There is one other thing you should know.
If the air is leaking out at a very fast rate using the soapy water will NOT
show it since the air will be moving to fast for the bubbles to form. As John
B. said its important to know if the air is leaking with the doors open only
or if its leaking when the doors are closed too.
There is one other check that John B. did not mention. And that is to see if
you have dirt in the control valves of both the top and bottom valves. This
is a very rare occurance, but it does happen. When dirt gets trapped in both
the upper and lower control valves air will move through the system as if you
had both valves open at the same time on each door. Personally, I have only
run into this once at the shop, but that once tells me that it in fact can
happen again.
There is another way of checking for air leaks that are moving too fast for
the bubble test to find, but it requires an expensive tester to to, and is not
really recommended outside of a shop environment. It involves introducing
something other than air into the system that a leak detector can pick up.
There
has been times that a leak was formed due to a cracked valve base or a
regulator seal gone bad. These leaks are not readily detectable with the soapy
water test. The leak point that John B. pointed out at the compressor (leaking
back through the compressor) is also not detectable with the soapy water
solution either. As for the leaking through the cylinders, if its a very
strong leak
the door opening performance will be compromised and will be able to be
noticed when the doors open.
If you want to provide me with some more information regarding your leak
please feel free to do so, and I will try and help you the best I can. You can
call me at the shop Mon - Sat from about 9:30 am to 6:00 PM EST.
John L
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