Here’s the third possibility: the dealer has no real facts to go on besides ‘I put washer fluid in the brake system’. The owner claims it was a little, and claims it was recently. What if it was a pint and had been in there a long time? There’s no way to inspect many of the critical parts of the brake system without complete disassembly, with replacement being not much (if any) more expensive. And this is affecting the primary safety system on the vehicle. I’m with @ok4450 - I’m not surprised at the dealer’s approach, and I don’t blame them for it.
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I have occasionally priced myself out of making a repair in order to avoid possible future liability and it’s somewhat likely that was the dealer’s choice in this instance. I think that puts me in agreement with several others here.
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Sorry; I meant washer fluid!
Some years back I rebuilt the clutch slave and master cylinders on a SAAB. This was a common issue and a repair I had done many times.
Several weeks later the car came back on the tow truck with an inoperative clutch and a justifiably irate owner. The fluid was full but there was no pedal feel at all. The owner stated that the pedal got mushier and mushier until it gave up completely.
Once disassembled I discovered the internal seals were swollen to roughly 40 or 50% larger than their original size along with the texture being more like foam rather than rubber.
At home that evening I was beating my brain as to how this happened.
It then struck me that I had my hands in a parts washer tank before doing that job. I had wiped my hands down with some Joe’s and a shop rag. There was enough mineral spirits residue on my hands to swell those seals and ruin them while handling them during the rebuilds.
Next day I took a new seal and for test purposes handled it with a drop of mineral spirits before placing it on the workbench to see what would happen. Several days later the seal was swollen and ruined. Lesson learned; always thoroughly clean hands before doing a cylinder rebuild.
That is a cheaper example of why I won’t rule out issues due to washer fluid in the brake master cyl.
Regarding some mechanics being referred to as “parts changers”, there can be a justifiable reason for that and especially so under warranty conditions.
Some car makers will NOT pay any or very little diagnostic time for any warranty repair. Subaru is very little if at all and Toyota is any…
If a mechanic is handed a job that he knows he will not be paid one red cent for then why diagnose anything…
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can you use a syringe or turkey baster and suck out the stuff? any idea why you were several ozs low?
I tend to agree with this
When I was working at the dealership, there were quite a few procedures and repairs I was not allowed to perform, because of possible liability
I was instructed to do that, as well. The rationale being “We REALLY don’t want to open up a can of worms, so let’s say the car needs everything. The customer’s jaw will drop, and he’ll just pay for his 1 hour of diagnosis and be on his way.”
I can’t say I agreed with approach every single time . . . but there have times when the smart decision was to NOT work on a particular car, or deal with a particular individual. I’ll spare you any details, as I believe some of you guys can relate to this from a mechanic’s or business owner’s perspective. There’s no law that requires a shop to fix everything that comes in the door
Dealership shops tend to give very conservative advice. Whether that is b/c they want the owner to have a car maintained at the new car level for utmost pleasure, reliability, and safety, or if they error on the side of more repairs b/c the repair shop is an income center for the dealership, who knows? If something like that happens again, it can usually be solved just by sucking all the fluid in the plastic bottle out and replacing with fresh, no need to flush the entire system. But that has to be done immediately after it happened, before driving the vehicle again.
Many dealerships yes, but not all. I am very thankful to have an honest, competent dealer service department. Even to the point where they repaired a tire puncture at no charge.
Great to hear that!