Greetings all,

Any ideas on this one? Car in question is a 1980 240D with 98,000 miles. Unkown service history. Current owner says after an oil/filter change at a local shop the engine proceeded to empty the sump out of the top of the filter housing. Car then taken to MB dealer, filter housing replaced, same problem shortly thereafter. Now sitting at a second private shop where mechanic has pronounced the engine toast.

May buy it just to sort out the problem. What do you all think...wrong filter would be too easy given dealer replaced housing but.....who knows!

Place your bets!

Fred

Wow, musta had some kind of pressure to blow out the filter housing...

This year has the dreaded acc servo as just a note... You may fix the motor only to find that you don't have any heat...

__________________
'99 S420 - Mommies
'72 280SE 4.5 - looking to breathe life into it
'84 300SD Grey - Sold
'85 300SD Silver - Sold
'78 Ski Nautique

FredM,

Why wasn't the car taken back to the dealer that replaced the filter housing? If the engine was ruined by oil leaking from the filter housing that was replaced, I would demand dealer replace engine at his cost.

P E H

Fred,

A little more data is required. When the first problem occured it was most likely a case of the filter housing cover being installed incorrectly or without an O-ring. I have seen this before on my Aunt's W123 230E, which has a similar oil filter housing design. If the mechanic then tightened the fasteners too tightly, is it feasible the sealing surface was damaged.

If the whole housing was replaced by a dealer, did the leakage problem start again with the filter installed by the dealer when the housing was replaced, or after the filter was replaced by some other mechanic when the time or mileage suggested it was time?

Have you looked at the machine? If it is toast, what does it do or not do to qualify it as toast? Will it start? Is the guy calling it toast the same guy who munged the filter change job that caused the first leaking event? If you get under the hood, take the filter housing apart and see if there is any damage to sealing surfaces. This is an interesting problem and I would love to hear a little more about it to help solve the riddle.

By the way, I lightly buffed the 230E's O-ring seat on the housing to remove raised metal and blend the gouge in a little (assembled off center and tightened - something I found hard to do if I tried) and reassembled the unit. No leaks or problems with oil for another 10 years and likely 150,000 miles.

Good luck, and I hope this helps. Jim

__________________
Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Howdy all,

I haven't even looked at the car yet. It was advertised for $300 and has apparently been sitting for the past few months. Current owner says engine is not seized. Mostly I'm just curious and will check it out just to see how the rest of the car looks. Too bad it's an automatic trans.
Anyway, I'll let you all know what I find.. Just hate letting salvageable machinery go to waste..

F

It's a 240D...I thought that 240D's only came with the manual controls...