Can anyone give me a clue?

My Honda Civic had a brake alert few weeks after first servicing in a licensed garage.
when towed to the garage, they found the braking system is totally out of order, presumabl because of wrong brake fluid

I sent the fluid for analysis, and hte results are that some motor oil got in. I am sure it was done mistakenly at the garage, when someone added motor oil instead of brake fluid, to make up hte level.

THe garage claims this could not have happened, becasue hte car would stop imediately; I think that if they added only a little motor oil (enough to make up for hte loss, but not a total changeover) hte harmful result of motor oil in the brake system would appear only after several weeks, and several cycles of fluid recycles.

can this be?
how can I prove it?
thanks - Awad.

 

You are correct, damage is delayed. The rubber seals and parts will slowly swell, distort, and degrade over a period of days to weeks until the entire system is useless. This can be noticed first off on the seal under the reservoir cap. Since many parts need to be replaced and the remaining metal lines flushed, cost to repair is easily into 4 figures on a car with ABS.

Don't take legal advice from the guy who is against you.

 

Exactly!

My teacher actually just demostrated this to us.
He dipped a rubber seal in motor oil, and an identical ruber seal in break fluid. After 1 day of being soaked in the different oils, the one that was submerged with Motor oil was twice as big as the left in brake fluid. And was a lot softer as well.

The garage is obviously playing dumb, in order to save themselves.
Im sure if they are a "licensed garage", they very well know that the side effects of using the wrong oil are delayed.

And ofcourse the vehicle will still stop immediately, because as long as its a liquid it can't be compressed, which would make the brakes still work. Thats untill rubber parts start to get distorted from being contaminated.

Good luck!