I've been trying to chase down a small oil leak on the front left side of my engine on my 1998 C280. Through other suggestions on this site, I have cleaned my engine and sprayed foot power on the likely spots. Now I have pictures, but I don't know what to do next.

Take a look at my picture (see attached) and let me know if you have some ideas. Your help is truely appreciated

BTW, thus far this forum has been awesome for me. I have solved a O2 sensor problem, break light problem and rear view mirror. You've saved me $$$. I'm hoping you can save me some more $$.

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I think the pulley that you are referring to as the leaking culprit is the idler pulley, which serves no other purpose than to tension the belt. So, this itself cannot leak, the leak must be originating elsewhere and dripping down to that location.

Common leaks on this engine are the front timing cover and the infamous headgasket.

__________________
Ali Al-Chalabi

2001 CLK55
1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel
2002 Harley-Davidson Fatboy
Merlin Extralight w/ Campy Record

Thanks for the response. I'm pretty sure that it's not a headgasket. Since the leak is appearing behind the pully, that leads me to the conclusion that it's the timing cover that's leaking.

Is this an easy DIYer job? Also, since the car has 140K miles, would it be good to adjust the timing chain when I had it all opened up?

Or...do I try and cheat and put some stop-leak in?