New(ish) Kubota M62 With Filthy Hydraulic Oil

[Putneymountain]

I’m not much help, but I can say it is not normal. My L had 550 hours on the fluid and is looked fine, honey colored. My B at 50 hours had fluid that looked the same as the new stuff in the one gallon jug of super UDT2 that I topped up the fluid lost due to the filter change (with the unit still full of fluid). My L runs a FEL I take on and off regularly. It also has a 3rd function that runs a grapple, although that’s a newer addition this spring.

Only someone with a financial stake in the matter would say oil that looks like what you’ve removed is “normal”. It’s any thing but normal. Too bad that guy’s integrity is for sale for the wholesale price of a few (or 10) pails of fluid.

If I were going to change the fluid three times, I’d just change the filters when I was done with that. Mainly due to cost.

As you know, changing the fluid leaves a bit in that doesn’t come out. On my L, the specs say 11.4 gallons and only 9.4 gallons came out and it read full when I started and I pulled all four drain plugs. Based on that, I think my unit would still have about 10% old fluid in it after 3 changes.

Maybe check the case vent to make sure it’s open to both positive and negative pressure variations.

Thanks.

Attached is a picture of the fluid left in a jar for a few months – as you can see, there’s a whitish sediment layer at the bottom…

 

[SDT]

Kubota M62 With High Insolubles in Hydraulic Oil

We have a pretty new Kubota M62 with just about 200 hours.

I was changing the hydraulic and transmission oil filters and took a look at the oil itself. It looked much dirtier than I had ever seen in our other machines. I could actually see thousands of tiny dark particles floating and swirling in the oil.

See attached picture – new Kubota UDT2 is on the right and used (200 hours) is on the left.

I sent a specimen off for analysis (also attached), which confirmed that the insolvables are 0.4% which is above the recommended maximum of less than 0.1%. This has me pretty confused in such a new machine…

• Is this normal? Have to change the oil at 200 hours?
• Any thoughts on the cause of this?
• Has anyone seen this before?
• I’m going to change the oil and the filters – anything else I should do?

Thanks in advance for any help. (I also posted this over at Bynet)

Hydraulic oil becomes contaminated, especially on industrial equipment, when operators connect to attachments that are used on who knows what other equipment having who knows when changed oil.

 

[RCW]

The white-ish color could be a little bit of condensation. Hard to tell from the picture.

 

[GrizBota]

The hydrostatic fluid in my L had been there for 15 years. No separation of fluids when I drained it. The used oil was in the pails for several week before I gave it to the waste oil folks. When I dumped it out, there was not a glug of water at the bottom.