What happened to the fluid in my tank?

[J_J]

An external leak of one drop of oil per second is equal to 400 gallons in a 12 month period.

--------------------------------------------------------------------200 gal----------------6 month---------------.

--------------------------------------------------------------------33.3 gal----------------1 month---------------.

----------------------------------------------------------------------1.1 gal-------------per day----------.

Something like this happened to me. I had a machine that sat for a year, and when I did get around to try using it, I check the fluids and the tank fluid was gone. Sometimes it is hard to see a leak when the machine is in the dirt and leaves, and the drip is under the machine.

If the machine is under pressure, the leak rate could be much faster, and running around in the dirt might not be noticed except for low tank level. That should be a good clue.

If fluid can leak out, then water, dirt, air whatever, can get inside the hyd system.

If your cyl rod seal is leaking fluid, you reckon that some air might get in somehow.

On a hot day and you remove the attachment and the QD's happen to be in the up position, or QD's laying on the ground and a good rainstorm provides water to everything and cool things down and water might be sucked in the QD's.

There are usually logical answers for most things, and some take a while to figure out.

[Steave]

On the other side of the spectrum it only takes a few drops on a concrete floor to look like a quart of fluid leaked out.

Thanks for posting, something to think about. I have an old International backhoe used to keep ditches and such cleared I never crank without checking all fluids because it may be empty like you said.

[Willl]

And to me, 1 drop per second is a LARGE leak.