# Metal flakes in transmission oil



## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

1. So I've been doing winter maintenance on my tractors & equipment as I'm sure many of you are. 
Monday was the dreaded 60L of Kubota Super UDT2 transmission fluid and 3 $35 filters.
Got it all changed OK. 
I give all my used oil to my buddy who uses it to heat his shop.

When I came in with the fluid, he asked me what it came from. I told him it was used hydraulic fluid. He said "good, I'll use it in my old case backhoe since its old and leaks fluid".
Couple days go by and I stopped in again to bring some engine oil. He told me that when he went to use my hydraulic fluid, he noticed a decent amount of fine metal flake in the oil. No chunky monkeys, just paint speckle size particles.

Another thing that bothered me: Owners manual says Kubota hyd filters are supposed to have magnets. When I removed filters from previous hyd oil change, there were no magnets. New filters did not come with magnets, either. Called dealer, he says "don't worry about it, oil drain plug has magnet and that should take care of it". I did notice a strong magnet on plug and it did have particles on it. However, it bothered me that no magnets on filters and metal flakes were in oil. 
Tractor only has 610hrs on it. It had previously been changed at 125 hrs. So roughly 500 hrs on fluid. Change interval is 600 hours, so I'm under the change interval
Question is: should I worry?

2: on my M9540, owners manual says change interval on transmission oil is 600 hours, but it says change trans filters every 300 hours. If I remove trans filters, I would estimate well over 1/2 the fluid will drain out. In fact, I began to remove one filter and about a gallon drained out. I screwed filter back on and decided to pause.

My question is: Is Kubota expecting me to change filters at 300 hr interval, saving the fluid, then adding the used fluid back into the tractor? 
Or am I not understanding something?


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## JMT (Aug 10, 2013)

On my M120 there is a magnet on the plug and magnets at the filters. Magnets are not on the filters, magnets are on the tractor and the filter slides up over them.

Maintenance intervals on the M120 are similar. Filters every 200 hrs, fluid 600. Not much oil drains out when the filters are changed though.

The magnets have always had fine metal flakes accumulate on them.


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

You will always have some flakes in the oil. With that few hours, I wouldn't worry unless you start filling the filters with oil.

Cut the filter apart. If you see glitter shiny sparkles, the. I'd start to worry.

With all this talk of hydraulic oil changes, it's making me think I should change oil in he skid loader. Think it has 1100 hours on it.... Woops...


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

JMT said:


> On my M120 there is a magnet on the plug and magnets at the filters. Magnets are not on the filters, magnets are on the tractor and the filter slides up over them.
> 
> Maintenance intervals on the M120 are similar. Filters every 200 hrs, fluid 600. Not much oil drains out when the filters are changed though.
> 
> The magnets have always had fine metal flakes accumulate on them.


Thanks.

When I unscrewed the oil filter off my 9540, oil came out like crazy. I had a gallon in the pail in seconds. do you recapture your hyd fluid and add it back into the system?


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## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

It seems the filters with magnets must vary from model to model. All the suction side filters we've changed on the Kubota L3940 HST all have had a circular ceramic magnet with the filter. The pressure side filter which is quite heavy and business end of the filter is machined aluminum and cost about $65. We picked up a suction filter the other week at a dealer and the parts counter guy said, "I can save you about $12 on that filter" and I ask how and he said, "you can buy the same filter without the magnet and reuse your old magnet, just clean it off and drop in into the recess where it fits in". He said he checks every filter he sells that's suppose to have a magnet because he showed me a handful of magnet pieces that he's pulled off new filters that got broken in shipment. Since naturally the numbers don't match but it is the same size and is marked Suction filter but I'm still going to check with someone else to make sure before the next change that it really is the same filter it just doesn't come with a magnet. The first change of the suction filter at about 150 hours only had some fine metal particles like very fine powder-like metal dust, pretty normal from what I've read. Now the last change we did we had quite a few metal shavings on the magnet, enough that it was like one of those "oh crap" moments. So we went ahead with the complete change of all the fluid and put about another 50-75 hours on it and took the filter off and checked it quickly and only found a just the slightest amount of fine metal dust like particles. We lost about 2 quarts in the amount of time it took to remove the filter, check it for metal make sure the filter face and mounting area was clean and put it back on. I don't recall the main drain plug having a magnet tip on it. The L3940 has drain 3 plugs. We went with SUDT and I think next time it will be SUDT2 because it seems a bit more jerky than it did before we'll see how it does during warmer weather.

This was from the earlier change not the last filter check.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

JD I stick my shop vac in the fill hole when I change filters, clean all around the filter first though or it will suck bits of dirt in.

Handles even the big return filter on my MF without spills.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Good reminder. I am approaching the 300 hr mark on my Kubby.


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## urednecku (Oct 18, 2010)

IF I remember my manual correctly, it states to put oil lost during filter change back in. I have trouble doing that....I'm scared I'll get more dirt/trash in than I want to put in it. I've put new oil back in.

Also, if I remember right, I had about 4 gallons come out while changing the 2 hydro filters on my 7040.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

I just read mine. In the section about changing filters mine doesn't say anything about that. Maybe it is somewhere else or omitted in later years?


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## Bob M (Feb 11, 2012)

JD is your friend that you took your oil to that has a case backhoe, is his name Dan.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

No Bob it isnt.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Maybe send the oil in for analysis?

We have a total of 5 tractors on the farm that that the tranny oil and hydraulic are the same sump, have never seen that much metal in any of them, but we bought them all used so maybe after the first thousand hours the metal found in the system goes down?

Rest of equipment the trannys use gear oil with a separate system/reservoir for hydraulic oil, on those if you find much metal on/around the hydraulic filter you can just plan on tearing the hydraulic pump down and getting the check book out.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

mlappin said:


> Maybe send the oil in for analysis?
> 
> We have a total of 5 tractors on the farm that that the tranny oil and hydraulic are the same sump, have never seen that much metal in any of them, but we bought them all used so maybe after the first thousand hours the metal found in the system goes down?
> 
> Rest of equipment the trannys use gear oil with a separate system/reservoir for hydraulic oil, on those if you find much metal on/around the hydraulic filter you can just plan on tearing the hydraulic pump down and getting the check book out.


Thats what I was thinking. My tractor only has 615 hrs on it and the metal is "break-in" metal particles???

However, I thought I would see that in the first set of filters.

Im beginning to think this is what happened:

I bought tractor from dealer with 122 hours on it. THEY changed the 1st set of hydraulic filters. I think the "mechanic" threw away the circular magnets with the original "gray" filters. Then installed the first new set of "white" filters without magnetic rings.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

UPDATE:
Called dealer. 
Apparently my tractor is an "early" serial # of production.
My tractor came from the factory withOUT magnets on the filter. However, the owners manual they supplied me with shows the magnets, which go on a later version.

So I feel better about the magnets issue. 
Still feel a little "hinkee" about the metal flakes.


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

New gears are a bit rough from the casting process. When they run new over time they smooth out leaving some metal in the oil sump. This is why the manual has an early hour change on the oil and filters. Now in my 8560 kubota I usr some gears more than others by a huge amount. So in theory the gears I use should be smooth by now at 800 hours. But the ones I dont really use might not be. Keep an eye on it for the next oil change. It should be better. You will just about always have a little bit. But than again there is a huge difference between a few specks in the bottom of the pail and a hand full of filings.


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