Thread Starter
#1
The car - I have a 2008 Swift which is almost 8 years old now,it was my first car which my mother gifted during college & it was during our financial crunch & feeling guilty i opted for the cheapest Swift money could buy, that was a basic petrol lxi, so i will always have a soft spot for it & a place in my parking no matter how many cars i mite own in future.
The story regarding the topic - A friend of mine used to give his car for basic service work to an authorized service center in Bangalore, i had done so with my swift almost 2 years back & the experience & work was alright,otherwise car was always given to Mandovi service.
This time around i thought ok will give it to this authorized service center called Keshkamal which i had given some years back.Service done i get car back in evening,car seems fine & clean i drive back.The service center is basic & they dont have in house wheel alignment so 40 days later i take car for wheel alignment & i notice the paint seems to be deformed like a bad paint job. I though oh car must be rusting or paint issues. The owner of the wheel alignment quickly points out to other places & droplet kind of marks & he quickly determines this is a clear case of brake fluid damage by the service center as there were clear wipe marks effects on them as it seems they cleaned it immediately when it fell or got sprayed on the car.Until then i never knew brake fluid can have this slow effect on paint work & i am sure majority of you dont know this until now!
The owner told me that the fluid would have penetrated the metal & moved downwards & the pattern showed droplets & wipe marks horizontally from back door to front door. I knew the service center wont take responsibility as it had been many days & decided will speak to them over the phone anyways.
So a few days later when i tell my mother she recalls our house maid pointing out to weird white drip stains on the car paint on the top most portion around door handle which was 3 days after car came from service. And my mother assumed its just something that spilt on the car side glass. And i vaguely remember something like that also but i dint pay much attention then as car was not exactly shining & being dusty at the time.
I always clean my cars & this time after service car was used rarely except for a highway trip & only once the car was washed by my worker so i dint have chance to go over bodywork.But even a week before i gave car for service there were no paint bubbles or damage as i cleaned every inch of it myself.
So i keep a cool head as it was too late to prove anything i call the service center saying there has been paint damage & if by any chance we could see the security cam footage in fast forward mode to see if it happened during service. For which he gets aggressive gives rude replies that you cant see security video, you have no right, all our workers know what they are doing etc etc, by which time i loose my cool & tell him he should learn to talk as i am not begging etc,long story short i tell him i am informing him a complaint as its too late already,but if he is interested in quality control he should watch the footage & take the worker responsible to task. So good riddance to Keshkamal motors!!
Moral of the story - When i was young i remember my father yelling at service center as he noticed dent on our Zen car door once it came back from service,seen my Hyundai i20 returned with paint missing which they calmly repainted, (for my luck it was a new car & there were no scratches otherwise they would have said something am sure as most of the damage marks on pre service entry is exaggerated). And i have read stories of Skodas coming back home with swapped parts, but this was a first for me or most of you who are reading where brake fluid spilt has a slow effect on the metal over a period of weeks.
But this was a first for me,so next time you noticed some slight discoloration when you get car from service,point it out & click sufficient pics & proof with the service adviser next to the car for proof(yes it could be weird), so they cannot manipulate when the damage starts a week or so later.
Posting the pics below, it looks like dried sugar syrup,on first when i noticed I assumed it was some internal rust but after careful observations i could see wipe marks along with droplets over the body & the wheel alignment owner has seen brake fluid accidents before so he said its no doubt.![[frustration]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Frustration.gif "Frustration [frustration]")
Anybody else has faced this?
The story regarding the topic - A friend of mine used to give his car for basic service work to an authorized service center in Bangalore, i had done so with my swift almost 2 years back & the experience & work was alright,otherwise car was always given to Mandovi service.
This time around i thought ok will give it to this authorized service center called Keshkamal which i had given some years back.Service done i get car back in evening,car seems fine & clean i drive back.The service center is basic & they dont have in house wheel alignment so 40 days later i take car for wheel alignment & i notice the paint seems to be deformed like a bad paint job. I though oh car must be rusting or paint issues. The owner of the wheel alignment quickly points out to other places & droplet kind of marks & he quickly determines this is a clear case of brake fluid damage by the service center as there were clear wipe marks effects on them as it seems they cleaned it immediately when it fell or got sprayed on the car.Until then i never knew brake fluid can have this slow effect on paint work & i am sure majority of you dont know this until now!
The owner told me that the fluid would have penetrated the metal & moved downwards & the pattern showed droplets & wipe marks horizontally from back door to front door. I knew the service center wont take responsibility as it had been many days & decided will speak to them over the phone anyways.
So a few days later when i tell my mother she recalls our house maid pointing out to weird white drip stains on the car paint on the top most portion around door handle which was 3 days after car came from service. And my mother assumed its just something that spilt on the car side glass. And i vaguely remember something like that also but i dint pay much attention then as car was not exactly shining & being dusty at the time.
I always clean my cars & this time after service car was used rarely except for a highway trip & only once the car was washed by my worker so i dint have chance to go over bodywork.But even a week before i gave car for service there were no paint bubbles or damage as i cleaned every inch of it myself.
So i keep a cool head as it was too late to prove anything i call the service center saying there has been paint damage & if by any chance we could see the security cam footage in fast forward mode to see if it happened during service. For which he gets aggressive gives rude replies that you cant see security video, you have no right, all our workers know what they are doing etc etc, by which time i loose my cool & tell him he should learn to talk as i am not begging etc,long story short i tell him i am informing him a complaint as its too late already,but if he is interested in quality control he should watch the footage & take the worker responsible to task. So good riddance to Keshkamal motors!!
Moral of the story - When i was young i remember my father yelling at service center as he noticed dent on our Zen car door once it came back from service,seen my Hyundai i20 returned with paint missing which they calmly repainted, (for my luck it was a new car & there were no scratches otherwise they would have said something am sure as most of the damage marks on pre service entry is exaggerated). And i have read stories of Skodas coming back home with swapped parts, but this was a first for me or most of you who are reading where brake fluid spilt has a slow effect on the metal over a period of weeks.
But this was a first for me,so next time you noticed some slight discoloration when you get car from service,point it out & click sufficient pics & proof with the service adviser next to the car for proof(yes it could be weird), so they cannot manipulate when the damage starts a week or so later.
Posting the pics below, it looks like dried sugar syrup,on first when i noticed I assumed it was some internal rust but after careful observations i could see wipe marks along with droplets over the body & the wheel alignment owner has seen brake fluid accidents before so he said its no doubt.
Anybody else has faced this?
