dan.taylor.1
General Tinkererer
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- 2,795
- Location
- Kendal, Cumbria
Where abouts are you located? I've got a parts car here in Cumbria with I think an OK rear subframe
Excellent.My bike was heavily modified. Power increased by more than double, swingarm cut and extended, big turbo, intercooler, brakes modified to suit, lock-up clutch , awhole additional injection system and fuelling computer, second radiator fitted for the charge cooler. All done at home in my garden shed. All declared in an 8 page document to the insurers who did NOT require any inspection report for legal reasons or any other reason. All they required is that it hold a current MOT.
So no, there's no legal ramifications from making modifications so long as the workmanship is good and there's no requirement to get a report from anyone as to the suitability or safety of such modifications (good luck getting one of those anyway from anyone except the person that did it). I had a list of restrictions of use applied to the policy plus an annual mileage limit but other than that they were happy and the only comments I ever got from traffic were entirely complimentary.
You might want to contact the insurance co's and tell them to get their houses in order and stop spreading FUD then.You're talking SVA test? That requires an inspection but again that's not the case here and it's nothing to do with my response to another member about insurance being invalidated.
Its all about legitimacy and if a modification is undertaken on many vehicles by changing one structural component from one vehicle and replacing it with another component from another vehicle it may well have been accepted by the insurer as a legitimate modification and previous testing and examinations from your, or other vehicles with exactly the same modification will shot it is structurally safe and doesn't effect the safety standards of your vehicle in any way, and they have the evidence of this from previous vehicles.
Insurance companies themselves, they do actually list some mods but you have to search their website for them, others do not list them and you have to ask them.
I am in the sunny town of Irvine, Ayrshire. Cumbria not a million miles away, I may be headed to Blackburn to look at another Freelander soon, as after a good needle gunning this one has grown a few holes... May still need a frame though, pm me detailsWhere abouts are you located? I've got a parts car here in Cumbria with I think an OK rear subframe
There are no specific guidelines anywhere hence the need to resort to insurers own policies and recommendations,
You might want to contact the insurance co's and tell them to get their houses in order and stop spreading FUD then.
11 things that could impact your car insurance - Admiral.com
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What can invalidate car insurance? | AA Insurance
Having void car insurance can easily happen. Here's the need to know so you're not left without insurance or a claim pay out.www.theaa.com
Accidentally invalidate your car insurance | RAC Drive
How could you invalidate your insurance? To help keep you covered, here’s our guide to the behaviour that could leave you driving without insurance.www.rac.co.uk
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What can invalidate your car insurance policy?
Don’t invalidate your car insurance policy. Find out the most common ways drivers invalidate their car insurance.www.churchill.com
They can reduce a payout (to the insured, not to the 3rd party) if an undeclared modification is a contributing factor in a claim event. They can refuse to re-insure you as a consequence of discovering you have lied. They can take legal action to recover costs incurred as a result of the above but one thing they cannot do is refuse to honour a 3rd party claim on an insurance policy which is at the time valid for the vehicle and journey type it is covering.
Great job , at the worst it will scuff tyres , but rotate them and it will no doubt be grand , probably no worse than a Chelsea tractor thats been belted up the kerb on the school run twice a day for five years anyway.I am in the sunny town of Irvine, Ayrshire. Cumbria not a million miles away, I may be headed to Blackburn to look at another Freelander soon, as after a good needle gunning this one has grown a few holes... May still need a frame though, pm me details
In terms of the insurance I understand where folk are coming from. I built a 16v k series mini about 10 years ago and that included heavy subframe modification!
At the risk of adding fuel to the fire I made a jig, burnt the centre's out the old bushes, bolted them into the freelander frame and welded box between them.
View attachment 326177
Transferred those suspension points to the Evoque frame.
View attachment 326178
Interestingly the track is a whole 3mm wider.
View attachment 326179
Height difference confirmed at 16mm, all angles and positions otherwise spot on.
did some simple maths, I'll even show my working.
View attachment 326176
Assuming with the stock frame the arms are level at rest. Evoque frame will pull the wheels in 0.31mm, but push them out 1.5mm (track) so 1.19mm total per side... Freelander and Evoque use the same arms btw.
Very roughly estimated the change in camber by taking a stock camber of -1.95° say bottom link to strut top is 350mm (be bigger than this but this will give a more extreme change)
Works out 11.9mm to center line.
Add 1.19mm for 13.09mm.. plug those numbers in the camber is changed to a whole -2.14° well within the +-0.75 spec
Yes the arc will be changed, I could be wildly off on my reasoning for the above figures, someone might dob me into the cops and I'll end up in the jail. But unless anyone has any facts or figures to the contrary I think it's worth a try?
Just so we're clear. if you have a problem with what the insurers put on their website, take it up with them. Which I'm sure you won't but no doubt, Mr. Last Word Man, you'll respond again, 'Just to be clear'.I don't need to. All of those links say it COULD invalidate your insurance. You're comment was that it WILL. I even qualified my response with:
TBH I don't know what else ayone would expect an insurer to say, they are hardly likely to say "oh by the way if we find you have lied after you've had an accident we'll still have to pay the claim to the 3rd party then chase you through the courts to recover it".
Just so we're clear, I'll say it again: If you have an active policy on your vehicle and you're involved in a 3rd party claim, the insurer cannot refuse THAT claim, which is the minimum level of cover required for using a vehicle on the road. That's what I mean by they cannot invalidate your policy. They have to honour the minimum cover. As I also put in my original reply they can and do take legal action to get their money back.
Just so we're clear. if you have a problem with what the insurers put on their website, take it up with them. Which I'm sure you won't but no doubt, Mr. Last Word Man, you'll respond again, 'Just to be clear'.
Sounds sorted - wasn't aware they used struts - should make any difference in arcs minimal.I am in the sunny town of Irvine, Ayrshire. Cumbria not a million miles away, I may be headed to Blackburn to look at another Freelander soon, as after a good needle gunning this one has grown a few holes... May still need a frame though, pm me details
In terms of the insurance I understand where folk are coming from. I built a 16v k series mini about 10 years ago and that included heavy subframe modification!
At the risk of adding fuel to the fire I made a jig, burnt the centre's out the old bushes, bolted them into the freelander frame and welded box between them.
Transferred those suspension points to the Evoque frame.
Interestingly the track is a whole 3mm wider.
Height difference confirmed at 16mm, all angles and positions otherwise spot on.
did some simple maths, I'll even show my working.
Assuming with the stock frame the arms are level at rest. Evoque frame will pull the wheels in 0.31mm, but push them out 1.5mm (track) so 1.19mm total per side... Freelander and Evoque use the same arms btw.
Very roughly estimated the change in camber by taking a stock camber of -1.95° say bottom link to strut top is 350mm (be bigger than this but this will give a more extreme change)
Works out 11.9mm to center line.
Add 1.19mm for 13.09mm.. plug those numbers in the camber is changed to a whole -2.14° well within the +-0.75 spec
Yes the arc will be changed, I could be wildly off on my reasoning for the above figures, someone might dob me into the cops and I'll end up in the jail. But unless anyone has any facts or figures to the contrary I think it's worth a try?