Hi all,

Have developed an oil seep around the front engine cover (timing chain cover?). From reading here it appears to be typical with the 201s and an easy fix. Anyway, it's slow - no significant pooling (yet) or really noticeable oil loss (yet), just some minor stains in the under-engine cover. My tech says no real need to worry about it at present but said he first suspected some kind of leak when he pulled the oil dipstick while the car was idling. He said that MBZs usually build up a small vacuum in the oil system and if it's a closed (ie no leak) environment the engine should stumble slightly when you first pull the stick (and break the o-ring 'vacuum' seal at he top).

Sounds strange to me. Can anyone add to (or from) this statement?

Also - the car has 69k miles on it and I've read here that the valve guides die prematurely on this model. Does it make sense to fix both at once (save labor charges), or are they two separate jobs?

Thanks