303 hydraulic fluid lawsuit.

I have used it in some old equipment because it’s cheap. It says on the bucket that it could cause harm to machinery and that it’s not recommended for anything newer than 1974.
 
I've used tons of it in compactors and our old tractors. I'm sure that any failures I've experienced have been due to misuse and my less than stellar maintenance schedule. Not the hydraulic fluid.
 
There is more to it than just not having sperm whale oil in it. I got a call from the lawyer about the 303 hydraulic fluid lawsuit. It turns out that the manufacturer of the fluid was buying any type of oil: waste oil, transformer cooling oil, oil scrapings out of vats of any type, and mixed it all together and called it hydraulic fluid. They have invoices from companies that supplied the manufacturer with the shipments. Since it is such poor quality stuff it is eating seals and rubber lines out of equipment. He said when he was first approached with it he thought it was like buying cheap house paint, if you buy expensive paint it will last a long time without fading, if you buy cheap paint it will fade quickly. But this stuff is like buying paint that eats your walls. I talked to him for about an hour. They have already gotten settlements from several of the vendors, and are trying to get a judgment nationwide against the manufacturer. It was supposed to be pulled off the shelf a year ago, and it wasn't.
 
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