New member here. I've been reading and learning a lot. This site is a fantastic resource.
Background - purchased a 2014 Volvo EC35c in November with ~195x hours (previous owner to me bought it w/ 1700hrs). This is my first excavator and using for personal use.
Problem - I have put roughly 7hrs on the machine. One day after about 1.5hrs of operation the boom up/dn control became very slow. All other joystick operations were normal. I shut the machine down and did a once over and didn't see anything. Started machine back up and no the boom up/dn had hesitation, meaning I would push fwd/backward on the controller and for ~5-10 seconds the boom would not move. It would then move very slowly. The machine has an eco idle feature and moving the joystick fwd/back for boom would not kick the engine RPM up. The same left hand joystick moving left/right would kick engine RPM up and move as usual. The right hand joystick all functions were normal.
Texted the previous owner and he said he never has seen that issue. I also learned that he never changed the hydraulic fluid on the machine. He had changed all other fluids and wrote the hours on the filters. The hydraulic filter has no hour or date markings on it. The filter is an OEM Volvo element. Unsure if its the original.
Called a Volvo dealer - service guy told me to check a couple things (1) that the joystick plungers had full stroke, they did (2) check the spool valve as debris may be causing it to stick.
I do not have the service manual yet (does anyone on here have it?) but do have the parts manual and was able to figure out which valve was for boom. I attached a picture of the valve body. The boom valve is the 2nd one in starting from the left. I removed the upper cover and was able to remove the spool. Did not seem stuck or any visible debris. I was able to fully slide the spool out. The spool would not fully go back in for me to reassemble the cover (assumed it was hyd fluid pushing back). I removed the bottom cover and the spool was able to be reinstalled. NOTE I did have to remove lines on valve body #1 and #3 in order to get the covers off of #2.
Reinstalled everything and fired her up. The boom up/dn function now has no response. Previously the boom would start to move slowly after ~10s of holding the boom. Now the boom will not move no matter how long its held. *New* issue is the right hand joystick fwd/back now has the same hesitation as the left hand did. Hold for ~10 seconds and starts to move slowly. All other hyd functions work normal. I did not remove lines or disassemble on the new issue valve.
Next steps: what I am planning but would like feedback from the community
(1) pull the pilot hyd lines running from the joysticks to the valve body and blow them out with compressed air. I was thinking I should do all 6 lines at each joystick. Should I also do the high pressure lines going to the cylinders?
(2) Drain all hyd fluid and replace with new and a new hyd filter. The fluid doesn't look bad but I'm not sure how old it is. My concern with this option is if the issue still remains I do not want to have to replace the fluid/filter again once it is finally resolved. She holds 16gal of fluid so I'm looking at 4 5gal buckets and a filter is like $100+.
Open to any feedback/suggestions even if its take it to the dealer. One last think to note is I do not have a set of pressure gauges currently. Sorry for the long post was just trying to include every detail.
Background - purchased a 2014 Volvo EC35c in November with ~195x hours (previous owner to me bought it w/ 1700hrs). This is my first excavator and using for personal use.
Problem - I have put roughly 7hrs on the machine. One day after about 1.5hrs of operation the boom up/dn control became very slow. All other joystick operations were normal. I shut the machine down and did a once over and didn't see anything. Started machine back up and no the boom up/dn had hesitation, meaning I would push fwd/backward on the controller and for ~5-10 seconds the boom would not move. It would then move very slowly. The machine has an eco idle feature and moving the joystick fwd/back for boom would not kick the engine RPM up. The same left hand joystick moving left/right would kick engine RPM up and move as usual. The right hand joystick all functions were normal.
Texted the previous owner and he said he never has seen that issue. I also learned that he never changed the hydraulic fluid on the machine. He had changed all other fluids and wrote the hours on the filters. The hydraulic filter has no hour or date markings on it. The filter is an OEM Volvo element. Unsure if its the original.
Called a Volvo dealer - service guy told me to check a couple things (1) that the joystick plungers had full stroke, they did (2) check the spool valve as debris may be causing it to stick.
I do not have the service manual yet (does anyone on here have it?) but do have the parts manual and was able to figure out which valve was for boom. I attached a picture of the valve body. The boom valve is the 2nd one in starting from the left. I removed the upper cover and was able to remove the spool. Did not seem stuck or any visible debris. I was able to fully slide the spool out. The spool would not fully go back in for me to reassemble the cover (assumed it was hyd fluid pushing back). I removed the bottom cover and the spool was able to be reinstalled. NOTE I did have to remove lines on valve body #1 and #3 in order to get the covers off of #2.
Reinstalled everything and fired her up. The boom up/dn function now has no response. Previously the boom would start to move slowly after ~10s of holding the boom. Now the boom will not move no matter how long its held. *New* issue is the right hand joystick fwd/back now has the same hesitation as the left hand did. Hold for ~10 seconds and starts to move slowly. All other hyd functions work normal. I did not remove lines or disassemble on the new issue valve.
Next steps: what I am planning but would like feedback from the community
(1) pull the pilot hyd lines running from the joysticks to the valve body and blow them out with compressed air. I was thinking I should do all 6 lines at each joystick. Should I also do the high pressure lines going to the cylinders?
(2) Drain all hyd fluid and replace with new and a new hyd filter. The fluid doesn't look bad but I'm not sure how old it is. My concern with this option is if the issue still remains I do not want to have to replace the fluid/filter again once it is finally resolved. She holds 16gal of fluid so I'm looking at 4 5gal buckets and a filter is like $100+.
Open to any feedback/suggestions even if its take it to the dealer. One last think to note is I do not have a set of pressure gauges currently. Sorry for the long post was just trying to include every detail.
