Looking for hydraulic oil

pan

Hi

I live in gated house area, and it costing us lot of money to get the hydraulic gate arm top-up every once in awhile. Does anybody what kind of oil this would be and where I could buy some? would it be something like dot 3 oil that you find in a car?

Many thanks,
Paul

quietsailor

Any agri or motor factors could supply you with 5 litres of hydraulic oil. See if the manual/documents supplied with the gates give a spec for the oil and bring it with you to show them. I haven't bought any in years but I'd be shocked if 5 litres cost more than 20 euros


You shouldn't need top ups that regulary - how often is it being topped up and what quantity each time is added?

slavetothegrind

I seem to be trailing Quietsailor!:p

I agree though, a regular top up equals a leak, that should be sorted not you charged for continuous top ups. Get tough with them!!!!!!

Probably a ram seal or damaged hose/pipe.

pan

Thanks guys,

The arm is a FAAC 400 CBAC, manual available from www.aos.ie or faac.co.uk
Manual says use FAAC HP OIL, very informative!!

Found this online
Product name:FAAC HP OIL
Product code:714015
Product type:Hydraulic oil
Preparation description:Blend of highly-refined mineral oils and additives.

Do you think hydraulic oil from the motor factors would do the job? I think it would as it seems to be basically minerial oil.

I haven't been dealing with the gates up until now, but apparently we've had 2-3 new arms bought in and had the guys come out and repair(top-up oil) on a few occasional and the gate are only 5 years old. Actual it's a double door gate and the problem are all on the same side everytime.

I suspect, it's leaking and/or not properly repaired!!

thanks again
pan

quietsailor

First off that sounds exactly like hydraulic oil that you can buy from the agri factors.


If you've the suppliers calling out that often and topping up each time you've a leak. I'd imagine its a small tank that the oil is stored in so there can't be a very big leak but its still not right. The supplier needs to fix it.

is it always the same gate ( I mean the gate on one side) that causes the problems?

After the arms were replaced each time did the problem go away for a while only to resurface later or was the speed the gate opened/closed still the same after the arm was replaced? Is the pump and tank part of the arm?

If it was the same speed before and after it probably isn't the ram but a pipe leading to it or something on the pump itself.
** If the arm/pump/tank are all one unit then it could be in this case the whole unit wasn't aligned properly first day or :eek: the gate isn't hanging properly and is putting too much strain on the unit to open the gate and burns out the unit after a certain period. Can you open the gate yourself without the arm being operated and see if the troublesome gate is harder to open that the other gate?

If it worked well for a while but then slowed down the arm brackets might not be aligned properly, after a new arm is installed all will work properly as the seals are keeping in the oil but as the arm gets bent the seals will not work correctly and you will loose pressure through them.

Can you look at the pump and arm and see if you can identify dirty looking parts - this will be where the oil is leaking, it might tell you if it is the arm or pump that is at fault.

By the way, the reason the supplier will change the arm regulary rather than investigse the problem could be three fold (or even four fold but I can only think of three)
1. Its the easiest thing to get at, change the arm and pour some oil into the tank to replace what came out of the old arm.
2. following on from 1 - if they have to do remedial work its their fault it wasn't done before, they can't charge for that and thus they loose money on labour costs.
3. It sounds like they have a huge markup on the oil so that one really is money for jam.

Can you get photos and post them here? Would you give us a rough estimate of what they are charging and what for in each occasion. I'd really love to know how much they are charging for a top-up