new unless its a diffrent engine

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This is true, he ticked the box on the comparison website saying standard engine repair and got a load of quotes, however upon ringing to confirm they wont support it!

skyinsurance said:

If it's a like for like replacement, I'm shocked the policy has been cancelled.

Feel free to give us a try, we insure many people who upgrade the engine, your friend's swap shouldn't be an issue for us, link below:

http://www.skyinsurance.co.uk//engine-swap-insurance.html

Ollie
Sky Insurance

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Yes we wern't expecting it!

Thank you we will defineatly give you a try

He is convinced he needs to let the insurance companys know about the new engine, i cant see anything bad happening if he didnt aslong as the v5 has the correct numbers on it?

Dave is right, the guy on the phone completly shuts down the second you mention a replaced engine!

Whats this about the V5? I wonder if i need to tell the DVLA that mine has had a new lump?

As long as its all sorted with the DVLA the insurance company doesn't need to know. As long as the engine is the same power and CC then its the same bar the engine number.

If he'd brought the car with the engine already changed he might not have even known that the engine was different and wouldn't have called them.

I can't understand why he's trying to cause himself all this trouble. I changed my rear bumper after a knock, didn't call insurance though as it wasn't needed.

volxstu said:

Whats this about the V5? I wonder if i need to tell the DVLA that mine has had a new lump?

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If it has a new engine number then yes

Thanks for all your advice it was really useful!
We managed to get his car insured on the cheapest quote he could find!
We just explained that it was a like for like swap and they were fine with it!
Very strange but at least its all sorted now!

Thanks

Chris