Hydraulic Fluid Check on a L4802

[John E. Law]

I took delivery of a 2024 L4802 HST a couple days ago. After a few hours of use, one of the backhoe hydraulic fittings came loose and I lost an undetermined amount of fluid. The manual doesn’t detail the best way to check the hydraulic fluid level. Mine has the sight window which I’m really not a fan of. I’d rather have a dipstick. With the fluid so clean and clear, I can’t tell if the sight glass is telling me if it’s below or overfilled. I know the machine has to be level and probably check when cold but what about all the attached impliments? Retract everything or fully extend? The manual only says lower them. What about the backhoe? With only 6 hours on the machine and at $36 a gallon I’d really like to avoid draining the fluid to fill it back up.

 

[Vlach7]

Try putting the appropriate outrigger down to see if you can get the fluid level to move so you can see it. Side to side or front to back.

 

[Russell King]

There is a dye you can add to the oil.

You can make a dipstick if there is a vertical hole that has access to the oil surface.

 

[fried1765]

I took delivery of a 2024 L4802 HST a couple days ago. After a few hours of use, one of the backhoe hydraulic fittings came loose and I lost an undetermined amount of fluid. The manual doesn’t detail the best way to check the hydraulic fluid level. Mine has the sight window which I’m really not a fan of. I’d rather have a dipstick. With the fluid so clean and clear, I can’t tell if the sight glass is telling me if it’s below or overfilled. I know the machine has to be level and probably check when cold but what about all the attached impliments? Retract everything or fully extend? The manual only says lower them. What about the backhoe? With only 6 hours on the machine and at $36 a gallon I’d really like to avoid draining the fluid to fill it back up.
View attachment 137628 View attachment 137629

You can buy John Deere green hydraulic fluid dye on Amazon, for $16.06
It WILL work in an orange tractor!

 

[John E. Law]

So I cracked open the hydraulic fluid filter and drained the fluid until I could see a proper line in the sight window. Even with the loss of fluid through a loose fitting, I still drained off about 2 quarts to get to a proper level. That’s how it came from the dealership so I’m certain that’s not hurting anything. Now I know what it looks when the window is empty. I can sleep easy now.

PS Before starting, I adjusted the front loader and backhoe so all the hydraulic cylinders would be full or extended as best as I could. WOW WAS THAT FLUID FILTER ON TIGHT! I thought they were suppose to be hand-tightened only?

 

[fried1765]

So I cracked open the hydraulic fluid filter and drained the fluid until I could see a proper line in the sight window. Even with the loss of fluid through a loose fitting, I still drained off about 2 quarts to get to a proper level. That’s how it came from the dealership so I’m certain that’s not hurting anything. Now I know what it looks when the window is empty. I can sleep easy now.

PS Before starting, I adjusted the front loader and backhoe so all the hydraulic cylinders would be full or extended as best as I could. WOW WAS THAT FLUID FILTER ON TIGHT! I thought they were suppose to be hand-tightened only?

I have been told that Kubota puts their filters on tight,.......and then.... paints them tight!

 

[Russell King]

So I cracked open the hydraulic fluid filter and drained the fluid until I could see a proper line in the sight window. Even with the loss of fluid through a loose fitting, I still drained off about 2 quarts to get to a proper level. That’s how it came from the dealership so I’m certain that’s not hurting anything. Now I know what it looks when the window is empty. I can sleep easy now.

Just curious on why you use the filter and did not just remove the sight glass to let the fluid drain down to that level?

I guess you would have to add some fluid back in doing it that way.

 

[PaulL]

The hydraulic reservoir needs a lot of spare room, as you say there's quite a bit of difference from all the way out to all the way in on the various attachments. I don't really think you can hurt the hydraulics by overfilling - it has an overflow. If it's not coming out the overflow, it's probably fine.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

You can buy John Deere green hydraulic fluid dye on Amazon, for $16.06
It WILL work in an orange tractor!

+1

This is exactly what I did.

Works great.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Retract everything or fully extend? The manual only says lower them. What about the backhoe? With only 6 hours on the machine and at $36 a gallon I’d really like to avoid draining the fluid to fill it back up.

The reason the manual does not say is because your backhoe and loader have double acting cylinders and the difference in volume between retracted and extended is pretty small. For example the difference on the loader is less than a quart combined for all four cylinders. In real life use some are extended, some are retracted, and some are in mid-stroke so the difference is simply noise in the overall scheme of things.

Dan

 

[John E. Law]

The reason the manual does not say is because your backhoe and loader have double acting cylinders and the difference in volume between retracted and extended is pretty small. For example the difference on the loader is less than a quart combined for all four cylinders. In real life use some are extended, some are retracted, and some are in mid-stroke so the difference is simply noise in the overall scheme of things.

Dan

Good info. Thanks.

 

[John E. Law]

Just curious on why you use the filter and did not just remove the sight glass to let the fluid drain down to that level?

I guess you would have to add some fluid back in doing it that way.

I thought about the sight glass. It was more difficult to access with the backhoe attached and I thought it would make more of a mess - harder to recover the overfill. The filter location was easier and if I wanted the flow to stop I just tightened the filter up. That is until I tried to loosen the filter!