When the original syn oils were being tested in the early 1970's it was put into new cars and tested on a track for 250,000 miles. There was no engine wear at all after these tests.

The oil was then put into trucks that the pipeline part of the oil company used. These trucks had about 80,000 to 100,000 miles on them. Oil leaked out of every seal.

Oddly enough this was what was expected. The molcules of syn oil are so much smaller than that of dino oil any little gap in the seals will let it come out.

So... I agree that if there is ANY wear on your harmonic balancer it will have to be repaired in some fashon if you are going to continue to use syn oil.

You might try putting in some 'oil stabiliser' that is made by a company called Lucas which is not the same 'Prince of Darkness' Lucas in England but a speciality oil company products here in the US. It will also boost the oil pressure in older engines and might work to stop the flow of syn past your front seal.

You can also try a product that 'stops leaks fast!' These work by swelling the seals through a chemical process. It is only a temp fix, but it dose work for awhile.

I bought a seat cover from Phil here. A few days shy of a year, I had a problem. Gilly installed the seat cover which had a heater in it. It worked fine but later on it failed. MB warrantied it and installed it for me on their dime.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

The upper chain cover on my now defunct M103 was the only oil leak it had.



Got some silicone from the parts store, and made my own gasket....



Never leaked after that.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

well here is the low down

Called two dealerships in my area.. Mercedes Benz of South Orlando said.. sure we'll take a look but if it was installed incorrectly we will not honor the warranty and bill you 2.5 hours @ $135 to put it back together and charge you the ass raping price for our coolant and then to put salt in the wounds charge me for the small loss of transmission fluid for removing the transmission.

now im confident that my indy put it in properly.. there is only one damn way it goes in but the way I have been treated by the dealerships is horrendous. Ken Brown in the parts dept at Mercedes Benz of Monteray was very helpful with me and was upset that not one but two dealerships were of no use to me.

so whats going to be done is a repair seal is on its way, Pierre will do the job.. again but with the repair seal.

and then the E320 Cabriolet will be checked for no leaks and put up for sale since I am not dealing with this **** anymore. I don't have the time, patience, or money to do so.

Apparently they are not confident of your indy. Why don't you let them take a look at it first and see where it goes? Worst case scenario, you can bring it to your indy.

__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

How much do you want for your E320 cab Don?

Skid Row Joe has mentioned selling his low mileage '99 E300 Turbo for $9,000 if I remember correctly.

Its just hard to picture Joe without a Mercedes, but it sounds like he wants to go with something German Engineered and built to Mexican quality standards.

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1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

yeah I cant just leave mercedes but a '99 is just as scary.

anything close to its market value

if i let them tear it down they have to put it back together.. and charge me $400 to do that before it leaves their shop

Joe, calm down.

Get the seal fixed and drive the thing. It's a seal, it's not the end of the world. You were given this car for free knowing that it would need a little amount of work, just put some money in to it and drive it.

no.. its not practical, gets less than stellar fuel mileage, and its just... im not comfortable with it.. I'll let you own it for 2 months. but you get no access to your wagon or the 190E...

You need this:

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?ct=p&car_id=269988571&dealer_id=64709879&car_year=1994&rdm=1267645501801&lastStartYear=1981&num_records=25&model=&systime=&make2=&highlightFirstMakeModel=&start_year=1994&engine=&keywordsrep=&keywordsfyc=&certified=&body_code=128&fuel=&awsp=false&search_type=both&distance=0&marketZipError=false&search_lang=en&showZipError=y&make=MB&color=&keywords_display=&page_location=findacar%3A%3Aispsearchform&min_price=&body_style=WAGON&drive=&default_sort=priceDESC&seller_type=b&position=top&max_mileage=&style_flag=2&sort_type=mileageASC&address=67206&advanced=&end_year=1995&transmission=&doors=&max_price=&cardist=1006&standard=false

Best 2 cars I've ever had

__________________
1985 500SL Euro w/ AMG bits 130k
1984 300SD Turbodiesel 192k
1980 240D Stick China 188k
2001 CLK55 AMG 101k
2007 S600 Biturbo 149k Overheated Project, IT'S ALIVE!!!

I don't have $6500 to dump into a car while I have the cabriolet. and I dont want another E320 anything.. I don't want ****ty fuel mileage and ****ty quality...

$10K

However, it is possible that I wrote somewhere here that I would take less......I wouldn't swear one way or the other. This car has had only 3K miles put on it each of the past seven years. I retired it from duty when I bought my last motorcoach in 2003 that I drive out-of-town exclusively.

That said - I am anticipating buying a used 2010 E-diesel - when 1 - 2 years old. They are hitting the showroom on or about June 1st - according to Park Place MB in Dallas, Texas. So I've got some time to kill. I swore I'd never buy another new MB, and I'm not going to go back on my word.

Wow, you really need to stop *****ing...your car is NOT so bad. Most of us here have a lot more than a "leaky seal" to deal with...and most of the members here would give a lot to own a car as nice as yours.

Don't sweat the small stuff!

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Current cars:
2000 ML55 AMG, 174k miles
2003 C240 T-Modell, 202k miles
1995 S320, 207k Miles

I have heard exactly what your indy told you above TWICE - even if you DIYed it. And this was from a lead mechanic and a shop forman at MB dealer - Park Place Dallas / Bedford, Texas.

Whether it's true or not - I've never found out.