Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 07:18:54 +1100
Reply-To: Ray Hunnam <hunnam@PNC.COM.AU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ray Hunnam <hunnam@PNC.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Help: the VW morons spilled brake fluid on my electrical
wiring...
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
And to think you had to pay them for the work.
After just replacing my clutch master and slave cylinder I also had the
dreaded brake fluid on the front floor- and yes I also did spill some when
toppping up the reservior. The guy was correct in that water does nutralise
the brake fluid. I merely gave the front floor a good soaking after
removing the front mat. This also gave me a good chance to clean the area
of years of dust and dirt.
Well I then soaked a rag with water and got to the master reservior, wiping
everything I could see. Of course the amount I spilled wasnt a lot, so the
rag cleaned up the majority of it. It is a tricky little devil to fill and
plain common sense would have told your mechanic to go easy and careful.
While brake fluid isnt helpful to paintwork ( although I am told this has
been lessened with my generations of B/F I cannot see it being all that
harmful to the wiring providing the insulation is sound and in place. It
just makes things messy and adds insult to the fact that you had to pay this
D/H for his so called service.
Anyway Just remove the front carpets/mats and have a good clean.
Ray Hunnam
PS its christmas eve here in Oz have a good one you all. I will get my
presents before ya.
-----Original Message-----
From: d t <tinkerman@USA.NET>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Thursday, 23 December 1999 9:49
Subject: Help: the VW morons spilled brake fluid on my electrical wiring...
Hello Volks,
The heading says it all: during a clutch pedal pump replacement, lots of
brake
fluid spilled onto the floor mats (and underneath to the body).
Worse yet, the guy that refilled the resevoir was careless enough (and
despite
my warnings!) not to use a funnel, and pored a hefty amount around the
resevoire opening, resulting in fluid spilling onto the underlying wiring,
fusebox, car alarm (hidden in there), metal parts, etc (which reminds me why
I
like to fix anything I can before I resort to go to the garage...).
I remembered that the service manual warned about heavy paint corrosion if
this fluid touches the car body (which it also did). That also demonstrates
the double standard of these dealerships: they claim ISO9000 (blah blah
blah...) compliance and VW stringent standards while in practice the
mechanic
assigned to the job doesn't give a ^*%^*% about those standards if no one's
watching (he also let the bleader screw collect sand and didn't bother
cleaning it before screwing it back in. I'm sure that sand would cause hell
inside that tight hidraulic pump). Frustrating thing was that he was the
chief
mechanic! he should know to read the manual...
I was also worried about electrical problems due to wire and contact
corrosion
in the fuse/relay box after several months this fluid had time to do it's
thing, while the VW dealership would take no responsibility then.
I thus demanded that he clean up his mess, which he didn't take very
seriously
except for poring some water on the floor (saying water neutralizes the
brake
fuid). He also claimed the brake fluid wouldn't harm anything under the
dashboard.
Not taking this for an answer, I talked with his superviser who justified me
and suggested to take some counter measures. The problem was that he didn't
know which measures were necessary...
In the end, we removed the dashboard, and indeed wiring was soaked and fluid
puddles were present in metal parts. I soaked up the puddles and then they
did
the "magic treatment": sprayed everything with carburator cleaner
(oil/grease
remover) and then with a silicon lubricant (oil back again). I also found
lots
of fluid UNDER the carpet still there, waiting to eat up the paint.
Actually, since they claimed water would neutralize the fluid, I was
thinking
about a "steam shower" and drying it up, but was worried of the water's
effect
on the electronic circuits.
So here are my questions:
1. How damaging is the brake fluid to wiring, contacts, relays, fuses,
circuit
boards, etc. (short and long term).
2. Did they give the problem the proper treatment (I thought a proper
treatment would be to wash up everything with a fast drying fluid such as
alchohol, white gasoline, etc.)?
3. Shouldn't they have placed a soaking rag/paper towel underneath (on the
floor) to avoid floor paint damage?
4. What would you do in my situation?
5. Am I just sounding a false alarm?...:-)
Thank's for any suggestions.
cheers,
Amnon
Cheers,
T-man
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