Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 19:44:08 -0800
Reply-To: Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Joel Cort <joel_cort@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Spilled brake fluid Remedy!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hey Guys,
There is a real easy way to clean up excess brake
fluid! My father, who was a mechanic for 40 years,
used plain old rubbing alcohol whenever he worked on
brake cylinders and other parts. It's clean, and
dries up fast and can be mopped up. You can use it to
clean up the spills on carpets and other material.
Best of all it's real cheap and available anywhere you
can pickup Preparation H ;-)
Oh yeah put out the smokes first.
Joel
89 Syncro Westy
--- Ray Hunnam <hunnam@PNC.COM.AU> wrote:
> 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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