Water in my Hydrolic fluid

Please , if you have any advice? I am brand new here, this morning June 13,
2023, I have a John Deere loader, 3032 E. It has 139 hrs. It was setting for 17 months, inside my Garage. My neighbor asked me if he could use it, then called to say he washed it and put it away Okay? Got home . On June 10th .went to use it, to mow , with my Brush Hog, maybe 40 min of work. Then put it away, and I could not get my bucket to raise !! I played around with it, it would go down but not raise, finally it's on the ground. What is wrong, I have been reading my manual day and night, going crazy !! Called Clatsop Power, where I brought it in 2016, new owners are NO HELP ! When I turn the key on the instrument panel flashes RED BUCKET with a DROP inside. Also a flShing explanation point!!! So I know not to try to start it up !! My question s are? Do you think water got in some how ( could not have been. From the rain).it's always been under civer ! If it is water in the Hydrolic fluid ? Can I let it set until I have my husband home in Sept ?? Will it do more damage if it sits that long ?? Also just reading about it make me so Darn upset, this can cause lots of damage right?? Corrosion? Rust? Lines will need to be replaced ! etc. Thank you for reading this if you have any help please. I sure do need it !!

Have you double checked your bucket hose conections?

Hello Sherry welcome to YT. For one if that is actually
real name I would suggest you be a little more careful
about pasting it all over the internet. It will probably be
fine here but just a word to the wise. Does your Bush
Hog connect to the tractor by the 3 point hitch, which
essentially lifts it entirely off the ground? If so and the
3 point hitch lowers and raises there is nothing to
seriously wrong with your hydraulic system. If this is
the case it is probably a quick coupler hose connection
not plugged in properly as others suggested.
Especially if you can make the bucket ..curl.. which is
the opposite of dumping it.

You might start with changing the fluid. If it has water in the fluid you can freeze it and pour the oil off the ice and re-use it.

My manual does not say anything about the signals and what they mean ?
But I found under trouble shooting. "Bucket will not raise" ? Answer : Water in Hydrolic fluid ! So I know that ? But other questions are : will it be okay to wait until September? 3,5 months. Is that waiting going to make more damage ?? RUST etc.? Thank you!

[quonte="TKiste"](reply to post at 12:28:00 06/13/23) [/quote]
Yes. As best I can from just looking, everything looks good and tight, no drips on the concrete floor@

Okay, I will go into.my manual and see about learning to do that !
Have you done that before ? Was it successful ? Uhmm what if water has gotten into the lines ? Just keep doing that over and over again ?? ?

(quoted from post at 12:59:37 06/13/23) My manual does not say anything about the signals and what they mean ?
But I found under trouble shooting. "Bucket will not raise" ? Answer : Water in Hydrolic fluid ! So I know that ? But other questions are : will it be okay to wait until September? 3,5 months. Is that waiting going to make more damage ?? RUST etc.? Thank you!

Click to expand...

Without question there's a page in your OM that covers in detail what the warning light symbols mean, and it's useless to speculate on what MAY be wrong without knowing what EXACT warning you are seeing.

Take another look in the Operator's Manual.



Here's a an EXAMPLE of a John Deere CUT dashboard, which may or may NOT be similar to yours... do any of the symbols look like what you are seeing, perhaps #7?

I don't THINK your dashboard will have a symbol for ''Water in the Hydraulic Oil'', but I could be wrong on that!

My neighbor asked me if he could use it, then
called to say he washed it and put it away Okay?

I will shoot anyone who washes any of my tractors
or mowers.

Water will settle to the bottom, so crack the
hydraulic drain plug and see if water comes out.

Water can only get there one of two ways,
condensation or washing.

Water in hydraulic oil will make a milky
solution.

Good luck. Post back with your findings.

THIS may be a more exact drawing of your dashboard?

Can you post the tractor serial number, as it looks like there were 3 serial number ranges.

I would suggest using your manual you find the level
check point for the hydraulic fluid, probably a dip stick.
Then look at the fluid. If it looks like cooking oil as in
fairly clear maybe a little bit tan that is what it should
look like. If it looks more like coffee with quite a bit of
creamer or a milk shake that would indicate water in
the system.

I doubt water got in your oil. Check the oil levels but like
someone else said check your hoses are connections.
Not sure if you have a joy stick for loader control but I
have had the cable end unjust on me and you can go
down but not up.

You said ..My manual does not say anything about the
signals and what they mean ?.. You have a John Deere
I would be very surprised if it did not have an
explanation of what the symbols mean. Have you found
a diagram of the dash similar to what woreout is
showing. I would think that would be where the inferior
be. The thing about it is there may be water in some
electrical connection that is part of the sensor system
and so you may be getting a false signal, meaning
there is not really water in the oil. I guess maybe you
are not being told that by the instruments you gleaned
that info from the manual trouble shooting info.
However, if you used it 40 minutes, I would almost
think that would dry out or make the problem expose
itself. Are you sure the symbols or warnings that flash
do not come on every time you try to start it but you
just have not noticed them until now? A ..red bucket
with a drop inside.. could very well be the instruments
telling you the engine has no oil pressure only because
you have not started it.

Apparently your neighbor knows the tractor...have him come over and trouble shoot the problem.

Unless the filler cap is open water
will not get in the hydraulic oil from
power washing.

Lots of ggood information here. I would look at the dipstick for both engine and hydraulic just to look at the oil color and level. then I would loosen the drain plg to hyraulic and see what drips out don't loosen to much or you will be cleaning oil up off the floor. Just let it drip out in a can/jar what have you to see if it is oil or water after it has set for a day. Now if no water comes out talk to neighbor to see if he could look at it. He obviously knows some about equipment.He might see something you don't. OR you could ask one of your or husbands family if they know anything about equipment.

Your problem is a very common one, every other week there is a post here about milky hydraulic oil. Yes, you have water in the reservoir but not from washing, so don't shoot your neighbor! The water is from condensation of moisture in the air. Your reservoir is vented so it is open to the atmosphere and as it is working the oil heats up and pushes air out. After use and overnight air is drawn back in and this air, especially overnight, will have moisture in it. The key factor here is the length of time that the tractor sat. They need to work with a degree of regularity to drive the moisture out. This situation is why the alert system is built into your tractor. There is a possibility of rust damage due to the water so the water needs to be eliminated. You can either get the oil changed or ask your neighbor to find more work for it.

C'mon. The tractor is almost new. It's been stored inside. There is NO WAY that there could be THAT much water in it just from condensation unless the "garage" is an actual Swedish sauna that sees daily use.

A little water in the oil is normal, expected, and won't affect the operation of the machine. It would have to end up being pretty much ALL water to affect operation. The neighbor would have had to stuck the hose down in the oil fill port and let it run until it floated all the oil out. If he did that, time for a lawyer.

Warning lights are MEANINGLESS until the machine is running. They light up, sometimes blink, sometimes go out, sometimes stay on, depending on what the programmer decided.

"Bucket with a drop in it" is usually ENGINE oil pressure. The engine's not running, so the engine oil pressure warning light will be lit.

I expect "dealer's no help" means that they didn't give you an easy answer over the phone for free. Unfortunately you may have to pay the dealer to take the tractor in and service it, or at least make a house call to troubleshoot it and see if they can find the problem.

I very much doubt there is enough water in your hydraulic oil to cause a problem unless your neighbor is particularly
clumsy. My guess is he could have got the electrics wet and being a new tractor it likely has a bunch of safety lockouts,
especially if it has electric over hydraulic controls. Start it up and try it again. If that red warning symbol shows up
with the engine running you need to find out what it means. It must be in the manual.