Safety organisation Verification of Lubricant Specificatins (VLS) has issued a second warning about a non-compliant brake fluid that it says is still available in the UK market.
It relates to a stock of Mannol Brake Fluid DOT 4 3002 which VLS first investigated after a receiving a complaint in 2023. That led to VLS independently procuring a sample of the product within the UK and completing its own independent testing in which the product failed to meet specification limits stated in the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 116 DOT 4.
VLS asked the product distributor Lubriage, trading as Mannol UK and Ireland, to take action as a result of the test results them, and Lubriage subsequently advised VLS it had stopped selling the product in the UK marketplace and asked other distributors to quarantine the affected batch number until further notice and not resell it.
VLS however said it did not see any evidence of the product being quarantined or withdrawn from the relevant distributors or any attempt to contact end users who might have purchased the product through their distributors to recall it at the time, and it passed the case on to Trading Standards officers.
In a recent review of the case, VLS procured and tested a new product sample, which it found was also non-compliant against the DOT 4 specification performance claim. It said that based on the results obtained, the potential consequences of using the product could be increased stopping distance, accelerated wear, and braking system degradation.
David Wright, VLS’s company secretary, said: “The six-month review sample has a date of manufacture of 25th May 2024, which is after the date when we advised them of the issue.
“We are, therefore, gravely concerned that sufficient action has not been taken to protect driver safety.
“We urge motor factors, mechanics and end users alike to avoid using the product as it could put drivers at risk of personal injury, accident or even risk loss of life.”
VLS will again refer the findings to Trading Standards.