I have a JD 310C that I purchased Feb 2018.We drove it off the trailer into a non heated shed and it sat there until I started to use it in late April.During the time it was parked in the shed I used that time to crawl over and under looking for things that might need fixing.One thing I noticed was the steering cylinder along with a few others were leaking,not severely but definitely noticeable. In the spring when I started to use the hoe I would monitor the leaky cylinders daily to see if they were getting worse.The steering cylinder stopped leaking completely and over the summer ( a little over 180 hrs.)it remained dry.I parked the hoe back in the shed in mid December.I have a cement floor in the shed so I look under the unit about every few weeks to see if anything is leaking.Up until last week everything was dry underneath.Now I noticed the steering cylinder is leaking again,very noticeably.The weather has turned very cold here (-15) over night with day time temps not rising out of the single digits and the leak sure seemed to correspond with the temp. drop. My question is, can severe cold cause the internal seals of a cylinder to leak only to reseal itself when the temperature rises?
Alright lets keep it clean Yes, things shrink when cold. The cylinder and the seals shrink in the cold, and also the seal which is worn already, and doesn't have much elasticity to hold around the shaft. In most cases its not hard to rebuild the cylinder
This cylinder is an integrated part of the front axle and has to be serviced on the machine so a bit more challenging to rebuild.I think I'll wait for warmer weather to see if I get lucky again.
My 416C has similar design, agree with waiting if you can for warmer weather Here is when I repaired mine HeavyEquipmentForums