Hi there,

Participants of this thread seems to know a thing or two about 560's, so I decided to ask advise on the following.

Just had my father in law help me buy a prestine 560 sel from -89 in California with only 62000 miles.

My father in law is driving it to Seattle in 3 weeks. I had the car inspected to the n'th degree before buying it and the following issues showed up:

1) Oil pan gasket and pan,
2) Oil level sensor,
3) Valve seal ( burns oil )
4) Fuel actuator ( leaking )

My question is what repairs/fixes would you guys do before the 1200 mile trip to Seattle, if any?

My though was that some new seals would benefit from an extensive trip where the engine gets hot for a long time and the new seals could really settle.

On the other hand I was thing not to do anything but then I was concerned that my father in law may have problems during the trip?

Thanks for the help and advise.

Jari Kristensen

mb4ever,

Oil leaks - I think all German cars leak oil somewhere, the only question is to what extend, i.e. how much. The most valuable thing on your car is acltually pretty cheap - it's called a dipstick. If the oil is leaking a t a very slow rate, you can drive it 3,000 miles without ever having to add even a quart, i.e. you are fine between oil changes. So I'd say monitor the leak first and see how mych you are really losing, or if this is just typical Benz "wetness" on the pan.

Valve seal burnig oil - I'll leave this to others, but I think that could be more serious.

Fuel actuator - are you talking about the fuel distributor? If yes, that's more serious. Otherwise, I'm lost, but I can tell you that many of the parts that go on the fuel system aren't too terrible (except for that distributor).

__________________
Henry Bofinger
1989 560 SEL (black/black)
2001 Audi TT Roadster (silver/grey)