# Driving without brake fluid reservoir cap



## Sporkington (Feb 28, 2014)

I was having some other work done at the VW dealership today and figured I may as well just have them do an oil change while I'm there so I don't have to either wait or do it in the cold. I got home after driving around 10 miles from the dealership and though I would check to see if my catch can needed emptying. After popping the hood I immediately notice the brake fluid reservoir cap is completely unscrewed and just laying half in. 

When searching around for information about the potential side effects of driving around without a cap I see everyone saying how that fluid will absorb moisture and it should be flushed. Could this be an issue after this short drive and discovering it the same day? If its potentially problematic I'll call the dealer and try to get them to do it obviously, but I don't want to have to deal with that if it really isn't a big deal.


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## jimbbski (Jun 3, 2007)

If I had done myself I would not worry about it but since the dealer service dept. did it I would at least go back and tell them what happened. At the least they should offer to flush/bleed the system for free.


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## KG18t (Aug 9, 2006)

jimbbski said:


> If I had done myself I would not worry about it but since the dealer service dept. did it I would at least go back and tell them what happened. At the least they should offer to flush/bleed the system for free.



This. They can do a brake flush pretty quickly, the initial response will probably be something along the lines of: "oh, it's no big deal" ...but start running it up the chain to the service manager that failing, threaten to contact VWoA. That'll usually snap em into shape pretty quickly. In all honesty, yeah, probably not a huge deal, but might as well make them pay for their mistake. If it was a rookie tech, hopefully he'll remember never to do it again.


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## Sporkington (Feb 28, 2014)

Thanks for the input guys. That was kind of my thinking too so I'm glad to have others backing that up. I wasn't too worried and everything feels fine but why not have them do it right? 

Funny thing was I said something to the service adviser about being a little worried about doing the Haldex fluid change(main reason I went in there) with how many horror stories I've read. He insisted they were very good and I had nothing to worry about.


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## petethepug (May 25, 2001)

Take a picture of what you found in the engine bay. Email it to the service manager to let him know what happened. Documentation creates accountability. The dealer certainly uses it when writing up the r/o to avoid accountability, you should too. The last vehicle we purchased as CPO Allroad I ended up taking the ppwk from the service writers hands. 

I had to change:

"Water leaking" to: headlight washer system leaking from tank.
"Check DIS" to: replace inst cluster. pixel failure occurring in driver info screen.
"Check brake fluid" to: flush brake fluid per 3yr/36K CPO. No record of any fluid changes.

The bumper was taken off to fix a grommet buried in the washer supply line, the entire cluster was replaced and the brake fluid was flushed. If we had not of specified what was going on, the dealer would of been off the hook for a free CPO warranty fix. The wife would of picked up the car assuming all was addressed vs. fixed. The odometer was turning past the 36K mark that week.


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