Mahindra 21015 hydraulic oil top up

Jan Harper · Oct 25, 2023

Hi, my family have a Mahindra 21015 hydrostatic tractor that's likely 20+ years old. My husband wants to top up the hydraulic oil but doesn't know where the top up point is. There's a cap with 'oil' written on it sitting on top of the transmission(?—the central metal part running between my feet when I'm sat in the seat) and the cap has a dipstick. Is this where we can top it up or is it just for checking the level?
Any help most gratefully received since the poor tractor hasn't seen much tlc over the years.

Reading everything I could find and checking the online owner/service manuals, they only show the check transmission oil cap (the one with the dipstick situated where I said), and that the tractor probably shares a reservoir for transmission and hydraulics.

The problem with the tractor is it's lost power to the lift arms and bucket function

Jan Harper · Oct 26, 2023

no one? I'll hang in there for a while to see. I've also contacted Mahindra USA in hope for an answer

Harry in Ky · Oct 26, 2023

No offense, but your tractor model (if that's what you posted) doesn't exist. It may be a 2015 year of manufacture but that,s not a tractor model. No one out here knows what you have so accurate information would be difficult to provide. Depending on just what model it is, the hydraulic reservoir could very well be the transmission/rear end housings, in which case a filler and a dipstick on the shift cover would most likely be what you would go by. Mahindra also produced some models where the hydraulic reservoir was separate, and all contained in the three point lift housing. Most of those filled from a filler opening behind the seat and may or may not have a dipstick. It's not hard to tll the difference by locating the hydraulic pump (usually engine driven) and following the larger oil line from the pump to see where it comes from. It may come from the bottom of the rear rear main housing, or it may come from one of the front lower corner iof the lift housing. It may or may not ahve a spin on hydraulic filter base incorporated into that line.

Look again for some identifying model numbers on the tractor.

Jan Harper · Oct 26, 2023

Harry in Ky said:
No offense, but your tractor model (if that's what you posted) doesn't exist. It may be a 2015 year of manufacture but that,s not a tractor model. No one out here knows what you have so accurate information would be difficult to provide. Depending on just what model it is, the hydraulic reservoir could very well be the transmission/rear end housings, in which case a filler and a dipstick on the shift cover would most likely be what you would go by. Mahindra also produced some models where the hydraulic reservoir was separate, and all contained in the three point lift housing. Most of those filled from a filler opening behind the seat and may or may not have a dipstick. It's not hard to tll the difference by locating the hydraulic pump (usually engine driven) and following the larger oil line from the pump to see where it comes from. It may come from the bottom of the rear rear main housing, or it may come from one of the front lower corner iof the lift housing. It may or may not ahve a spin on hydraulic filter base incorporated into that line.

Look again for some identifying model numbers on the tractor.

No offense taken and many thanks... I'm not on tractors, obviously. I do now know that the 2015 isn't the year but the name...it's a 2015 Mahindra ML 104 and manufactured some time between 2003 and 2008, part of their 15 series.

I received a no-reply email from Mahindra saying they'd be in touch but they've not been, and my husband finally gave in and decided I was probably right and it was the 'oil' cap on top of the transmission with its dipstick. All tractor issues with the hydraulics are now fixed. Yay! There really was a whole learning curve though, even down to the ambiguous wording where transmission fluid/oil and hydraulic oil were used interchangeably, with some sources calling hydraulic fluid hydraulic oil to add to the confusion.

Using a universal hydraulic oil and putting it in the (shared) transmission/hydro reservoir has sorted out the issue. Maybe someone else might find this of use one day.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to respond to me when I clearly didn't give enough to go on.