Hi every one,
I just found out today that there is oil coming out of the exhaust on my car. It is an 86 190E 2.3-16. I think this is real bad news probably needs a rings job. It has 176000 miles in it. Could some one tell me that my thinking is true or could it be some thing else that I could do myself. Thank you in advance

Alex

Are you sure it's oil? Could be just soot and moisture. It would have to use a lot of oil to get that far down the exhaust system.
Is the car using oil?
Randy D.

When you say "oil" coming out of exhaust, are you referring to the grey smoke that exits the exhaust as a result of oil getting passed the rings, or as a liquid dripping out of the exhaust tip?

If you are referring to the latter, then I concur with WDurrance, that it is indeed soot mixed with moisture. Oil in liquid form would not get that far, especially on a hot engine, unless you deliberately managed to pour it down the exhaust manifold. By that time, the catalytic converter would be so plugged up, that more serious problems would have erupted long ago!

Excessive soot however, means that you are running a too rich fuel/air mixture. Check your plugs.

oopsy! silly me
 

The oil that I found on the rear of the car was not come from the exhaust pipe now that I have time for a full investigation. The oil is actually came from the Rear Automatic Leveling system. I was some what happy that the truth of my problem is not as bad as I originally thought.
Now, My other question is would it be ok to disable the whole idea of the automatic leveling system and replace it with some conventional shocks?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Alex

My only experience with that was with my Dad's 71 280 SE. We opted to replace the (rather expensive) hydraulic ALS with an aftermarket unit that was about 1/3 of the price. I think it was a spring/shock unit. I'm sure the ride suffered a bit, but my Dad's wallet was thankful!