Has anyone had this problem?The car died while driving. Found that the intake cam was not turning.The bolts that hold it to the cam had unscrewed themselves . The chain or gear did not fall out.it was held in by the upper timing cover . I checked the exhaust cam and only one bolt was tight.Today I put the chain back on to see how many valves are bent. Lucky the intake valves are involved,they are much cheaper 12.50 v 45.50 dollars
Just wondering if this has happened to other members
Thanks
Rich

__________________
88 300E White, sold 9-04
88 190E Black 2.3 sold
90 300CE White, Grey sold 12-24-04
92 400E White,Grey Sold 5-06
90 300CE 91K Signal Red,Black Sold 2007
1989 300CE Smoke silver,Tan Sold 1-08
1993 300E 3.2 M104 motor
1991 300CE White,Grey
1994 E420 beautiful car,gone to new home
1994 E320 Smoke an Parchment.Beautiful car

bump
So am i the only one to have these bolts come loose
Thanks
Rich

__________________
88 300E White, sold 9-04
88 190E Black 2.3 sold
90 300CE White, Grey sold 12-24-04
92 400E White,Grey Sold 5-06
90 300CE 91K Signal Red,Black Sold 2007
1989 300CE Smoke silver,Tan Sold 1-08
1993 300E 3.2 M104 motor
1991 300CE White,Grey
1994 E420 beautiful car,gone to new home
1994 E320 Smoke an Parchment.Beautiful car

Never heard of it - did you try a search? If it is that rare there's a good possibility that someone has been in there and didn't get the bolts torqued correctly. Do you know the history of the car?

Agreed. That's not a conventional ailment with these motors. Timing chain wear perhaps, but after long mileage intervals or oil starvation issues.

Bolts working themselves loose indicate the head had some prior rebuilding performed but the torque specs were not followed.

Pretty rare...in fact, I don't believe I've read a thread like this one ever...

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

I've seen 104 cam sprockets come off twice. Both times were shortly after repair work was done. One of them bent valves. The other bent valves AND cracked a piston.

The ONLY time that those bolts will come off is after a repair: ie headgasket.

IMPROPER torque was always the problem!!!!!

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MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
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Retired Moderator

From what i can see with the records MB did most of the work. There is a gap from 55 to 90 k miles .Maybe it was done then. The head looks really clean.today i verified no compression in two of three cylinders. Time to tear off the head and see whats up. Lucky it happened at low rpm. Thanks for the replys. I also could not find any other treads like this one
Lucky for me the intake valves are cheap
Thank you
Rich

__________________
88 300E White, sold 9-04
88 190E Black 2.3 sold
90 300CE White, Grey sold 12-24-04
92 400E White,Grey Sold 5-06
90 300CE 91K Signal Red,Black Sold 2007
1989 300CE Smoke silver,Tan Sold 1-08
1993 300E 3.2 M104 motor
1991 300CE White,Grey
1994 E420 beautiful car,gone to new home
1994 E320 Smoke an Parchment.Beautiful car