I have a 95 E300 (Non turbo OM606) with 302k miles that the oil pressure guage started to go down on shown pressure over the course of two days. Knowing the engine is great shape I strongly doubted the actual pressure was low I ordered a new VDO sending unit. I never have had the lower part of the intake off in my 3 years ownership but had to pull it to gain access to the sender which is at the base of the oil filter housing,just above the starter. When i pulled the intake off the head i noticed the intake gasket was cheesy, very thin strip of metal with no "gasket" material on it. It had some slightly oily residual on the mating surfaces. Anyway, changed out the sending unit and assembled the intake with a new OEM gasket (thick).

Upon starting I was back to a full 3 bar cold idle....and super smooth! I thought to myself, what did I do to make it have a improved idle? It must have been that intake was sucking air somewhere causing the intake vacume to be unbalanced? I took the time to make sure all of the crankcase suction lines were all in place, all linkage was clean and lubed and small diameter vac lines are all in good shape.

Anyway, i thought i would pass that along. Also another lesson on the quality of OEM parts is definately a big deal. I bought my car from the original owner and have a 4" thick stack of receipts and will go back and see how long ago that intake was pulled, but that gasket was for the birds.....

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1995 E300 (W124)
1999 ML430 (w163)
2011 GL350 (x164)
2016 Sprinter 144" 4X4 lowtop (906)
2004 E500 (W211) 4matic Wagon (Gold)
2004 E500 (W211) 4matic Wagon Avantgarde (silver)