Refilling the oil in a hydraulic door closer?

August 8, 2018 10:59 PM

The screw marked "BC" on my hydraulic door closer shot out while I was opening the door, and a bunch of oil poured out of the hole before I was able to put the screw back in. Now the mechanism seems to gurgle. How would I go about replenishing the oil in order to fix the gurgling? The whole thing still seems to work, so is it also fine to leave it as-is?
posted by spreadsheetzu to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Best answer: Is this a piston type (like a cylinder with a rod coming out of it)? I suspect that you could refill it with hydraulic jack oil, but that's speculation. You'd have to remove the closer and tip it so the fill hole was facing up. These closers are pretty inexpensive, so you could probably just replace the thing for what a bottle of hydraulic jack oil would cost. Even after topping it up, it will probably still gurgle for a while until all the air bubbles work their way out.
If this is one of those lever-arm door closers found on commercial doors, those are more expensive and might be worth more effort repairing.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:09 AM on August 9, 2018

I would probably just pour some mineral oil in there until it was as full as possible, and then put the screw back. I wouldn't try that for the brakes on my car or anything, but for just a door closer it should be fine. Worst case scenario it doesn't work and you need to replace the closer.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:21 AM on August 9, 2018

Response by poster: This is a lever-arm mechanism. I was hoping there was a way to properly refill it without taking it off the door and frame, but it sounds like that's what I gotta do.
posted by spreadsheetzu at 12:04 AM on August 11, 2018