Did you know...........

[Spinney]

that brake fluid softens and starts to dissolve paint protection film? Well neither did I until yesterday having arrived home in the Evora after a C service (the big one!)

When I picked the car up, I didn't check around it assuming that as usual, all would be well so simply got in and drove off. When I arrived home and drove into the garage, my wife was standing at the far end (yes I know, I've told her before about going into my garage without asking!😉) and as I got out of the car she asked what's that all over the front of it? I went round to take a look and saw what had the appearance of a load of bubbles all over the PPF above and to the right of the o/side headlamp as you were looking at it and runs of oil from the front of the clam pooling on the bumper air intake lip, which also is covered in PPF. I dabbed a finger on it to find it was definitely of oily consistency and the smell was of brake fluid so I gently wiped it off with a damp cloth, to find wherever it had been, the PPF had softened and started to bubble up! 😡

Now I know most of us are probably aware brake fluid can ruin a cars paintwork but, oddly and thankfully, all surrounding paintwork and lacquer appears to be fine. I also noticed one of the o/side front wheel spokes was covered in it too and it was with much trepidation that I gently wiped it off, just praying it hadn't lifted the paint. It hadn't fortunately. Looking under the front hatch, there was brake fluid all around and over the master cylinder reservoir, so the guy clearly had a very poor aim as he was refilling it! Having looked very closely at the car again today and after wiping it clean yesterday, the bubbles do appear to have reduced in size and don't feel quite so soft. I washed the car down completely and hoping that after a few days, these bubbles will completely disappear, but we shall see!

I thought they always covered the paintwork around the car where they were working in order to protect it, but seems not though as there were oily handprints all over the back of the car too. Must say I'm pretty peed off by it and expecting a call back from the servicing agents shortly. My aim at this time is not to point the finger at anybody but just to make them aware of the problem in case anything needs to be rectified as a result. 

So a heads up to anybody refilling their brake reservoir, don't spill any brake fluid onto your PPF!

[jep]

A classy attitude. 👍

Justin

 

[Bruss]

I would be annoyed. Brake fluid is not a good thing to be splashing about. Any garage worth its salt should be aware of this.  Lucky you had the ppf to soak it up.

 

 

[hamza]

I'd be onto the garage to make them rectify the problem! Very generous of you to not do that.

[exeterjeep]

They need to be told, to help prevent them doing it again, hope this was not a true Lotus specialist.

[NAC63]

As in a previous thread regarding self maintenance,  this is exactly why I do my own servicing . I do not trust garages full stop ...

[Spinney]

Yes, indeed, I spoke to them more as a heads up in case the film doesn’t self heal. The service manager wants me to take the car back for him to have a look at it which I will do at some point. 

Trust me if I feel I’ve been ripped off or the victim of just plain shoddy workmanship, I’ll always be the first to lay into somebody. In this instance, it’s the first time in many years something like this has happened to me at this particular workshop. Yes it was careless and the workshop guy needs to be told about it but if the film does self heal over time, then that’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned. If it doesn’t, I am sure the service manager and company concerned will do the right thing.

I have no desire to destroy an otherwise good relationship built up over very many years. Mistakes and accidents happen and so long as the guy concerned learns from it and the company do right by me if necessary, which I’m certain they will, then that’s the end of it. 
 

[NAC63]

But mistakes like this should not happen. What if it was something more serious causing major damage an accident or worse.

You are more forgiving than I would be .

[Spinney]

But it wasn’t more serious and it’s a bit of a leap to wonder if it might have been, causing major damage or an accident. Who among any of us can say in all truth they’ve never made a mistake at work?

It happens.🤷‍♂️

[2011 Chrome Orange]

You are definitely taking this better than I would. The brake fluid could be chalked up to an accident. But, the oily prints would have put me over the top. When you pay good money to have someone take care of your car.........well, they should take care of your car!

[NAC63]

27 minutes ago, Spinney said:

But it wasn’t more serious and it’s a bit of a leap to wonder if it might have been, causing major damage or an accident. Who among any of us can say in all truth they’ve never made a mistake at work?

It happens.🤷‍♂️

I see it like this , if whoever spilled brake fluid without even attempting to clean it up, what sort of other workmanship do they not care about.

[Spinney]

Yes I see your point but maybe he just didn’t notice it at the time. 🤷‍♂️

[NAC63]

With the amount you say was all over the front of the car I think he needs to go to spec savers .

[Spinney]

I think it’s quite likely the film hadn’t bubbled up immediately so probably wasn’t obvious. 

[Phaeton91]

Sorry to hear this.  
 

It’s possibly something to do with the fact that most brake bleeding is done using a pressurised system. Given how far it sprayed it could be likely the tech got some all over himself too and potentially his face and eyes.  I’d be very concerned about that and that if that did happen he gets himself checked out - and that’s where my kindness ends.  

The garage needs to take responsibility and give you a commitment - your paint or PPF could corrode in 6/12/24 months and the current person you are dealing with could be long gone.  You may want to get this all down and agreed in writing so there is no doubt who is responsible for putting it right were that to happen.

They may also have CCTV in the workshop.

[Elite 4.9]

The question one might ask is:

if you do your own maintenance, would you ever slop brake fluid on your own car's paint and not clean it up immediately?

Of course you wouldn't do that.....ever !  Sounds to me like the worker was not really qualified to be doing the job in hand. 

To me it is totally unacceptable service or lack there of. And it is precisely why I do my own. The problem is that, this is quite common so one must try and find someone to trust, if you don't want to do the work yourself. Difficult to do sometimes.

I have got burned a good number of times in life when I relied on a dealer to handle some work.

Many are corrupt and will sabotage your car for further payment. If you are not familiar with your vehicle then you can easily get taken. It has happen to me.

[2011 Chrome Orange]

This is what I am currently dealing with.... 

I took my new daily driver (5K miles) to a dealer for warranty work when it was totaled from flooding. Of course, I cannot blame the dealer for an act of God or a natural disaster.

However, I later learned they flooded 3 years ago where 42 cars floated off their lot and down the nearby river. So, they knew the propensity of flooding.  I also reviewed my dash cam video (which kicked on as my vehicle went under and shorted out) and saw that when they moved my vehicle to the back of their lot just prior to the flooding, they moved ALL OF THEIR NEW INVENTORY off the lot so they could save them. (If you look in the one photo, you can see how empty the lot is. The vehicles still there were customers cars with license plates on them.)

So, my insurance totaled the truck and paid me for my loss. But, I still loss my insurance deductible (and contents of the truck) which I believe the dealer should cover. I also had to pay much, much more for a new vehicle due to the crazy market and vehicle shortages etc.

The dealer was also so nice to me that they even refused to let me get my vehicle off the lot for 7 days after it was flooded. The dealer said they (1). didn't know where it was-even though you could see it on the lot (2.) didn't know who owned it-even though I had proof of ownership (3.) were too busy to help release it-they were bringing their inventory back. This prevented me from trying to salvage it and its contents.

On the 7th day, I went to the local police and had them escort me to have it towed (I owned it outright and had the title with no lien on it). I had intended to file criminal charges against them if they didn't release it (over here we have a charge for "theft of movable property" if you have someone's property and won't give it back).

Long story short, its costing me much more money to fight them in court than I'm out but its the principal of the matter. I'm hoping they lose just so they learn a lesson.....that they should take the same care of a customer's car as they do their own. It will also be a public record of how they treated me.

I should note that if I had not learned about the prior flooding (showing that they knew the lot could flood), the fact that they only moved their cars to save them (easily over 100 cars) and not the customers cars, or they let me get my vehicle to try to save it, I would never have taken action against them.

I hate dealers and do my own work whenever possible in order to avoid them at all cost  (this was for warranty work on a new vehicle). Most of them absolutely do not care about your property, only theirs.

(Rant over 😉)

 

[Spinney]

That certainly sounds like a situation where the dealer was culpable through their deliberate actions. I am as aware as anybody how some main dealers can do a very poor job, whether deliberate or not and have personal experience of it. That’s why I now use a trustworthy specialist for mine and the wife’s Mercedes. 

This thread, however, was more about raising awareness of how brake fluid can damage PPF, which I hadn’t previously realised. I trust the dealer workshop where I’ve taken my various Lotus for more years than I care to remember and won’t be haranguing them about this incident unnecessarily. Life’s too short to become embroiled in needless angst.

As one particular member of this forum can attest, I’m saving my anger for a particularly worthy recipient whom I’ve been fighting through litigation for the last 16 months! 😉

[2011 Chrome Orange]

Yeah, sorry about the thread hijack. But, your post brought my frustration back up.

I knew that brake fluid could destroy paint. So, I wouldn't be surprised if it would damage PPF. Hopefully, you dodged a bullet and the film ends up fine in the end.

[Spinney]

So, 1 week after finding the PPF on the front of my car had several bubbles or blisters on it from having brake fluid splattered on it, I thought I should give an update. 

The following day, I carefully washed the front of the car to try and get rid of the last of the brake fluid. Every day since, the film has looked better with the blisters getting smaller so it seems the film has been slowly healing itself. Today things were looking way better, so I set to with the wife’s hairdryer to gently warm the film and miraculously, the blisters and marks have all completely disappeared.👌

I’m mightily relieved! All hail self healing PPF. 😃

[2011 Chrome Orange]

Glad to hear you had a good outcome! No harm no foul....