Oil Reservoir Tank

[phorner]

Several days ago, I noticed some oil leakage which was almost directly below the rear bumper mud flap. The oil kind of looked fresh, not used, and I couldn't find a likely place for it to have come from.

Opening the engine bay doors revealed a very small amount of oil in the area of the OTR compressor. How did it get there? Then I noticed that the oil line from the oil reservoir tank was wet with what appeared to be oil, and a small drop had formed at the bend of the hose.

Out comes the flashlight and a close examination following the trail leads me to oil presence on the outside of the oil reservoir tank where it comes into close contact with the rear cap. Crap, the tank must have developed a leak!

So, I need to first drain the oil out before I can remove the tank, no problem, just remove the drain hose, place a gallon container under the tank and open the valve. Easy project so far.....

Open the valve and out pours..... WATER!!!

And not just a little...... almost a half gallon before I see any oil draining.

WHAT THE ???

Well, apparently, the last time I had the cap off, I became distracted and LEFT THE CAP OFF!!!

So.... when we had the nice heavy rains the water appears to have filled the tank to overflowing, with the water displacing the oil of course, so the oil slowly leaked out the top of the tank, down the side of the tank, followed the drain hose to a low point where it dripped off onto the bus frame and ultimately the ground.

Big lesson learned here. I decided to remove the tank for inspection and cleaning, which is not real bad but then again somewhat awkward to remove. Luckily, we don't live in an area subject to hard freezing or the potential for the water to split the tank would be real. Of course all of this could have/should have been avoided if I had paid attention to what I was doing.

You can bet that cap will be on before I even install the tank.

PS: And a split oil reservoir tank due to freezing would be NOTHING compared to an engine oil pan contaminated with nearly half a gallon of water had I needed to add some oil without realizing the contents of that tank!