Oil & Fuel T353 Oil Leak

wwalker1959 · Mar 21, 2014

I have less than 20 hours on a 2013 T353 and noticed oil had leaked from somewhere on the left rear axle housing down to the backhoe frame. The oil level when I bought the tractor was well above the full mark and is now down to the high level mark on the sight glass. It was difficult to tell where the oil came from exactly and the only thing I could find was the drain plug may have been slightly loose.

Does anyone know if oil will leak from the transmission if it is over filled? I bought a 5 gallon jug of oil and plan to keep an eye on it until it's time for the 50 hour service.

wwalker1959 · Mar 25, 2014

At 25 hours the oil level had falen to just below the minimum operating level. I added two gallons of oil and returned the level to the minimum operating range. We were operating a chipper and since we were not moving the tractor I wold have thought we could find an oil spot on the ground. Nothing coulod be seen.

I am questioning since this was the first time the PTO was operated, could there have been air in the system??? I went ahead and took the tractor in to the dealer just to be sure. I'm curious as to what they may find if anything.

wwalker1959 · Mar 29, 2014

The dealer found some loose bolts on the inside of the wheel assembly. Quick fix.

One thing we noticed on checking the oil is the oil sight glass is extremely sensitive to the angle of the tractor. One half of a bubble off level and the sight glass reading shows empty. A little downward pressure with the FEL will bring the level back to normal.

Here is one thing neither of us understand...

When adding oil the sight glass would not show more than up to the low level mark even when we filled the oil up to the filler neck (way over filled). Is it possible air was trapped in the sight glass? We operated the hydraulics a couple of times and the drained out the excess oil and the glass started functioning normally again and the level would fluctuate as the hydraulic cylinders filled up with oil and discharged.

Any ideas what would cause the sight glass not to read accurately every time?