cheesypoof

My wife took our '01 A4 to the dealer (Stammler Imports, Boulder CO) during her lunch break for its 30k service. She drove the car back to work and parked it. When she got in her car at the end of the day to drive home she noticed a big puddle under the car. Since the oil was just changed, she assumed it was an oil leak because they didn't tighten the filter or something.

I drove to her work and took a look at the car. The puddle was BRAKE FLUID. And it was a big friggin' puddle too: about 6' in diameter!! I'm just glad she noticed it before she started driving it home.

We called Audi and had them flat-bed it back to the dealer.

I am petty pissed about the whole situation. This could have resulted in a serious accident.

If the brake fluid was leaking out while she was driving it home, could the brake fluid cause any damage? I know that brake fluid will eat paint, but will it hurt anything else?

The service dept is closed for the weekend. Should I go into the dealer on Monday and rip someone a new orifice?

-David

J4SON

I learned my lesson about Stammler some time ago, I only go to Prestige now.

Jersey John

and ****e down the throat for fun

BSCA4

Possible that the flush the brake fluid and did not tighten it?

cheesypoof

...although they said that they were not going to flush the brake fluid.

I had actually asked them to do it since I just bought the car and Audi's records showed that it wasn't done at 20k. At first the service guy said OK, then called back and told us that they could only do it for free at the 20k and 40k service, so they would not do it at my 30k service. My guess is that the tech started to do the brake flush, and then the service manager told him to stop and he didn't put everything back together. That's just a guess at this point though.

I couldn't get a good look at the calipers last night because it was dark. I'm going to the dealer today to have a look and see if the front bleeders are open. (The lake of brake fluid was under the front of the car)

Pretty much all of the fluid drained out in 4 hours so I'm guessing the bleeders must have been totally open and not just a little loose.

-David

cheesypoof

The orange coolant threw me off. I went back and looked at the car in the daylight and it is a puddle of coolant under the car. It was dripping near the tire (and it wasn't green) so I guessed (wrongly) that it was brake fluid. When I went back today, the smell of the fluid was a dead giveaway.

It's still not a good thing, but a coolant leak doesn't bother me as much as a brake fluid leak.