Vanishing hydraulic fluid?

[TomFoolery]

Have a 2015 R-27. Have had to refill steering fluid 4 times since owning the boat. Original auto pilot pump had small leak around the fittings and I was told Garmin had a batch of defective pumps and I received a new one. Doesn't appear to be any leaks around new pump but I have had to bleed and refill helm reservoir 2 times after the new pump was installed. There doesn't seem to be any leaks around the helm fittings. Where is the fluid going?

 

[BB marine]

Two things : leak or air... Check fittings at helm ,check fittings at pump, Check fittings at cylinder
Check seals on cylinder, both ends of cylinder have seals also don't over look the cylinder housing. If you don't see any leaks anywhere you probably still had a little air in the system.
Fill and bleed again , on my boat the lines didn't run level and straight back. There are high and low spots, a few loops and turns that air can get stuck in. The best way to bleed the system is with a power purge.Its fast and it is the best way to assure to get all the air out of the system. Its very expensive to buy for your personal use. To much for me ! When I purged my system I did it until I felt I got all the air out. I took all the captured fluid from the first bleeding filtered it with a fine paint filter and reused 90 percent of it . I left the last 10 present on the bottom because there was a little sediment. I bleed the system again and still had a few pockets of air that came out.
Brian Brown
Cutwater 26
PORT-A-Gee

 

[IvanGuzman]

Hello Tom,

Just like Brian says here. There's only many places where you will see hydraulic fluid leaking from. I will start by having paper towels under/below this particular spots and leave them for a couple of days to help you find the leaks. Specially while using your boat. Add paper towels to your helm pump front and back, Autopilot pump, "T" fittings at Ram by the rudder and for sure the shadow drive which is also located behind the dash. Hydraulic oil can be a little tricky to find sense it has a clear color and can dry a little. After doing this test if all looks good then the remaining thing will be to re bleed the entire hydraulic system with a power purge, to get all the air out. The test to make sure there is no air on the system is by turning your wheel from STBD to PORT-PORT to STBD and make sure you get a solid lock with about 4 and a half turns to either direction. If you have air in the system you will find the steering wheel to skip after about 4-5 turns. The power purge can be pricy but I will suggest hiring a local mechanic to bleed and address this problem correctly.

thank you Tom,