Five Common Hydraulic System Failures and How to Avoid Them
Modern hydraulic systems are designed to offer maximum reliability, from the system level down to each component. With proper maintenance, a high-quality hydraulic system will provide many years of precision power. With proper on-time maintenance, crews can avoid these five common hydraulic system failures:
- Failures due to excessive contamination
- Failures due to hydraulic fluid leaks (internal or external)
- Failures due to poor system calibration or flow obstructions
- Failures due to excessive component wear
- Failures due to overheating hydraulic fluid or system components
Most of these hydraulic system failures are preventable if they are addressed as soon as any problems emerge.
How To Avoid Hydraulic System Failures Due To Excessive Contamination
Contamination is the number one cause of hydraulic system failures. It’s often the initial issue that eventually leads to further, more catastrophic problems. Contamination such as water or dust can intrude into the system through leaks or weak points somewhere in the hydraulic line. Poorly fitted connectors or frayed hydraulic hoses are two examples. Contamination can also emerge from within your hydraulic system, the result of excessive component wear, old hydraulic fluid or overheating.
If your hydraulic fluid is fouled by contamination, it will affect the system’s flow, accelerate wear to exposed components and contribute to damaging issues like aeration. All of these issues can eventually lead to an expensive downtime-causing failure.
To avoid that scenario, it’s essential that operators keep an eye on hydraulic fluid quality and respond if signs of contamination emerge. The recommendation is to change out the hydraulic fluid every 2,000-3,000 hours of operation, though the operator manual will specify the exact interval. Between each fluid change, take a fluid sample and inspect it for any obvious signs of contamination. A cloudy or milky appearance is a clear indication of contamination issues, for instance. Hydraulic fluid samples can be sent to an engineering lab for chemical analysis and to identify contamination that would otherwise be impossible to detect.
If contamination is present in your hydraulic system, shut the system down, drain the hydraulic fluid, clean every part of the system thoroughly, including the pump, cylinders, hoses, manifolds, connectors and reservoirs, and fill the pump’s reservoir with fresh hydraulic fluid.
How To Avoid Hydraulic System Failures Due To Fluid Leaks
Leaks are one of the most common causes of hydraulic system failures because they’re difficult to avoid. Pressurized hydraulic fluid will find vulnerabilities in your hydraulic equipment and can therefore emerge anywhere in the system. This includes both external and internal leaks, each of which can cause their own issues. External leaks are easier to spot but are major contamination risks. Internal leaks can cause flow delivery issues and loss of power due to system bypass, and they’re often a challenge to spot due to their internal nature.
The best way to avoid hydraulic leaks is to keep up with equipment maintenance and replace parts as soon as they show signs of wear. This is especially important for hydraulic hoses and connectors, which come in direct contact with environmental contaminants.
How to Avoid Hydraulic System Failures Due to Flow Obstructions or Poor System Calibration
Many common hydraulic system failures aren’t the result of mechanical or contamination-related issues but arise from improper system calibration or other flow-related problems. If your hydraulic pump isn’t delivering flow reliably or if it handles rough while doing so, then the problem could be the pump’s control valve and how it’s calibrated. You may not have the right valve setup in place, as well. These are simple issues to correct, but you may need a hydraulic expert to rule out other potential concerns before recalibrating the system.
How to Avoid Hydraulic System Failures Due to Excessive Component Wear
If any of your hydraulic system components are excessively worn, it can be a failure waiting to happen, which is a vulnerability that can only be resolved by identifying the offending part and replacing it. Seals, bearings, gears and impellers are the most common hydraulic system components to wear out early, but excessive wear can emerge anywhere, especially if you’re also dealing with contamination.
There isn’t an easy way to avoid failures due to excessive wear, other than performing full, detailed equipment inspections on time. If your hydraulic system is checked out by an expert hydraulic technician, they will be able to spot worn components and change them out before they give out entirely.
How to Avoid Hydraulic System Failures Due to Overheating Hydraulic Fluid or Components
Overheating hydraulic fluid is usually a sign of contamination or flow-related problems, as either will adversely alter the fluid’s flow characteristics. However, it could also be a problem with your heat exchanger, so you’ll need to rule out a few potential causes. You can use a thermal gun to verify that your hydraulic equipment is in fact overheating, but you’ll need to compare test readings with baseline temperature readings you take when the system is operating at baseline. If overheating is present, check for contamination and whether any of the system’s valves are malfunctioning, as this is another common cause of flow-related overheating.
A hydraulic equipment expert can also identify the root cause of overheating and resolve it by clearing any contamination or replacing the components responsible, like a failed heat exchanger.
No Matter the Cause of Your Hydraulic System Failure, a Reputable Hydraulic Maintenance Technician Can Help
Hydraulic technology brings power and precision to any heavy-duty operation, but it’s only reliable if the equipment is well-maintained. Maintenance is how companies avoid the most common causes of hydraulic system failures, and that means partnering with an expert hydraulic technician.
Experienced hydraulic equipment technicians are familiar with all the ways a hydraulic system can fail, and they have a fix for each issue. Whether it’s overheating, contamination or just plain wear and tear, you’ll get faster repairs, on-time preventative maintenance and better overall value from your hydraulic technology by working with a proven hydraulic equipment expert.