Well heck not sure how I would reply to the issue exactly..
There would be 2 sides to this story I can see pretty easily..
As a "over the counter consumer" item, I suppose one should be confident that the item should install and work correctly..
on the other side (and from a professional point of view) When working on the brake system of any machine, reasonable care should be taken to be absolutely certain that any part replaced is identical in function when making cosmetic changes.
As most racers can tell you, when making changes on high performance parts, very often, they will not work correctly straight out of the box on every machine. They need changed in one way or the other before use. This is a case of a "high performance" modification, the stockers worked just fine, these were supposed to perform better.
He spotted a difference in the part albiet a bit too late. Binding or pinched parts in a brake system are in fact bad news. Had he fully understood the ramifications of a master cylinder that did not fully return to the rest position, he would have never left the driveway.
As a manufacturer, do I expect the end user to fully understand the operations of a brake system?
As the end user, do I expect the factory to make me fully aware of the operations of a brake system?
Lawyers could go around for hours on this.. but IMO, if you are going to work on critical systems of any vehicle, either pay someone that does it for a living or be pretty darn sure you know exactly what you are doing..
I have fixed countless issues on vehicles that customers worked on first.. some of these were obscene in nature...
Scottsdale AZ 1980 or so, Dave Dailey drives a Chrysler 300 into the wall when the cars brakes failed to function.. post crash--customer removed the front calipers and "vice gripped" the brake lines shut, they then got the car to the shop.. Never bothered to tell anyone of the small change in system design..
Another time a customer had completely removed the master cylinder nuts and it was just hanging there, I went to back the car out of my bay (customer apparently drove this thing in on the E brake) and proceeded to put the car through the fence going backwards.. at least I can laugh at this one, the look on my face must have been priceless..
So who is at fault? beats me, gives me a headache but I am not afraid of the Pazzo levers..
I would suggest if you are unfamiliar with how things work, get help or start reading ..
