Spent 4 hours tracking a tiny hydraulic leak on a CRJ200 yesterday

I was chasing a weeping hose on the #2 engine bay and it turned into a whole afternoon ordeal. Turned out to be a pinhole leak on a return line that was hidden behind a bundle of wires, took me 3 tries to even spot it. My lead walked over and said 'check behind the clamps' and sure enough there it was, dripping maybe a drop every 20 seconds. Has anyone else had a leak take way longer than it should because of some dumb routing?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_walker5d ago

Oh man, that's the worst kind of leak hunt right there. I had a similar headache on a 737 hydraulic return line once (like, a tiny weep that barely left a mark but drove me crazy). What ended up working for me was using a little mirror on a stick - I call it my "sneaky checker" - to look behind all the wire bundles and clamps without pulling everything apart. Also, I found that wiping the area clean with brake cleaner and then wrapping a paper towel around the suspect spots helped me see the leak path way faster. The drip pattern on the towel told me exactly where it was coming from, even when it was hidden behind stuff. Don't forget to check all the clamps too, sometimes the leak travels along them before it drips.

noah4154d ago

Read about a guy using UV dye and a blacklight on cargo planes, worked like a charm.