air question. i have a mysterious leak i can not find.

[addiction2bass]

well quick lay out. dual viair 380 pumps, 5gallon alum tank, 8 3/8 SMC valves. all was bought new. well ive had a leak for awhile and finally tracked 3down yesterday. which was just a air fitting not pushed in all the way for 2 of the 3leaks. the 3rd leak is between valves for my rear helper bag and is really small only losing maybe 5lbs overnight but thats JUST THE bag side. not the tank side leak so I THOUGHT i had my main leaks fixed. well this morning i go outside to check pressure and its back down from 200psi to 105psi in the tank. and im stumped where it could be leaking out overnight! 95psi is quite a bit of a leak that i should be able to find with soapy water! but i cannt!
it just bugs me having my compressors turn on every time i get into the truck it seems. it drags down my front bags to about the same pressure as the tank around 100psi or so even tho i have a SMC 1/2 check valve on my front bags airline which is just a single run of 3/8 line Yd off to all 4 valve inputs.


i do have one more concern... while working on my air supply setup i somehow knocked one of the leader hoses off the compressor. the threaded barb fitting was still in the pump but the rest of the leader hose was off... it was not leaking air out of the main tank on that side that came off. and i was able to just push it back onto the barb fitting. is that how these leader hoses are suposed to be? i mean they dont leak at that spot but just seeing them pushed into place... that seems odd to me. they where the original leader hoses that came with my viair dual 380 kit.
i dont know if i should remove a leader hose from the tank and plug it and then check for pressure loss. or if i should block off any other accessories and wait overnight to check any leaks. and ive checked the air source to all accessories with soapy water and still not found any leaks! my other toys are a semi air horn up front that i already turned off valve to it to check for pressure loss and it still has a leak so not it, the other toy i have is a 1/4inch air regulator VIAIR as well with a extra Y on it to fill tires and such, and the other exit goes out to the helper bag valves so i dont overpressure them over 100psi.

and ive had this leak for a while now, ive just started searching for it last night. my truck is my daily driver so i can only have it down or sitting around to check so much.


should i just slap some more check valves onto my pumps leader hoses just to be sure? http://store.gaugemagazine.com/checkvalve-14fnptx14fnpt.aspx
or replace the leader hoses? just sucks a single check valve is like 30bucks for the easystreet check valves, or 15-25bucks after i get more fittings to use them with the SMC check valves, and leader hoses only 14bucks. hell i dont know i just hate this leak! i dont wanna wear out my compressors any faster than they will already!

[ss92chevy]

Yes. Put some other check valves on the Viair leader hoses. If you search on google for Viair check valves you will see the thousands of threads talking about how they dont work correctly. If you have had them less than a year they will replace them for free if you have a receipt, but the new check valves will leak with time.

Mine got to the point that ALL my air was leaking out overnight. 200PSI

[addiction2bass]

the SMC check valves any good or should i spend the extra money on those smaller easystreet check valves? just wondering if there is any good thing better with the ones that cost twice as much or not. http://store.gaugemagazine.com/checkvalves-2.aspx

[RPMbagged97]

When I was having all the problems with my air leaks I switched everything over to compression fittings and I switched to 1 viair 440 compressor. I installed an extra check valve on the leader hose and another one on the inlet to my AirRide valve block. I purchased all my compression fittings and check valves from McMaster Carr. They have excellent prices on everything they have and I think the check valves I used were pretty inexpensive.

[addiction2bass]

ok well i rechecked everything today and I THINK i found the problem... i believe the old problem was the leaking Tvalve 2 spots that just had to be pushed in all the way. well i think that has been my long time leak ive had that i originally found. and after checking everything today i went ahead and checked EVERY CONNECTION AGAIN and i noticed... i forgot to check the drain valve thats on the bottom..... (forehead slap!) and aparently last time i was hauling some stuff in my bed something hit the drain valve and it knocked the cheap @ss knob off and must have been slightly cracked open. so i just ran down to lowes and bought a plug for that port to delete the drain for now. ill figure out something to drain it later on. lowes just doesnt sell drain valves to fit the 1/4inch. hell i had to buy a 1/4adapter to 1/8 and then a seperate 1/8 plug cause they were out of 1/4plugs :( but hell gas costs more than the pieces of brass so i just gotta make it work with what they had.
well got that swapped inplace now... so tomorrow morning HOPEFULLY my pumps wont come on and ill be good.... FINGERS CROSSED. cause $3.25 is a cheaper fix. tho i still want to replace my current T fittings. i just gotta order those sometime.

[addiction2bass]

well dam. spoke to soon. and the leak has just gotten worse believe it or not.... WTF :mad: looks like ill be buying the new leader hoses and check valves after all.... just gotta wait till payday. this sucks! youd think fixing 3 leaks that you can find would do it... hell i dont know how its gotten worse! now pressure down to like 70psi which drags down my front bags as well. which im not really sure why it drags them down so much other than maybe that SMC check valve sucks i have connected to the 2 bags!

[addiction2bass]

well just alittle update. today i got new leader hoses and afew T and coupling fittings to replace my non DOT parts finally. i think i got afew other non dot fittings but those are on the low pressure side mostly. eventually ill replace those as well.
BUT anyways while removing the old leader hoses i found one of them, on the side that blew the line off the compressors leader hose, and of course it blew it off again. well i think i found out why.... the check valve was stuck closed! i couldnt get any air to blow thru it! and the other sides leader hose didnt seal all the way. and well one of my replacement leader hoses also leaks a tiny bit when blowing thru it. so i will be replacing those check valves with the better ones that the gaugestore has. i just have to order them because they dont carry those instock. they only have the smc low temp ones and those wont hold up on the leader hose he said. i was hoping these new leader hoses would fix the problem but the one leaking alittle it might not. tho i will contact them about it not sealing properly but not sure if he gonna replace the part for me because i did put it on the setup now. but o well maybe i can get a slight discount on the new better check valves from it ;) FINGERS CROSSED.
well im still waiting for my loctight 542 to dry before i put pressure to the system.
i think the parts i did replace will help it since the one check valve was stuck shut so who knows how fast these pumps will work now. so ill check again tomorrow morning and HOPEFULLY its not drained to bad with the one leaking check valve. im hoping it will heat cycle and maybe seal itself but who knows. doesnt hurt to hope for the best.lol

[addiction2bass]

update. i believe the leader hoses check valves where the problem. now my pressure loss is down to just 20-25psi overnight. which isnt to bad... i think that leak is from the one leader hose slightly leaking. so im still going to replace that check valve and maybe the other one to. think i might cheap out on just the one for now and just get the other later on if it starts leaking again.