13 Common Causes of Seal Leakage and Failure
Years ago, most pump shafts were sealed using rings of soft packing, compressed by a packing gland, but this type of shaft seal required a fair amount of leakage just to lubricate the packing and keep it cool. Then came the development of the mechanical seal, which accomplishes the job of restraining product leakage around the pump shaft with two very flat surfaces (one stationary and one rotating). Even though these mechanical seal faces also require some leakage across its faces, this leakage normally evaporates and is not noticeable.
However, because of the delicate components used for this new sealing method, mechanical seal failures are the greatest cause of pump down time. To avoid this, it's essential to apply the right seal for the desired and appropriate function.
A seal can be exposed to a wide variety of operating conditions—sometimes very different from conditions the seal was intended for—which can cause issues down the line. However, even if your seal is the right one for the job, there can be times when it fails faster than anticipated.
When this happens, it’s imperative that you act quickly to identify the cause of leakage. Every minute of downtime results in lost production and maintenance fees.
Click here or on the graphic below to view the 13 most common types of seal failure, including diagnostic symptoms, causes and corrective procedures.
Engine Oil Leaks: What Causes Leaks & How to Fix Them
Engine Oil Leaks: What Causes Leaks and How to Fix Them
Short of your vehicle suddenly exploding in a spectacular Hollywood-type ball of fire, there are a few common issues that cause the most stress for vehicle owners. The most common include strange noises from underneath the hood, flat tires, engines that won’t start, and then the most worrisome of all: finding oil leaks where you park your vehicle.
What Causes Oil Leaks?
Oil leaks can be frustrating because they don’t come from one place on a car. Therefore, if you have an oil leak, you’re almost guaranteed a trip to a mechanic unless you know where to check. Since nearly all cars experience this, from minor leaks to slow drips that develop into major problems. Check out the following four car parts and reference them against your engine oil leak to see if you can identify the issue and prevent further damage to your vehicle.
Oil Filter
Oil filters wear out, or can be aligned improperly. Some vehicle models have additional parts in the filtration system, at the filter, that can leak. Whether you do it yourself, or it’s done by a mechanic, the filter should be changed every time you change the oil and should be checked for proper fitting.
Oil Drain Plug
At the base of the oil pan is a drain plug, accessible from the underside of your car. Worn out thread, misaligned threads, or a loose oil drain plug can be a common oil leak cause. It’s easy to spot as there would be fresh oil around the plug, and on the side of it where it drips down.
Oil Filler Cap
Oil doesn’t just drip down. If your filler cap, covering where you put oil into the engine, is missing, loose or broken then the pressure of the engine could cause oil to spill out when the vehicle is running.
Valve Gasket
The gasket is probably the most common cause of oil leaks, especially in older vehicles or vehicles that are used frequently & have a high number of miles. The gasket is a seal that joins the head two metal parts of the engine, such as the between the block and the head(s) as well as the engine block and the oil pan. Over time, and with a buildup of sludge (oil that breaks down over time due to prolonged temperature exposure), the pressure increases which can cause leaks and failures in the seal of the gaskets.
Sometimes damage to the oil pan on the underside can cause minor to severe leaks. This occurs when running over road debris, large rocks if traveling off-road, and even accidentally hitting an animal while traveling. Any of these can dent the oil pan and compromise the seal or oil drain plug.
How to Stop Oil Leaks
Routine oil changes can eliminate engine oil leaks and help you avoid further damage to primary engine components. Furthermore, it’s always a good idea to have your mechanic take a walk around your vehicle to spot any signs of potential leaks. But if you want to take care of engine oil leaks at home, use a vehicle storage checklist to help you focus on critical areas for maintaining your car.
If you do develop a leak in any of the above areas, you can self-service your vehicle with parts purchased at a local automotive store. If time, experience, or a lack of tools limit what you can do at home, then the mechanic is an option.
If the leak is small, use a stop leak additive such as No Leak. These products are safe to use on your vehicle and are effective for most leaks. As the seals age on your vehicle, they can shrink, dry out and become brittle. A stop leak additive softens and conditions old gaskets, causing them to swell again and prevent further leaking. Keep in mind these additives may not work for more severe leaks.
Additives like No Leak® work for most leaks and can last for months, or years, depending on the age of the vehicle and the degree of normal wear. It can be a temporary solution until you can replace the seals, or you can continue using the product again if a leak begins to appear.
6 Points of Seal Failure and How to Avoid Them
It’s no secret that seals play a critical role in ensuring proper function of rotary systems, but designers may not be aware of just how many factors can affect seal performance. The good news is that every factor can be mitigated to a significant degree, greatly reducing the risk of seal failure.
By fully understanding the importance of installation, the potential for contamination, the amount of friction within the system, the mating surfaces involved, the shaft dynamics and the fluid conditions, designers can select a seal that will function for the maximum time possible. We’ll examine each factor in detail.
Installation
A seal’s lip is key to making sure seal wear is low. The right amount of lubricant under the lip keeps friction/wear low without resulting in a leak. Today’s sophisticated seal lips are designed to do just that, but this functionality adds a degree of complication to installation.
First, seal lips (whether rubber or polytetrafluoroethylene [PTFE]) tend to be fragile.
If the geometry of the seal’s installation is not ideal, the seal lip may be damaged or even turned inside out during installation.
Second, the seal lips’ small size means they are relatively easy to install backward, pushing fluid in the wrong direction.
Fortunately, both problems can be solved by paying close attention to the following during installation:
Ensure that seals do not go into the system at an angle (a cocked seal). Ensure that ideal conditions exist during seal installation to avoid damaging the seal lip.
Insert a step in the installation process during which the seal is checked: Is this the right seal lip for this system? Is it facing the correct direction for the media to be sealed? Is it being installed so that the shaft rotation is in agreement with any directional pumping features of the seal?
Contamination
In rotary systems, it’s common to have a seal near a ball bearing or other rotary bearing. Debris in the system usually migrates toward the bearing, causing further debris to come off the bearing and damaging the seal.
Changing the system fluid usually doesn’t fully alleviate this problem because the bearing acts as a deterrent to full flushing of the contaminant. This tends to settle near the seal.
To reduce the chance of seal failure due to contamination, consider the following factors:
Make sure all system elements are fully cleaned before assembly. Pay special attention to small metal debris from the machining process.
Conduct frequent checks on the oil in the system to determine the level of contamination. If the level is high, perform a thorough flushing of the system.
Whenever replacing a bearing in a rotary pump, replace the seal as well. It may have been exposed to contaminants and could be prone to failure.
Friction
Because heat within a rotary system does not dissipate in the same way as in a linear system, both the shaft surface and the area around the seal have a tendency to experience higher temperatures.
This can lead to fluid breakdown, damaged shaft material, and degraded or brittle seal lips.
The solution may lie in changing some or all of the materials involved. In other words, a situation with a significant amount of friction may call for changing from a rubber seal to a higher temperature rubber or PTFE material, hardening the shaft or changing to a higher viscosity fluid.
Designers may also want to consider fluid flow.
More lubricant between the seal and the shaft can reduce the temperature, as can a heat-conductive housing designed to get heat out of the seal area as quickly as possible.
Mating Surfaces
The finishing process on the shaft within a rotary system can be essential to proper function. First, there should be no burrs or sharp edges that could damage the seals during installation. Second, unless precautions are taken, a microscopic screw pattern can be embedded in the shaft finish, creating a micro-pump that inadvertently directs fluid. The solution is to use plunge grinding rather than traditional grinding and ensure that there is no angle to the machining marks.
In addition, surface finish of the shaft should be matched to the seal type and material.
A finish that is too rough will cause the seal to wear quickly, while too fine a finish will not allow lubricant to be retained under the lip, resulting in higher friction.
Shaft Dynamics
Any anomaly within the shaft’s movement can be hazardous to seal function. For example, a less-than-ideal bearing allows the shaft to shift, putting undue wear on the seal. Likewise, if a shaft is not properly aligned when assembled, one section of the seal will be more compressed than the other sections. The compressed section will show high wear while the uncompressed section will be prone to leakage.
Axes that don’t line up can cause a problem as well, since shaft wobble causes one portion of the seal to be compressed with every rotation, resulting in high levels of material fatigue.
The answer lies in the design first and foremost: ensuring that everything in the finished product will line up exactly.
Precise machining and proper positioning of the bearing within the shaft are also important to prevent seals from failing due to uneven compression.
Condition of Fluid
The position of the seal in a rotary system (tucked behind a bearing) means there is a minimal amount of fluid interchange. Fluid being sheared off the seal lip to prevent leaks just compounds the problem. Under ideal conditions, the fluid is thin enough to lubricate the system without becoming so thin that it leaks.
This is a difficult balance, given that the lack of fluid interchange means fluids tend to break down over time. Thus, it’s important to check fluid conditions regularly for a number of factors:
- excessive air in the system, which can cause air bubbles around the seal
- high moisture content in the air around the pump, which can cause water content in the fluid to increase beyond normal values
- oil level (Seal failure due to low oil levels is common.)
When we talk about fluid condition, we come full circle in terms of reasons for seal failure. When fluid conditions aren’t optimal, the bearings may wear prematurely. This causes the bearings to become unaligned with the shaft, which in turn causes debris that can damage the seal.
