Accident, Icbc claims its nothing, car fails mechanically.?

Hi guys, I'm new to Yahoo, I'm unsure if I'm posting at the right place but please bare with me.

I had a minor accident (not my fault) about 3-4 months ago, where this guy swerved in front of me into the "left-turn only" over a SOLID white line. I was already traveling in the left turn only lane and i couldn't stop in time because i wasn't expecting him to do something so reckless.

The impact was not "big", as i tried to swerve to the left abit(could not swerve anymore, cause there was an island block there) to avoid direct front to his rear/trunk impact. Inevitably, my passenger's side bumper/fender was scraped, and his drivers side (where the gas cap) was scrapped. I knew it was his fault, so I gathered his information, and later on I reported it to ICBC. Surprisingly, he reported to ICBC before I did, and he claims, i was tail gating him and hence the accident occur.

Standard procedures, I got my vehicle inspected at ICBC, but here's the tricky part.

My 1997 cr-v, had some cosmetic damage already, and some in the front bumper/fender area, so that given, it had either already been in an accident before and they claim that there was no "NEW" damage. Although I admit, there was already some damage there before, they did not really look any further, and I'm assuming they just assumed it was something very minor and not mechanical.

I can't help but to think, how can ICBC possibly say that when they didn't even jack it up to see, or inspect under the hood, or my alignment or what not.

So at the time, they convinced me to just drop the claim, but given the fact how the opposition wanted to counter-claim saying I TAIL GATED him, and hit him from behind, just flat out pissed me off, because it only shows how many false claims there are out there.

3-4 months down the road, I now have transmission leak, failed cooling system, failed rack and pinion that was replaced 40,000km ago (hell shouldnt break that fast.. they should last aleast a long time right?) and possibly much more, but i just dont know yet and could it be from that accident that they CLAIMED, was nothing.

I cant drive the car, cause the rack and pinion is messed up. and i dont want to replace it using my money, cause i just replaced it 40,000km ago.

Is there any way i can dig up that claim again, or is it long gone, and should i document it in my head so it never happens again in the future?

Any advice/tips from any personal experience would help direly.

Thank you for reading! Happy holidays!