Hello,

Car: 1984 300sd turbo diesel
Mileage: 300k+ (odometer broke 4 years ago)

Took our the air filter to replace, and saw oil all over the inside. See picture. Is this okay? I searched the forum for "oil air filter", 9 pages of results, but nothing jumped out. Picture, see the oil running between 7 and 8 o'clock? Also that stuff in there is all oily..


There was a post where some guy with a 240d had oil around the tube thing that connects the air filter area to the engine.. his had same oil gunk like mine. This gunk exists both over the engine and the top of the air filter cannister thingy. One more:


FYI, I am new to all this, first time ever actually spending time under the hood of a car. Yesterday I flushed the power steering, that was fun I have the dash out and am waiting for the odo gears to arrive for replacing, and like a ding dong, I painted the faded-yellow needles to "tequila sunrise" orange color nail polish. In the middle of changing the oil now, that plug in the bottom sure was stuck on pretty hard, but after some grunting and brute force, it came loose.

While under there, I noticed quite a bit of oily residue. What are these two parts? The first I'm looking from under the driver's side wheel towards the front, I guess by the radiator? It was very oozy and gooey, what is it?


And when I looked towards the back, there's this cannister thingy that was also oozy. What part is it?


I appreciate your time and help!

The car was purchased new by my parents, then after college became my daily driver for many years. Last year it I purchased a new car, and now I just use the diesel to go surfing (cosmetically neglected), we still try to drive it at least once every other week. Thought this would be a great opportunity to learn more about cars in an attempt to do basic maintenance, and who knows, I've been toying with the idea of trying to do a basic restore