While working under my car I have noticed a few problems. I will start at the front of the car. I took off the very front sound panel/guard so I could turn the crank to get to the torque convertor drain plug. The first thing I noticed was a bolt was laying in the bottom of the sound panel. This bothers me. Does anyone have the slightest clue what this bolt might be from?




The next problem/possible problem I noticed was on my oil pan. It looks like either the oil pan has cracks in it, or the coating has cracks in it. I do not see any signs of leakage. Any thoughts?


The final thing I noticed was at my rear axle. Evidently there is some kind of seal that has gone bad where my driveshaft connects to my differental. Is this a difficult fix? Thanks.

__________________
2006 E320CDI- current dd
1999 E300TD - retired
Wilmington, NC USA

The bolt looks like a tranny pan bolt. As for the leak if it doesn't really bother you, you could just continue to top off fluids. the flexdisc looks like it has a big crack in it to?

__________________
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...titled-1-3.jpg
1981 300d

That oil pan concerns me.

clean off the oil pan. It could be a casting flaw.

that pan does question the thought of to what might be causing that. It is from heat, that i am pretty sure on but is it cracked all the way through?

__________________
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...titled-1-3.jpg
1981 300d

The leak you have is the pinion seal. You have to pull the drive shaft out, and have a special tool to get the seal out. Both my 123's have leaky pinion seals. One of these days I will fix them.

__________________

What size allen wrench fits the head?

That looks like dirt on the pan.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

The oil pan is prob casting marks as was stated previously. A can of brake cleaner used liberally would confirm that is the case.

My pinion seal weeps too. Its on my to do list sometime after h3ll freezes over.

Dont know about the cap bolt. Could be anything. Might be from the underside of one of the motor mounts?

__________________
Terry Allison
N. Calif. & Boca Chica, Panama

09' E320 Bluetec 77k (USA)
09' Hyundai Santa Fe Diesel 48k (S.A.)

I'm envious of your clean panel! Check the vacuum pump maybe that bolt came from there... There aren't any other allen bolts that I can see on the engine besides the ones on the black plastic injector cover.

If it's not from the vacuum pump, it may be from the injection pump.

__________________
-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

Bolt looks like it may go to the crossover pipe or to the intake tube hold down to me. Have you had any work done (glow plugs or something) Mechanics sometimes find it is easier to find another bolt for things, rather then fetch a fallen 1.

__________________
Dean

graysilm, you are a saint for posting photos!

__________________
$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

That bolt looks like an oil pan bolt.Upper or lower.Its a #5 Allen .
Have a close look at your flex disc it seems damaged.Has this car run over something?
Dan

__________________
Cheers
Big Dan MEng

Visit my Blog..
http://allformercedesbenz.blogspot.com/

www.benzguy.piczo.com



If at first you don't succeed,
Skydiving is not for you.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS NO
MATCH FOR NATURAL STUPIDITY.

If anything can go wrong,fix it!
The hell with Murphy!!
I never think of the future.It comes soon enough.

Thanks for all the quick replies.

1. To start off with the bolt I found, I will start looking at some of the parts that yall have mentioned and see if I find it. I know it is not a transmission pan bolt, because I have all of them, and they are silver color not the gold/bronze color of the bolt I found. I will check the oil pan, but I don't think it came from there because I found it much farther towards the front of the engine than the oil pan sump. The bolt head is a 5mm hex and the thread is 1.0. From the hex head it appears that the bolt has been removed with a wrench because it is slightly stripped. To my knowledge the oil pan on this engine has never been removed. However I will investigate this further. This car did have new glowplugs installed right before I bought it.

2. As far as the cracks in the oil pan I don't know if they go all the way through. They are not leaking as far as I can tell. I have not removed the oil pan and personally I don't want to unless necessary. The cracks are not dirt. When I scrape my fingernail across the cracks I can feel them and they are hard. How would a can of break cleaner confirm that it is a casting flaw?

3. Rear axle. When you are talking about flexdisc are you refering to the
round part between my driveshaft and my rear bolts? As far as leaky pinion seals, you talk like this is a common problem. Do you ever check the fluid lever or have to top it off?

Thank you for you time, answers, and advice.

__________________
2006 E320CDI- current dd
1999 E300TD - retired
Wilmington, NC USA

Thats just an ordinary 5mm head allen. Dont worry about it. As for the seal I wouldn't worry about it either. If it doesn't leave a mark on the concrete its probably fine.

__________________
1981 300SD 512k OM603