in the process of fitting a sports foam air filter to my Mk2 I decided to call LV as my insurance is due for renewal at the end of the month. (I currently have two other cars insured with them.)
They are happy with the sports exhaust, even OK with my plan to disable the troublesome immobiliser, they were even happy with boy racer non standard parking sensors but the underwriters went pale at the outlandish idea of the air cleaner. LV made it quite clear that if I went ahead with this reckless modification they would not cover the car until the end of the month and certainly wouldn’t renew my cover under any circumstances!
So if you have any mods at all that you think are ‘harmless’ don’t forget to tell your insurers just in case! I could have been running around happily thinking I was covered until the worst happened!Thinking about it I never told them that the alloys are the same size as standard but not original; naughty, naughty!
So my options are to revert back to the standard air filter or go elsewhere.
No, I didn’t know until today that they are so hazardous so I’ve had a lucky escape not to mention any other poor unsuspecting road user that might have been on the receiving end of whatever havoc and destruction it might have caused them.
I will go with another insurer, pity because LV have been really good in the past especially when some lunatic tried to trash one of the other cars when he couldn’t be bothered to stop behind me at some red lights! And they are competitive too usually. Looks like General Accident will get my business.
Do after market air filters really make any improvement, other than increasing engine wear. Like high octane fuel. With a bog standard engine, which the Mazda is?
Your problem with LV might be the number of modifications you’ve done, I was with them before I sent my car to BBR for their Super 200 conversion. I had already told them about the lowered springs I had fitted but when I went over the mods the conversion would involve they said they wouldn’t be able to cover me any more because they limit you to 3 mods and the the Super 200 which is basically exhaust, cams and remap would take me to a total of 4 mods. I guess that as you’ve already listed the other work done to your car a modified induction system would have taken you past the magic 3.
That’s interesting about 3 strikes and you’re out!
They just apply that rule regardless of the degree of each modification if that’s the case. I can understand them getting a bit twitchy over the BBR mods as they are more significant compared to mine.I wonder what would happen if there were any hidden mods that an owner wasn’t aware of so didn’t declare. Like some previous owner had the head ported or hotter cams. Etc.
Anyway, it seems some insurers are more flexible so I’ll switch to GA next for the same premium as LV are quoting me. Out of interest who did you go with that covered the BBR 200 mods?
I insured the BBR with Manning Uk in the end but LV did say they would have covered it if I hadn’t done the springs. As you say I don’t think LV are too worried about what you have done just the number of things. I’m sure there are plenty of cars out there that won’t have all the mods declared partly because we all do things to the car between renewals and also because a lot of people probably don’t think of things like fitting a K&N or something similar would make enough difference to declare.
I should say an added bonus(for me at least) is that the Manning cover also includes Trackdays.
It is because the person sitting in the call centre who’s goal for the day is to go home for their tea, is not any form of car expert or decision maker. Changing an air filter is not a problem, saying it is a performance one is because it will be classed generically as an induction modification and that is then related to an unspecified increased in performance.