Odd return leak, help.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:36 am

Hello folks, well after the failed strut having been replaced the car behaved fine for couple of days. No loss of LHM.

Yesterday, puddle under car again, like its a return that leaks out when the car settles down overnight.

Checked both front strut return things, both very wet and leaks at the unions to the car. Its only these places its coming from it seems.

Question, why, they werent doing this before, im wondering if the return line is blocked and causing it all to just push out where it can. Would it be possible for me to run just some windscreen washer tubing from the strut returns under the arches back to the reservoir to test this theory?

Or does anyone recognise this as symptom of anything in partucular?
Its annoying me now.

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:50 am

Yes you could do that, but make sure you plug the ends of the lines still on the car so as to avoid leakage coming back up the line from the Octopus.

Sounds to me like you have high pressure in the return system from somewhere, maybe a component failure. Or simply a botch repaired octopus.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:58 am

Thats interesting Ken, high pressure in the return lines, i never even realised this was possible? What could cause such an issue?

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:41 am

Component failure i.e. a valve or something passing more fluid than it's supposed to.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:17 pm

Damn, well, bit of investigation, disconnected the leg returns and ran two clear pipes back to reservoir (one for each leg of return)

I then put a single tube accross the now empty ends of the metal pipes the returns usually go to, effectively blanking it off.

Go up and down couple of times, returns are working fine, not excessive flow, so both struts seem acceptable.

BUT,

some fluid is trying to come back up the blanked off (i.e. fluid is trying to flow the wrong way) return system it seems, only very little pressure, as it doesnt pour out, sorta creeps, but its enough to loose quite a lot when sinking overnight or on a run on a bumpy road.

Im stuck. wheres the most likely place to look?

Is it as ken suggests excess pressure being back fed? I really wouldnt know which component to star with, anyone? (remember ive no PAS as its a 14)

Or is it simply the return is blocked somewhere and the LHM is just taking its easiest course out having come against bloackage?

Typical that i really need the car at the moment too isnt it.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:31 pm

OK, odd thought,

If its not doing anything else weird, just this creep of LHM back from the strut return metal pipes.............could i just run, 2 more lines to the reservoir from each side, so any excess that did feed its way up (its so slow it almost looks like capilliary action) just goes back to the reservoir and not on the road where it can seep out?

Im assuming the other returns arent effected as this seems to be the only place its leaking. (famous last words)

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:57 pm

Most likely culprit is the front height corrector, also it's one of the most difficult bits to get at.

I've not done much work of 14's so I wouldn't be certain, but the front HC has 2 returns, one is the normal low pressure return that runs into the octopus (the pipe that usually fails) the other is the HC exhaust return (this runs directly back to the reservior) and is only in use when you manually lower the suspension.
The other options would be the returns from the rear struts, see how much fluid they are passing. These also run back into the octopus and could cause the build up.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:43 pm

Well, more fiddling has been done................

I first found the ball bearing in the LHM tank rubber elbow was jammed up, free-ing this has slowed the creep of LHM (i.e. ball free it sank slowly back down the pipes) So i tried what i theorised above, yes it seems if the extra hoses are added, just to return where this LHM is creeping from back to the tank, then it appears to stop loosing any at all.

Thanks ken, front height corrector, id best gen up, its been a long time since i had anything to do with those, last one i stripped was GSA i think. Before that CX, now those CX ones are hard to get too, they are housed in a plastic box things, which makes it 'actually' impossible to get to.

electrokid · Post by **electrokid** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:07 pm

One thing that's crossed my mind a few times when reading about octopus problems - is there any reason why all the lines going into the octopus couldn't be replaced by individual clear plastic pipe extensions feeding back to the reservoir ? Then it would be easy to see if any particular device was leaking excessively (assuming that you label the pipes

) and you wouldn't ever have to replace the octopus since it's no longer there.