I have a 1994 E320 Benz. The engine leaks but not that much about 2 to 3 drops of oil when parked overnight after a days drive. Is is possible to add an oil leak preventer? If so what is the best brand I could buy that will solve the problem. I am tired of cleaning the oil on the floor in my garage everyday. The leak is coming from the front part of the engine just above the alternator behind the alternators mounting bracket. I already checked all the sides of the engine and the leak is difinitely coming on that side. There is only little space to see through my naked eyes on that area because of the little clearance sorrounding the engine. Could someone tell me if there are other mounted parts on that side of the engine where oil could possibly flow there?

The most common cause of the leak you describe is the upper timing cover seals. This cover is located above the alternator and mates to the front of the cylinder head. The leaking oil will run down behind the brackets you describe.
There is some bad news to this. The head gasket can leak oil from the same area.
Replacing the cover seals is not a major expense. Replacing the head gasket is.
However, come to think of it the chain tensioner is located behind the alternator bracket. The seal for the tensioner may be leaking. Not a major expense.
But wait! It could be that someone has already made the repair and did a slack job of cleaning away the oil.
As far as a leak preventer goes, I wouldn't use one if there was one on the market. Most of them are designed to either stop up an orifice or cause seals to swell. Neither are good IMO.
HTH

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Scott Diener
89 300E
93 300E
92 Volvo 740 Wagon aka "Mutt mover"

years ago, I saw a liquid product, used by some auto manufacturers, made by a Fuller company, (I think). It has the properties of glowing under black light. You add a little to your oil, run the engine to circulate, turn out the lights, turn on a black light and look for the glow, which is where you leak is.

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David McDonald
1981 240D
1985 300D (wrecked)
1985 300TD 365,000 miles
1969 Mustang Fastback

MB has a service instruction on how to tell where the leak comes from on the front of the head. Basically it says reseal the cam cover and if it still leaks then its the head.

Let me tell you from a shop owners point of view. the customer won't hear it. We no longer offer the cam reseal on 104 motors without the head gasket repair. Although every supplier claims to sell the same gasket as MB. I have checked as recently as last Christmas and only the new OE MB gasket had the perforated stainless steel inserts in the front corners.

We have no trouble making the thing seal with the proper redesigned gasket and the new sealants.

One side bar as to the chain tentioner. The tentioner is in the lower cover and the oil feed passes from the block and through the case to the tentioner. The passage is sealed at the cover with a gasket that in one direction is only about 0.33in from an attaching bolt hole. Let me tell you, that was one hard leak to find and we did it with the flourescent dye as mentioned above.

Don't try to seal a leak with goop from the inside out. I can't then fix the problem for someone who cares. If you have got to use some goop, clean the outside and goop it up there. There are actually some products now that might work. Not that I would suggest such; as by the time you have exposed the area to cleaning and treatment you could be half way done with the proper repair.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

I never had much faith in the 'Stop-Leak" products until two years ago when my old Pontiac developed a severe leak in the power steering rack. Fluid had to be added to the reservoir every day (the leak was that bad). I tried a product called "NO LEAK Power Steering Sealer for Amber Leaks", made by Gold Eagle, and purchased at K-Mart for $5.99. The leak completely stopped and has not returned in two years.
I think their web site is: www.goldeagle.com/leakstoppers

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Tom H.

Gold Eagle makes some excellent seal conditioners. I used the engine formula once and it stopped the tiny floating oil speckles in the coolant recovery tank.

Now the new "high mileage oils" on the market made by Vavoline, Quakerstate, Penzzoil et al all contains this same seal conditioners as an additive. It is right on the bottle.

In the case of power steering and automatic transmissions leaks are often solved by reconditioning the seals with additives.

An old trick with power steering was to throw some brake fluid into the system. brake fluid puckers seals designed for normals oils and would either soften or swell the seals enough for amazing recovery.

I tend to believe that once you start treating systems this way instead of properly fixing the problem, you have given up on the car. Sorta like sending gramps to the old folks home.

In the case of the front motor leak it is not due to seal resiliance but do to shrinkage and gaps.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

Hi. If you go the route of fixing the easily replaceable seal at the timing cover then clean very well the area of oil and leftover pieces that may cling and use the "Gray" sealant from MB. I'll research # for you later. Also may want to defer the fixing until you need to replace parts for a major tune-up since you will have to remove these parts. Another tip is to check the oil going into the alternator at it may impair its performance. In my case the oil caked the self adjusting brushes and left me stranded. Good luck.

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Adam Reinosa
91 300E 190K
81 911SC 210K
61 MB 190C 90K - sold...sigh.
70 914-6 - DUI victim - sigh
911T - Fire victim
Renault Dauphine '62
67/Cougar GT;70 Challenger 440 Mag
www.wetstart.com - OEM future option coming soon

Thank you for all the advices you submitted. I will try to resolve the problem with the oil leak sealer first. If that don't solve the problem, then I may have to take it to the shop for a gasket job. The front seal ( I don't know what this is) had been replaced but it did not solve the problem and I just let it leak coz I thought the leak was coming from other part of the engine. I will post the result when the job is done.
Thanks again.

Found where the leak is.
The leak is coming from the cylinder head on the the front corner adjacent to the chain tensioner. It's not the chain tensioner that is leaking.When i removed the air filter housing to take a close look, I saw oil dripping on the corner of the cylinder head. I know this is a major job if I am going to remove the cylinder head.
Is there any other remedy to fix this problem? I was thinking of just tightening the cylinder head bolts, maybe the leak will go away. Could someone please tell me where are the cylinder head bolts located? Can I access it by just removing the cylinder head cover and tighten the bolts from there? Also, I saw oil on one of the plugs adjacent to where the leak is coming from. Is it possible that oil is coming out there too?
I will appreciate it very much any help you may provide.

Thank you.

Forget about retightening the head bolts. That is not the problem and won't help. The problem comes from the fact that the head gasket ends at the end of the head and the seal that extends under the front cover is a pliable rubber. The two are originally pressed together, horizontally by the fact that the front cover seal is squwished vertically and expands horizontally. After a period the front seal becomes fixed and the head gasket receeds a bit reducing the compression seal.

The real fix requires a combination of the newer redesigned head gasket (with stainless inserts at the front corners - accept nothing else) and a secondary sealing agent of the newer technology. Permatex's "Right Stuff" is such a product.

If you are up for playing around you could try using a sealant such as this from the outside. It will have to be perfectly clean and dry and be allowed to set up properly. It will make a mess but might put off the inevitable for some time. You wouldn't catch me dead doing this but you are searching for an alternative. If you do it seal at least 4-5inches.

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Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

Thanks Steve
For now I will try to fix the leak with a sealant applied outside. Could you tell me what is the name brand of the sealant. This will be my weekend project.

mbe32094,
"Permatex's Right Stuff". Re-read Steve's last post.
Good luck!

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J.H.
'86 300E

Please ignore my last post.
Thanks again.

Followup:
Well I bought the Permatex Right Stuff sealer and applied it where the leak is. It didn't work and the leak came back. So I decided to replace the head gasket. But wait, before I do that I'd like to hear some opinions. I have attached a picture of the engine from where I am now. After further carefull checks, I could not find any leak coming out of the head gasket (front corner as I stated on my original post). The front seal was already replaced three years ago but that did not solve the problem in the first place so, I just live with it. Now I decided to find out what really causing this messy leak. Any idea on where the leak is coming?
I hope the picture will help.

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