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My father is 81 years old and having some memory/cognitive issues but has unfortunately continued to use his ~20 year old Scag mower. My mother told me that three times he has added oil to the oil filler on the left side (the hydraulic oil reservoir) and she keeps finding a puddle of oil under the mower. Then the other day while he was using it the mower propulsion stopped working and it was freewheeling and it rolled it into a small dry creek. Thankfully he wasn't hurt.

I know very little about this mower, but I think it is a Tiger Cub and is probably about 20 years old My father has lots of oil around his garage (5W30, 10W30, 5W20, 15W50) but I have no idea what kind of oil he has been putting in the hydraulic reservoir, but I know it isn't the 20W50 that should be put in there because he doesn't have any. The closest he had was 15W50 (and I don't think he has been using that). So I poured the 15W50 in it and it started working again. It took 2+ quarts so there was very little oil left. I added the oil so I could get it put back in the garage. I looked around for leaks and all I could find was that it looked to be leaking around the pump area under the seat. In the attached pictures you can see the newer oil has leaked out and that area (left side) looks cleaner. Is it likely that the pump is bad or is there some other common issue around this area that I should be looking for to fix this leak? I plan on cleaning everything as much as I can, and then trying to determine where the leak is coming from. I am wanting to fix this leak and then I will finish his last mow this year and then I will either sell the mower or do something to prevent him from using it in the future.

Thanks for any suggestions and I'm sorry for be light on details. I will get the serial number tonight and hopefully be able to determine the year and model from that and I will add it to this post.

Most likely you got an o-ring leaking.

Clean all the dirt and oil off the pump. And using some UV dye in the oil trace the leak. Should only a 1/4-1/2 oz of the dye and the appropriate UV light. The dye will brightest at the leak source.

StarTech said:

Most likely you got an o-ring leaking.

Clean all the dirt and oil off the pump. And using some UV dye in the oil trace the leak. Should only a 1/4-1/2 oz of the dye and the appropriate UV light. The dye will brightest at the leak source.

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I found out that the serial number is A4805133 and I downloaded the manual. It looks like it could either be the housing o-ring or the o-ring on the fitting where the left hose on the left pump connects. I have some UV dye already from using it for an oil leak on a car. So I will give that a shot to make determine which one it is. Thanks.