Long story short, there is a hump in my garage with a bolt sticking out and it happened to puncture a hole in my engine oil sump (oil pan). My car is lowered and it was already like that when i bought it but I was advised that's legal (100mm clearance). Now the problem is, because of that it made a mess everywhere in my carspace and my building manager wants me to pay for the clean up. I'm in the predicament situation as it already going to cost me a lot to get it fixed. Please give me an advise of what I can do. I'm not trying to avoid responsibility here, if i have to pay then i will have to pay.
Hump in Garage advice
Lh4zey on 29/01/2015 - 16:44
Comments
You should be sure to get the clay based one. There is always a bag in our shed for cleaning up oil spills and stains.
You may need to treat it a few times, with degreaser then sprinkle the kittly litter on to draw it out.
Use protection and prepare with the right lube.
Is it possible to clean it up on your own?
http://homerepair.about.com/od/interiorhomerepair/ht/ht_oil_…Why is there a hump in the first place? Is it one of those car park locking device? If not you should raise it up to the building manager to get it fixed. Depending on how it goes, you may be able to push the blame back to the building manager and their negligence and claim the repair of your car from them.
Hump with bolt doesn't seem right, need more details on that. If it has a bolt sticking out it can be termed as a safety hazard.
Pressure washer and de-greaser will be your friend here. Don't use any harsh chemicals which will leave marks on your garage concrete.
"carspace", "building manager" - it might be a folding parking lock/barrier/bollard (or remnant of one).
Tell him you want damages for your car. While you're at it trip over the bolt and injure yourself for some extra compo. ;)
i think we all really want to see a picture of this hump with a bolt sticking out.
if it was a pre existing issue that they knew about , they eat it , if its a new issue or one you neglected to tell them about, you eat it.so its 'hump' the noun and not 'hump' the transitive verb.I'm strangely disappointed.
Degreaser is the way to go.We have a cleaner in the building however the building manager said that they need a special cleaner hence she went on and called the special cleaner without informing me.
This happened before, but when it happened the 1st time, i didn't realise that it was the same hump because I drove outside the garage straight away and I thought it was a stone chip from the rock, but when it happened the second time, it suddenly clicked to me that the 1st time this happened could be because of the same reason, however i don't have any evidence to back it up, i didn't take any picture of the bolt sticking up at that time and i couldn't track it down as i drove straight to the road..
it's a secure/locked garage space
these are the pictures of the humps in the building, one is without a bolt sticking out and the other one is the one that wrecked my engine oil sump
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/7104/i7QODT.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/2503/Cuzbyu.jpgThat bolt is about 50mm from ground level tops. I imagine you were speeding and compressed the shocks over the bump, bringing your pan below 100mm And damaging your car. Its clearly your proble. And you should clean it but Im not certain you are obliged to?
The location of the hump makes it almost impossible to speed over it since it's located right after a tight corner on the way out, so if you are speeding, you could potential hit the wall or incoming car from the other side.
Drifting?
Ok with those pictures, I can see some oil stains near that bolt. Try and get your car over that hump and see if you can gather evidence that the bolt is the cause of the hole in your sump.
If you can prove that, then it's building manager's maintenance issue. She should be checking this and is part of her 'maintenance check' routine. Same as checking if there's a fuse bulb in the stairway. It's common area for the building and not inside your apartment so you are not obliged to go around checking for things broken and reporting them. That's part of what she is getting paid for.If you can prove that bolt, which is cause of failure of maintenance duties of the building manager, resulted in the damage to your oil pan. And that your vehicle is of legal height, then you should refuse to pay for any cleaning, and send the bill to repair your vehicle to her. I would claim insurance with them as the liable party if it was me and I had enough evidence to back up my claim about the bolt being the culprit.
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Edit
Place front wheels on bump. Measure distance between the highest point of the speed bump and the lowest point of the oil pan. (not from the bolt) Measure the height of the bolt sticking out from the speed bump. If the height of the bolt > the distance between the speed bump and the oil pan = culprit. So you don't have to puncture your oil pan again to prove this.
I actually talked to her about this and she said that it's my fault for having a lowered car, and there seem to be no problem with any other resident.
The bolt is the culprit for sure because I actually stopped the car when i heard a big crack sounds and back tracked it back to the bolt, however I will do the measuring just to make sure.
Another question that I have is that how and where do I get the certificate to prove that my car is of a legal height? I have a pink slip that declare that my car is road worthy, but do I need another certificate?
P.S. Thanks for the advices
Take photographic evidence of your vehicle's height. Check for the transport authority website of your state which outlines the legal height threshold of a vehicle. Email her that, and say you want a speedy resolution or you are contacting your insurance with enough evidence that your vehicle was legal, and a bolt not properly in is not, identifying her and the body corporate at fault for not maintaining the property which resulted in your vehicle's damage.
I mostly clicked this for the awesome thread title.
But can you try to clean it up yourself?
Buy cheap kitter litter, pour it on, leave it overnight, and sweep it up into garbage bags in the morning. Should soak a lot of it up.