Pieces of plastic in my oil pan 400E??

[88260e]

So I went to change my oil level sender in the pan, and when I pulled the pan down I found small chunks of plastic in the pan?? I'm thinking chain guides on there way?? Sender was probably fine cuz when I went to unplug it from outside the pan I saw the wire was broken off the plug!!! Damn cheap ass wires!!!!!!!!!!!!

[deanyel]

Time for a new lower harness, and to remove the valve covers to check the upper guides.

[88260e]

YUP!!!!!!!!!!!

[ps2cho]

Like you said, pieces of the plastic chain guide have broken off. The chain actually lasts 500k miles, it gets wear from broken or worn guides.
I would get on that ASAP. While you are at it, remove the oil pan and get anything else removed from down there.

With the fan clutch bearing bracket removed, check the bearing from behind spin the bearing and listen for any grinding or wobbling then see if any of the grease has come out, it if has, I recommend replacing it too.

Being proactive is the key to these cars lasting forever if you plan to keep the car.

[samiam44]

maybe you should put a picture in your post. Then we can identify the pieces.

The rubber grommet for the oil pickup should be replaced. Plastic clip which holds the oil sensor.

It is possible they are just fingers from the upper rails when someone replaced them?

What's the service history of the car?
How many miles are on it?

ps2cho- he's working on a M119 engine, there is not access to the back of the fan bearing support. The coolant port runs through the casting- I believe you are thinking of M103/104's.

Yes, the support bearings do go out as well as the idler bearing in the air pump and the alternator rear bearing tends to get noisy before the front.

Cheap and easy to do if you have other stuff apart down there...

Re-sealing the cam magnets is a nice and pretty easy to do.

The PS return lines are no fun- but needed as the leak with age. Check for brown staining on the cross-member from motor mount leakage too.

Michael

[deanyel]

Make sure you clean the intake pipe screen before you put the pan back on.

[ps2cho]

My mistake, I thought we were talking about an 88 260E. I missed the 400E in title.

[Chojinchef]

Just acquired a 1994 E420. In real good shape, but true to a New England vehicle, some things are necessary to replace. One was the lower oil pan. Looks as if a rock or something hit, caused a dent and then it rusted through and leaks EVERYWHERE. Anyway, dropped older pan and found these little tidbits. Really dislike surprises like this, but pleasantly surprised to find absolutely no sludge. Worst of the grime is visible in the pan.

Trying to identify the pieces and evaluate the needed remedy. Figuring probably left after an older repair? Car runs smooth and is very quiet, so I cannot believe that a guide is missing, but could be going?

Picture attached (hopefully)



Adding link for picture. Cant figure out why its not showing.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/T586BX8FG-sijWvNUkrB2g?feat=directlink

[deanyel]

It's hard to get a sense of scale but it doesn't look like anything from the chain guides. Hard to imagine that it's superfluous though whatever it is. If you don't get any comments here I'd take the pieces into a good Mercedes shop and a dealer parts department to see what they think. I would do this in another car.

[Chojinchef]

Scale!

Looks to me like some tabs to something, but I am just a VW and Harley cretin. Had my last MB in 1988, a 79 230 w123 body. Real hot rod.

[JohnM.]

Originally Posted by Chojinchef

Scale!

Looks to me like some tabs to something, but I am just a VW and Harley cretin. Had my last MB in 1988, a 79 230 w123 body. Real hot rod.

Its hard to tell from the pictures, but is it a darker brown colored plastic? If so, there's no doubt about it being pieces of your timing chain guide. There are no other plastic pieces anywhere else on the engine that can make their way into the oil pan.

[Texholdem]

Originally Posted by Chojinchef

Just acquired a 1994 E420. In real good shape, but true to a New England vehicle, some things are necessary to replace. One was the lower oil pan. Looks as if a rock or something hit, caused a dent and then it rusted through and leaks EVERYWHERE. Anyway, dropped older pan and found these little tidbits. Really dislike surprises like this, but pleasantly surprised to find absolutely no sludge. Worst of the grime is visible in the pan.

Trying to identify the pieces and evaluate the needed remedy. Figuring probably left after an older repair? Car runs smooth and is very quiet, so I cannot believe that a guide is missing, but could be going?

Picture attached (hopefully)



Adding link for picture. Cant figure out why its not showing.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/T586BX8FG-sijWvNUkrB2g?feat=directlink

Here it is

[JohnM.]

My votes for chain guide.

[Chojinchef]

Have to believe that if it were a guide, I would have some noise. This car purrs so nicely, I have to depress the accelerator to make sure its running. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but it hopefully makes my point, actually the throaty rumble of the exhaust is a tell tale.

[JohnM.]

Originally Posted by Chojinchef

Have to believe that if it were a guide, I would have some noise. This car purrs so nicely, I have to depress the accelerator to make sure its running. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but it hopefully makes my point, actually the throaty rumble of the exhaust is a tell tale.

What's great about these cars is that stuff doesn't break "all of a sudden". It breaks little by little, until it gets to the point where it can't take anymore, ie, real engineering. Unlike other cars which get to the "I can't take it anymore" phase before the part even starts to physically degrade. Instead, you get warning signs like these little plastic bits of the guide rail in your oil pan. You can tell yourself what you want, but there's nothing else inside the engine which would produce pieces like the ones pictured. The condition of the guide rails has nothing to do with how the car drives until they snap...and then you know what happens.

The guides are big, big pieces of plastic...what you have pictured is a very tiny piece of one. Which means that your guides are still intact and doing their job, for now.