I don't know where to post this, but I don't know I just need some advice. Maybe somenoe on here has some that could help. I am feeling so fed up and am sick of trying to fight, it's tiring me out and I just need to know what to do, I feel like I'm not being heard or listened to.

Sorry but I am just fed up with all this.

As I reported in April something big happened to the car. Still not sure exactly what it was but it cost me an engine and over £1k.

I will post the emails, one I sent to RAC and the reply. Please advise if you have any wise words or advice, I'm feeling somewhat lost with it all and like I'm getting nowhere!

I still feel like the cause of the entire engine failure was down to the guys decision to make me drive it.

Heres the emails:

Dear Miss Robertson

Thank you for your e-mail and I have been happy to reconsider the matter
with the help of your more detailed account of events.

I have to say that I do not feel there are any significant contradictions
in our contractor's account and yours. Any that do appear are in the minor
details of what happened.

Our Patrols and contractors make their roadside diagnoses based upon the
symptoms being displayed at the time and our customers' account of what
happened. When our contractor originally attended, the light was not on,
all fluids appeared to be correct and the car started and ran with no
apparent problems. Therefore, the contractor's suggested diagnosis was
reasonable in the circumstances and without experiencing the symptoms you
described, then it was the only course of action available.

When the light came on again after a short distance, yet with no other
apparent faults evident, then again, I feel his response was reasonable and
you were given the option of a recovery as you would understandably be
worried about driving the car much further. I am sorry if you thought that
he was going to immediately recover the car, however, there was no reason
to believe that there would be any problem in you following the contractor
to his depot.

You report that your car then started to overheat and the loss of warmth
from the heater probably indicates that engine coolant was being lost.
However, given that there was no indication of an overheating problem
before this stage of the journey, then I do not feel that our contractors
can be held responsible for any subsequent harm sustained by the engine. I
would suggest that you should have stopped the car at the soonest
opportunity, once these problems manifested themselves. I do not feel that
the contractor's expression of "a couple of miles" to his depot was
unreasonable because he had no indication of any faults that would prevent
you completing the distance.

Please accept my sincere apologies if you remain disappointed with my
response and I thoroughly understand the difficulties that such an expense
leaves you with. However, although unfortunate, I do not feel that there is
any evidence to suggest that our contractor's advice or actions have caused
the failure of your engine.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity of responding to you.

Kind regards

Mark

My email to him after a phone conversation. He said he would look into it and asked me to post details to him. In the meantime the garage that dealt with me sent hima letter totally contradicting what happened!

16th August 2006

Dear Mark,

I spoke to you some time ago on the phone about my experiences with RAC
breakdown recovery, with an incident in April.

You have since contacted me with details from the garage involved, and I
apologise for not getting back to you sooner. Life has been very very
hectic of late and I simply haven't had the time to sort all this out.

I was somewhat concerned that the report the garage gave contradicted the
real events, so I will retell them to back to you as they really happened.

I hope that you will be able to see the differences in the reports.

My concerns with all this is that I feel the wrong decision was made at the
time, and I shouldn't have been made to drive my car in the condition it
was in. Not knowing what was wrong and with also having the children with
me.

I would much have preferred if it wasn't possible to get the car towed at
that time to have let it. And got myself and the children off the roadside.

The journey I had to make to the depot as explained below caused the engine
to seize. Thus in turn cost me the engine and a very big repair cost. Had
the car been left and towed, the repair would have been local to the
initial problem and cost very much less.

The report you sent from the garage like I say contradicts many of the real
events, and I remember clearly how things happened because my main concern
was for my young children. The fact I even remember telling them to get
their coats on thinking we were going with the other vehicle, the facts
that my son noticed the mileage was much more, I know what happened and I
know what the garage is saying isn't the same facts.

I can send a copy of the garage bill from the repair work is needed.

This is what happened:

On Friday 7th April 2006 I set off from home heading to Derby. I stopped at
a little chef on the A1(M), near to Boroughbridge. We only stopped there
briefly and started off again.

All was normal with the car at that point. Approx. 3-4 miles on a warning
light came on the dash. I didn't recognise it, and have since discovered it
is the engine management warning light. Which can come on for a few
different reasons.

The light stayed on, the car was driving as normal so I pulled over safely
to the inside lane and slowed down to 40 mph.

I was looking for a suitable place to stop to check the car over.

[IMAGE]

This insert of map shows the A1, the part where this happened. The coloured
dots are Little chef outlets, the blue one has to be the one I stopped at,
as there is no other one in that area.

I passed a junction that I chose not to take as I didn't know where it was
going and with the kids in the car I needed somewhere secure to stop.

That must have been junction 48.

So far the car was driving as normal, except the warning light continued to
stay on> i was constantly checking all dial, turned the radio off to listen
to the engine and drove at a reduced speed.

Ideally I was looking for services.

However the car then started to make a rattling noise when I accelerated
and I knew I had to stop.

I looked carefully up the hardshoulder, looking for a suitable place, such
as a bridge or a wider verge.

I was concerned about the car, there were no signs for services so I pulled
over and the car stopped. I was directly beside a high wooden fence and saw
that about 100 metres on there was a grass bank. I tried to start the car
to move it on but it wouldn't start.

Immediately I told the children, who were 10,7 and 5 years old at the time,
to listen carefully and do as I said. I reassured them that we would be ok.

I got out, got the children out the passenger door and walked them along to
the grass banking.

There I phoned the RAC from my mobile. I didn't know my exact location, but
thought I was 6-8 miles from the little chef. It was at the end of a long,
high wooden fence, there were houses to the back of us and a road that ran
adjacent to where we were. I can still recognise it now while travelling
past since and it was 6 miles from the Little chef.

The children were terrified, and the wait was most stressful for them. I
did my best to settle them as it got dark and started to rain.

The recovery man arrived and I had to leave the children sitting together
on the bank to go to see him.

He did tell me to bring them down and sit in his vehicle, to shelter from
the rain. So I did.

I showed him which light had been on, however it wasn't on at this time.
The car also started and sounded normal.

He had a look at the engine, and noted that oil was leaking from the rocker
cover. It didn't seem to bother him, but it was definitely different to how
it had been when I started off. I had checked levels before starting the
journey.

The oil level was fine, he checked the dipper stick.

He asked me if I had been through heavy water or rain.

I had had to drive through heavy rain while going through Newcastle and
Gateshead, but had slowed down and driven accordingly. However with what he
was advising it seemed feasible.

He then advised me that the car seemed ok to go and that it was safe to
carry on. He explained that the rain could have got into the engine and
caused a bit of a hiccup that would sort itself out.

I was so relieved and glad the warning light was staying off now.

We transferred the children back into the car and I signed the paperwork.
He said he would follow me off the hard shoulder.

I got my speed up and carried onto the road. Everything seemed ok for about
30 seconds, then the light came on again. The recovery man was behind me
still, so I indicated to pull over and he followed me back onto the hard
shoulder.

He came to see the car and I showed him the light was back on.

He said he couldn't tell what it could be but he repeated that the car
seemed ok. I wasn't happy with the light being on, and whereas I knew he
couldn't tell what was wrong, that was impossible on the side of the road
in the dark, I wasn't sure what to do at all.

He advised me that I could carry on regardless or get recovered.

With not knowing what it was I was scared to carry on, and he did say it
might be better to get to the depot, get the kids off the side of the road
and take it from there. So I agreed to be recovered.

He said the depot was only a couple of miles away.

At this point, I immediately told the children to put their coats back on
as I thought he meant he would take us there in his vehicle.

But he said no, he couldn't remove the car as his vehicle wasn't a tow
truck and that I would drive my own car, with the children. He said I was
to follow him.

I wasn't happy but trusted him, and he had said it was only a couple of
miles away.

I started off again, he followed, we took the next exit, which would have
been 47 according to the map. He then went infront of me and I followed.

The warning light stayed on all the time, and the car started to feel
awkward to drive. We passed 2 miles and still carried on.

The kids were getting all worried and I kept telling them it wouldn't be
much longer. My son who was 10 then, was watching the dash, checking the
mileage and other things as he does. I have taught him what is what and he
likes to check things out.

He noticed we had gone past 4 miles and were still driving.

At this point the car was driving awful, very hard to drive, very
stressful. The temperature gauge was reading full temperature, the warning
light was on and I noticed the windscreen was steaming up.

I felt the air for the heater and it was cold, yet set on full heat. So I
was having to drive and wipe with a cloth.

At about 5-6 miles I noticed something quite alarming, there was smoke
coming from the bonnet and I could smell it coming through the vents. My
son remarked on it too.

I kept thinking we should be there by now. He has said a couple of miles so
I kept going, still following him.

We eventually got there and I stopped the car and immediately got the kids
out.

As I stood beside the car I heard sizzling. It was still raining heavy. The
engine was red hot!

The recovery man pushed the car into the garage and opened the bonnet.

The engine was very very hot and smelt of burnt oil. You could see it all
along the rocker cover.

He shook his head and said it didn't look good but again obviously couldn't
say what it was there and then.

I then had to decide where I was to be taken. After a lot of phonecalls and
worry I decided to get to Derby as that meant the children would be safer
as that's where they were headed in the first place.

I had to make plans for myself and the car.

We had to wait a long time for a flat bed lorry as the garage had two out
of use.

We were given drinks, and it was out of the rain. I have no argument with
the manner in which we were treated.

Eventually we were taken as planned to Derby and that was all ok.

When I got the car to a garage the next day to have it checked, they
couldn't start the car at all. The engine was totally seized up and there
was no oil at all.

I had checked oil levels before I left home and the recovery man had also
checked at the side of the road.

So the oil had therefore drained from when I stopped on the A1 to when I
got to the depot.

The engine was irreparable, totally ruined.

I had to have a full engine replacement which cost over £1000 in the end
and I was without my car for over 2 weeks.

During this time I had to get back home and had to get a courtesy car
through RAC, from National. This in turn cost me further as National didn't
return my full deposit because I don't live any where near a National
depot.

My biggest concern with all this is that damage was done to my car, in that
short journey after the warning light had warned me something was up. This
resulted in my engine seizing up and thus needing such a big amount of work
done on it.

I have struggled ever since, due to all this. I am on a very low income and
I need my car with living in a rural area. It was essential to me to have
it fixed. I feel like someone's decision cost me so much, and so much more
than just a big bill. I would have happily left my car and all it's
contents rather than have driven it.

The whole experience was terribly stressful and has left pretty nasty
memories with my children.

I hope that you can compare my account of events and see just how different
it is to how the garage says. And I can assure you I do not lie and would
not say these things if they hadn't have happened.

If you need any further information please email me back.

Having followed your escapades with sympathy from the start redfairy i feel the best thing to do now would be to visit your local Citizens Advice Bureau. Take all your letters and documents with you and explain in detail whats gone on and that you feel youre being fobbed off. Tell them what you feel you want done,(compensation, small claims etc) and they will advise you of your best route of action. If you have a case they will tell you so and 9 times out of 10 will take it on for you. Dont worry, it wont cost you a penny, the C.A.B. is totally voluntary but a small donation is always appreciated.
Good luck!

Thanks lots, appreciate your time to reply. I will go see the CAB asap and see what will happen next.

Just wish my knight in shining armour would hurry up and turn up, but have been told he's doing circulars on the M25

yeah good advice from guiy above. have also followed your posts and i do hope you can get something out of this, not all the peopl the rac hire seem to be the experts they proclaim. i have only had good call outs but my dad had fiat uno and alternator went and drained batter car stopped he called rac out man came stuck on batter pack uno started then said i will leave battery pack connected and just lower bonnet down over top of it. dad said but bonnet wont shut rac, man said it will be ok you only got couple of mile to go. can anyone guess what ahppend next ??? yep wind got under bonnet flipped it up and over further than it shold and got all wbent out of shape at the hinges doooh. luckily rac dint have leg to stand onand they paid for a new bonnet.

i do hope you will have some good luck getting something out of this.