If this happened at your house, why not call your home owners insurance?

 

That just absolutely sucks. I am sure when you got through cussing, you were totally sick in your stomach.

I hope your baby gets better soon.

 

Sir I thank you for this info your sharing! I have jacked my car up only around 5 inches on the side for side skirt install. I had a C5 and never got pucks or had an issue lifting. Seeing what can happen is an eye opener, ordering pucks today. You probably saved myself and some others with your lessons learned post.

 

Read your policy. Motor vehicles are never covered.

 

It doesn't hurt to try and see what your insurance company would say, these cars are awesome, but stinking expensive to get things fixed, i have a 2002 C5 and the parts are ridiculous for a 17 year old car. Good luck

 

My insurance paid for the same thing when it happened to my Trans Am years ago.

 

To the OP: Sorry for your misfortune.

To the self appointed Insurance Experts:

So I just looked at my car insurance policy as it pertains to "Comprehensive" coverage. Here is what is covered:

A. Missiles or falling objects
B. Fire
C. Theft or larceny
D. Explosion or earthquake
E. Windstorm
F. Hail, water or flood
G. Malicious mischief or vandalism
H. Riot or civil commotion
I. Contact with bird or animal
J. Breakage of glass

Doesn't look to me like owner screw up is covered. What if I was changing my own oil and got distracted and forgot to refill the engine with new oil and I ignored the low oil pressure warnings and drove the car and destroyed the engine. Do you think your car insurance would cover that screw up and replace your engine? Don't think so.

 

That's not happening.

 

Good, so (A) looks like it would have covered it for you.. I had the insurance payment in a few days.

 

It's cover as if a tree branch fell on it or vandalism! Call your agent and ask! Has nothing to do with if you allowed the jack to slip!

Surprised it doesn't say it covers a zombie apocalypse!

Mine was covered and I have AllState - usually NOT that great! Adjuster was great. Not any different than if he drove over a cement wheel stop or drove off the road into a ditch and caused the damage except since he wasn't driving it does NOT affect his insurance rates!

 

Thanks for posting, I'v been there done that to a lesser degree.



If the jack was defective would that not be covered as a accident?

 

Thanks, mine was less damage as well but I relied on someone who knows! My insurance agent!

Don't know but folks have had jacks slip and cause damage when changing tires for many years!

Could get a lawyer and sue Harbor Freight etc so they can make more than you will get!

PS: Googled and lots of info on cars falling off jacks! The insurance answer: It's covered on collision, posted by several insurance agents and folks who had it covered. My PDF shows it's safer to use a scissor jack as they don't have to move into the car.


Used an old Scissor Jack when I had my C6.

Just saw this video! Can always do something wrong!
I always use jack stands when working on a car with a wheel off or when going underneath to change oil etc!!

 

I'll just throw in here that I was helping my stepson rotate the tires on his car with my massive, awesome 3 ton (argh, argh) floor jack. Trying to teach by example instead of my usual carefree methods, I explained the importance of the jack stands as I placed one under the car. As we're removing a wheel, the jack stand does its little dance/groan as it takes the load. The jack had failed. It couldn't raise the car up far enough to remove the jack stand, so we had to get out his crappy little roadside scissors jack to finish the job. I hate those things.

If we'd been under the car when the jack failed -- well, I don't even want to think about it.

 

You can’t use a lift when you need to remove the wheels. Just say’n.

 

Read my post#64.

 

First off - Very sorry to hear this happened !!

Second - You deserve serious credit for posting - most everyone I know that turns their own wrenches has made mistake that have cost them money, and very few would have the stones to tell an entire forum about it...

As numerous others have said - after you've spent a couple of days beating yourself up about what happened - take a few minutes to think how lucky you were that you weren't under the car when the jack moved - we all know that we have to go under the car to place a jackstand under something that can support the load - and we should know that we're all very vulnerable at that time. Many many years ago - when I was in high school , I had jacked up the front end of a VW with a small bottle jack. I went under the car with two jackstands, and a friend who was helping me yelled - The Car is Starting to Fall" - I scampered out in about two seconds - and two seconds after that - the car fell off the jack. I try to remember that every once in a while - just to keep a bit of perspective ...

However - the reason for this post it to say that those who say that if you had let a "pro" do the work - you'd be better off may not really know how the game works. People who bring their cars into establishments for repair work don't always get their car back in the same shape it was when it was brought in. Car accidents happen - and guess what - the car owners insurance policy is what typically pays to repair / replace the car.

If you were to go onto a very popular video sharing service - and search on "car falls off lift" - you'll see that mistakes also happen at commercial establishments. Think that they're just gonna write you a multi-thousand dollar check for the damages ??? Maybe some places will - but you can be sure that there are places that aren't going to hand over one red cent until forced to (remember - insurance claims drive up premium costs). Also - remember that there are multiple levels of technicians that work at most dealerships - and the ones that normally do the oil changes are not the guys at the top of the food chain. It doesn't really matter that you brought in a $90K Z06 or a $20K Chevy Sonic - the guy doing the oil change is likely to be the young kid who was just hired. I know people who have left dealership service departments with trans oil drain plugs finger tight (they made it almost half a mile before the plug fell out and the trans fluid drained out) - causing the car to stop in the middle of a very busy state highway. Dealerships response - "Don't know how that could have happened." They towed the car back in - put the car back up on a lift - figured out what happened - replaced the drain plug - added trans fluid, took a two minute test ride, and said - "everything seems to be fine". I know more than one person who had a "quick oil change place" strip the threads in an aluminum oil drain pan. The response - "that's how the car was when it was brought in here." Do a little bit of searching and you'll find people who left a quick oil change place with a car that had no oil in it. The managers response - "sue us".

Just because you pay someone to do work - don't expect that everything will always be just fine.

 

You can use a lift to remove tires and even more. <br/>
Just say'n

 

Wasn’t it wood blocks under the OP’s car that caused all the damage? Just say’n.

 

Wooden blocks were not used to lift car .


A medal jack was used . Flat and safe. Just say'n

 

It’s wood blocks are under the car holding it up yet another accident waiting to happen.

Just say’n