So the new to us wheel loader has a brake fault and some glitter in the axles, the brakes are shot in the front and disconnected in the rear. Recently after running it a day or two, when not yet fully warm, the 'Hydraulic filter' light flicked on but would go off above idle, I changed the filter, easy enough to do but when draining it, as soon as the oil had some depth, in the sunlight I could see some glitter reflecting back, nothing I could feel but I could see it. The oil filter light was out for a few days but flicked back on again, should I keep changing the filter? unknown hours on the old filter, didn't look horrible. It looks like the unit also has at least a front diff lock, is it possible that oil from the diffs is mixing with the hydraulic oil? Are there any measures besides regular filter changes to get the oil cleaned up? I run a bypass engine oil filter in my trucks, something like that ever used on hydraulics especially with a large volume system? I'm thinking of adding a magnet, maybe in the tank on the side in case the particles are steel/chrome/iron. Soon we will be having the tires serviced and also fixing the brakes and changing all the axle fluids. Thanks again, what a learning curve.
If it has the diff lock, it has a return line to the hyd reservoir, but I'm not sure what gets returned or how. If you haven't changed the hydraulic oil I would. Even if the filter is doing a good job, you're getting some of that metal throughout the system because the filter is in the return end of things usually.
Yes, well that's the plan during downtime to change tires, fix the brakes and flush everything out. Have to think of good ways to get more fluid out. Being a pilot system I don't imagine it will behave nicely to raise the boom, drain and lower the boom. so perhaps just crack every fitting, and let the cyls drain as much as possible.