oil tube upgrade?
 

Is it possible to replace the plastic oil tubes on 1997 E420 with aluminum ones?

If you haven't read this: http://www.peachparts.com/Wikka/M119OilGuides
then, once you do, you will see the reason they don't make them out of metal anymore.
Many thanks btw to Greg, for that dyi article! :)

That's interesting. But if there have been failures of the metal ones, that would be known, I think. Also I do not use any thich oils (synthetic only). So would it be possible to fit the metal ones on so I don't have to ever do this again... To me, b/c I am way too cynical, it just seems like a cost saving measure. But I should probably be kinder

Hello apb,

It's somewhat amusing to read that someone else also had this idea. I planned to do the same while fixing a valve cover gasket leak on my 119.975. Contacted the local mechanic (you know, the guy with 30+ years experience) with the idea, and he began researching the issue.

What he found is that Mercedes switched to the plastic material because the oil tubes do fail under high pressure (by design), sending bits of the parent material all over the place. Flying metal shards tend to score the lifters and get caught in other inconvenient places. In other words, you're introducing a potential problem Mercedes "fixed" by choosing an easily breakable tube material.

Worth it to check and change once every millenium in my humble opinion.

-DM