Driving the 83 300cd last week when a noticable clanking from the front end could be heard while driving ,pulled the vacuum pump off today and found that the bearings that surround the roller on the armiture were missing .These are about half the size of a bee bee guns and theirs 12 bearings in all .Changed the oil with no bearings coming out during the service .Do the bearings hold a threat to damaging the motor? Is this area were the chain resides.

Pretty high risk.

Catastrophic risk.

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Greg
2012 S350 BlueTEC 4Matic
2007 ML 320 CDI
2007 Leisure Travel Serenity
2006 Sprinter 432k
2005 E320 CDI
1998 SLK230 (teal)
1998 SLK230 (silver)
1996 E300D 99k, 30k on WVO
Previous:
1983 240D, on WVO
1982 300D, on WVO
1983 300CD, on WVO
1986 300SDL 237k, 25k on WVO (Deerslayer)
1991 350SDL 249k, 56k on WVO - Retired to a car spa in Phoenix
1983 380 SEC w/603 diesel, 8k on WVO
1996 E300D 351k, 177k on WVO

I would pull the oil pan and see if you can account for them.

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2004 F150 4.6L -My Daily
2007 Volvo XC70 -Wife's Daily
1998 Ford F150 -Rear ended
1989 J-spec 420SEL -passed onto its new keeper
1982 BMW 733i -fixed and traded for the 420SEL
2003 Volvo V70 5 Speed -scrapped
1997 E290 Turbo Diesel Wagon -traded for above
1992 BMW 525i -traded in
1990 Silver 300TE -hated the M103
1985 Grey 380SE Diesel Conversion, 2.47 rear end, ABS -Sold, really should have kept this one
1979 Silver 300D "The Silver Slug" -Sold

Agreed on all above comments. Very high risk.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Oil pressure gone to zero

__________________
Greg
2012 S350 BlueTEC 4Matic
2007 ML 320 CDI
2007 Leisure Travel Serenity
2006 Sprinter 432k
2005 E320 CDI
1998 SLK230 (teal)
1998 SLK230 (silver)
1996 E300D 99k, 30k on WVO
Previous:
1983 240D, on WVO
1982 300D, on WVO
1983 300CD, on WVO
1986 300SDL 237k, 25k on WVO (Deerslayer)
1991 350SDL 249k, 56k on WVO - Retired to a car spa in Phoenix
1983 380 SEC w/603 diesel, 8k on WVO
1996 E300D 351k, 177k on WVO

I like to take the lower pan off the engine in my SD at least once a year to check for things that might rattle against the pickup screen. I've heard that some things will wear that screen and make a mess of the oil pump.

A pan gasket is cheap and the work easy and simple.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

Any idea were they might end up besides the oil pan ? Can the oil pickup distrubute these topside around the camshaft if they bepass the screen somehow ? THEIR ABOUT THE SIZE OF THIS o

After the oil pick up screen and the oil pump the oil goes through the oil filter housing. So long as the bypass valve is functioning correctly the oil goes through the filter before it is fed elsewhere.

The most likely place for debris will probably be at the front of the engine.

It is times like this that you wish the OM61X engines had a removable timing chain cover on the front of the engine.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Find all the bearings an count them. The expected number will be in the archives I suspect as I have read it before.

I had that happen on my OM606 (twice) once it chewed up the timing gear that I had to replace, but the balls etc went down the oil pan and they sat in sludge there for years; however when I did a Kreen treatment I was able to retrieve what I could with a magnet from the Oil sender hole. My nephew is still driving it and probably has 320k miles now.

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06 MB E320 CDI 123k miles
14 Sienna (wife's DD) 36k miles
11 GL350 Bluetec 136k (Sold)
96 E300; 292k+ miles (Donated)
11 Sprinter 22K+ miles (Sold)

Now most folks do not consider metal shards as a lubricant, but they are!
If you are a glacier.
My timing rail tensioner rail has missing metal at the top. I will be replacing the tensioner, tensioner rail, and lower and upper bottom rails and upper guide.. but first I must remove the oil pan to make the best accounting of all the "lost" metal debris before the job is done. This means an oil change after 400 miles. Out it goes. In my car, metal debris is not considered a lubricant, but it may be a "friction modifier"- which does not belong in the crankcase.
Because of these issues, the car is parked until the parts arrive on Thursday.
Sure, there are "shortcuts"..kind of like lottery tickets. You may win, and win big- but most folks wind up with rather costly paper debris as a result of buying them.
This is a gambler's paradise in an automotive kind of way. But a lot of folks here would probably be betting against your engine if you choose to continue to drive.

My opinion, from my experience.

Cheers,

snapped_bolt

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'81 240D For now, a good place to borrow new parts
'80 300TD Probably will be put back into service!
'79 240D BACK IN SERVICE SINCE 09/16; limited use, oil leak. Guide pin r/sealed/replaced. Still a leak. Front crank seal....

Any chance it will reach the oil pan ? When I open the pan is their any chance of going after the bearings at the location with a magnet stick?

There is a chance and you may be able to pull them out with a magnet. Make sure to make a count if you try this, even one small bearing can create havoc. Do not run the engine until every bearing is accounted for (removed and counted).

Found the 12 small bearings in the bottom of the pan this weekend ,also abit of surprise was the surrounding cage (made of plastic) for the bearings (that was missing )was found wedged in the screen that sumps the oil for delivery to the engine.The plastic cage was mostly still in its orig placement in the assembly ,seems just the walls of the cage let go when the bearings seized ,this was evident due to some of the plastic stuck to some of the bearings,HOT.The vacuum pumps bearing seems to be designed this way ,the plastic is pretty harmless to the chain assembly,the bearings are also pretty tiny but would not be able to pass up into the motor thru the pickup sceen.If the right conditions were in place Im sure several bearings could mess with the chain but this kind of failure of the bearing was minimial to non existant in my case.The real harm to an engine with these vacuum pumps and their failure is when the armature breaks which is A 1 INCH of hardened steel with other shrapnel falling into the chain area.