I have a MX5000 Kabota and have had water in the hydraulic fluid since I got it. The oil is milky white. I drained the oil once and refill with Kabota synthetic oil and it got milky white again. Any suggestion as to where the water is coming from?
Water in hydraulics
- Thread starter kutztj
- Start date
Re: water in Hydraulics
It's virtually impossible to get all the moisture out of the system with one flush. Usually use an inexpensive hyd oil to flush it a couple of times, then put the good stuff in. You could take the oil you drained, let it set until the water settles out and reuse it, I suppose.
It's virtually impossible to get all the moisture out of the system with one flush. Usually use an inexpensive hyd oil to flush it a couple of times, then put the good stuff in. You could take the oil you drained, let it set until the water settles out and reuse it, I suppose.
North Idaho Wolfman
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Re: water in Hydraulics
Are you taking it swimming?
#1 Would be the gear shift boot
#2 Would be the vent on top of the three point cylinder cover.
It usually take about 3 changes of fluid to get most all the water out, Use cheap fluid to fill run for a day or two then drain and repeat, after the third fluid change use good fluid and change all hydraulic filters.
The harder you work it the hotter it will get and that in itself will help boil the water out, and if the vent is plugged it will not have a path for the vapor to easily escape and that can add to a build up of water over time
Note: I was typing and D2 beat me to posting, He's quicker than me!
Are you taking it swimming?
#1 Would be the gear shift boot
#2 Would be the vent on top of the three point cylinder cover.
It usually take about 3 changes of fluid to get most all the water out, Use cheap fluid to fill run for a day or two then drain and repeat, after the third fluid change use good fluid and change all hydraulic filters.
The harder you work it the hotter it will get and that in itself will help boil the water out, and if the vent is plugged it will not have a path for the vapor to easily escape and that can add to a build up of water over time
Note: I was typing and D2 beat me to posting, He's quicker than me!
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NIH ,
The water won't mix with the oil ?? Would not the bulk of the water sink to the bottom of reservoir and be the first of the contents to drain ??
Suppose loader or 3 point cylinder(s) could retain water.
Is there an additive that would accelerate the water collection or mix with the moisture to cohesively drain it? Attach to the water molecules?
I had moisture in the crankcase of my IH diesel. Tractor stored inside, theory was condensation from sitting long term. Head gasket was ruled out as cause. A mechanic noted that in his experience, it takes very little water to create that milky appearance. If tractor loader equipped, could failing seals on cylinders allow moisture in system ??
Is that true?
The water won't mix with the oil ?? Would not the bulk of the water sink to the bottom of reservoir and be the first of the contents to drain ??
Suppose loader or 3 point cylinder(s) could retain water.
Is there an additive that would accelerate the water collection or mix with the moisture to cohesively drain it? Attach to the water molecules?
I had moisture in the crankcase of my IH diesel. Tractor stored inside, theory was condensation from sitting long term. Head gasket was ruled out as cause. A mechanic noted that in his experience, it takes very little water to create that milky appearance. If tractor loader equipped, could failing seals on cylinders allow moisture in system ??
Is that true?
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With mine it would be the rubber vent plug a top the 3 point assembly but I've never had an issue because mine get hot enough to evaporate any water. None the less, I'm not overly fond of that rubber stopper up there. I think it should be a screw in metal plug.
Don't know why Kubota puts that there for the life of me.
Don't know why Kubota puts that there for the life of me.
If oil is being leaked out, could water seep in? This link offers some perspective.
http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26074
Believe the cap is plastic not rubber on most. The vent function is provided by a designated vent tube. Cap does not have a vent function.
http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26074
Believe the cap is plastic not rubber on most. The vent function is provided by a designated vent tube. Cap does not have a vent function.
North Idaho Wolfman
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Yes the bulk of the water would sit at the bottom, but therein lies the issue, there are a lot of bottom spaces that don't drain completely so you have to do it several times to get it to keep moving around.
In order for the seals on the loader rams to take in water they would have to be submerged in water and the ram would have to suck the water in, not a very likely thing to happen.
Probably because you should have bought a KUBOTA instead of the Kabota.
There are two sources of moisture - infiltration and condensation.
Rain/snow/dirt/sunshine/organics etc all cause your rubber, plastic and metal components to degrade faster...and will lead to sources of infiltration...especially if you leave it sitting outside in the elements.
Also remember to run your machine regularly and let it get warm to help drive off any condensation inside the tractor. Short runs and sitting around with intermittent use will cause problems too.
Kubotas are expensive so I park mine in the barn keep them out of the elements. I also make sure the vent/refill caps are in place. Warm it up then run it hot. Follow the service intervals. Recipe for a long life machine.
NoJacketRequired
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Moisture in the hydraulic oil has been a perennial problem in my fleet of Massey 35/135's. I use them almost exclusively for snowblowing, so they were working hard but working in cold winter temperatures in the presence of lots of moisture. The oil would entrain moisture and would look more like boiling maple syrup than oil.
My fix was to buy several pails of oil, enough to have 3 complete changes of oil on hand.
I would drain the oil out every spring and replace it with the oil I had removed the previous spring (the third change was on hand just in case I needed an interim change).
I discovered that, by leaving the oil out in the garage through a winter, the repeated freeze/thaw cycles caused the water to settle out of the oil and form a light creamy sludge in the bottom of the pail - a very different colour than the rest of the oil. One could very carefully decant the oil without disturbing the creamy sludge. In a 5 gallon pail I would have a quart or maybe 1.5 quarts of sludge - this was simply sent off for recycling and was lost in the process.
I've been doing this for about 25 years now and it works reliably.
Now you're going to ask where the moisture is coming from. Yup, a little must get in around the gear shift boots and other places. But honestly, the VAST MAJORITY of it comes from plain old condensation. I thought this couldn't be true, then I stuck a borescope into the transmission the day after I had blown snow and had let the tractor cool completely in the garage to outdoor temperature which was well below freezing. Sure enough, I was seeing ice crystals and ice droplets on the inside of the transmission case.
My fix was to buy several pails of oil, enough to have 3 complete changes of oil on hand.
I would drain the oil out every spring and replace it with the oil I had removed the previous spring (the third change was on hand just in case I needed an interim change).
I discovered that, by leaving the oil out in the garage through a winter, the repeated freeze/thaw cycles caused the water to settle out of the oil and form a light creamy sludge in the bottom of the pail - a very different colour than the rest of the oil. One could very carefully decant the oil without disturbing the creamy sludge. In a 5 gallon pail I would have a quart or maybe 1.5 quarts of sludge - this was simply sent off for recycling and was lost in the process.
I've been doing this for about 25 years now and it works reliably.
Now you're going to ask where the moisture is coming from. Yup, a little must get in around the gear shift boots and other places. But honestly, the VAST MAJORITY of it comes from plain old condensation. I thought this couldn't be true, then I stuck a borescope into the transmission the day after I had blown snow and had let the tractor cool completely in the garage to outdoor temperature which was well below freezing. Sure enough, I was seeing ice crystals and ice droplets on the inside of the transmission case.
vvbigbb
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It happened twice to my M5700. I thought the water came from pressure washing around the hydraulic dip stick or the vent. I zip tied the dipstick closed, but the zip tie got caught on brambles and broke, at the same time lifting the dip stick and I guess rain got into the hydraulics again. I didn't notice until the temperature dropped well below freezing, when everything hydraulic stopped working. I removed the filters and at the same time caught all the fluid in glass carboys and let it settle in the frozen garage, then filled the hydraulic system with new hydraulic fluid. It not only solved the problem, I now (summer time) noticed the water had settled to the bottom of the carboy and will wait until winter to freeze the fluid and syphon the fluid off the ice to use for the next fluid change.