OK, this one has us scratching our heads. My plane didn't fly a while, and we found the nitrogen in the accumulator was near zero. No surprise, so we bring it up to 600 psi and go fly.
The next flight I check the hydraulic level in the reservoir and hmmmm...it looks like there's more in there? I must be mistaken.
Three days later, the system is back at zero PSI, so we add nitrogen again and change the schrader valve just in case.
Two flights later - there's definitely more fluid in the reservoir.
A few flight later, the nitrogen is down to zero again, so we top it off - and the next day, there's a sizeable seep (a puddle is something you can't step over) of hydraulic fluid on the floor and the outside of the reservoir is wet. A mechanic moved the flaps with power off during annual before checking the level, so I'm not certain it was full - but there was still fluid in the reservoir after the flaps had been lowered w/ power off. During this whole cycle I have not added any fluid to the reservoir.
So we have nitrogen in the system where the fluid should be, but we can't find out why. Any idea what's likely to be wrong before we replace the accumulator?
