I am told that the culprit for my oil leak is my front crankcase seal and that it needs to be replaced. The spotting on the driveway seems pretty bad, but there is no appreciable drop in level on the dipstick.

My question: is this purely a cosmetic issue, or is there some reason other than cosmetic that I need to get this fixed? I am not a DIY but am very cheap.

Thanks!

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14 E250 Bluetec "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 153k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 171k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Keep an eye on your oil level. if it starts to get appreciably lower faster than normal, replace the seal. if you can live with oil being flung around under your hood, don't worry about it. it WILL just get worse however and eventually need to be replaced as you lose more oil faster. NOTHING is more important to the life of your engine than having enough oil and changing it when needed.

Dale

You can drive it like that for years, depends on your nuisance tolerance. Obviously, you need to keep an eye on your oil level.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

A lot depends on the overall condition of the car. If pretty good and you let one issue after another accumulate at some stage you will not want to repair anything. That is why I suspect a lot of cars land up on ebay for disposal or worse if salvage yards are that. Depends on the individual but as others have mentioned driving with a poor crank seal will most likely not finish you. Oh yes and if you cannot or are unable work on your own car unless it is nearly in pristine condition it might cost you. It can be very tough financially to keep it up. Sweat equity seems to be required for most of us it seems.