M103 Oil in Coolant? (PICS) - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Secret Squirrel · #1 09-19-2006, 02:51 PM

History: tranny cooler in radiator broke ~6 months ago and it was caught immediately - saving the tranny by flushing massive amounts of ATF through the system. 4,000 miles later the tranny is still alive. The place that replaced the radiator didn't use any kind of cleanup chemical flush the system... from what I can tell they just overflowed the tank until some ATF contamination came flowing out.

The car also has the passenger side/rear engine block sloooow oil leak coming from the head gasket. Otherwise, it's running perfectly, no white smoke coming from the exhaust and barely any oil consumption.

Zerex G05 was used in the radiator and initially it looked pretty decent and clear with some crappy ATF looking stuff still in the overflow tank after the radiator was replaced. 4,000 miles later it appears to be darkish colored from the side of the tank, the cap was coated with fatty looking globules around the rubber seal, and inside the tank there is brownish sludge has the consistency of a thick salad dressing with lots of lubrication.

Does this look like Delvac 1 contaminating my coolant, or leftovers from the ATF and a poor job of flushing that has worked it's way into the tank?

david s poole · #2 09-19-2006, 05:18 PM

you are correct that is oil contamination in the coolant.how many miles on the engine?

Secret Squirrel · #3 09-19-2006, 06:31 PM

David thanks for the reply, the engine just turned 170k miles. I've owned it for the last 20k and I think the head gasket has been slowly leaking to the outside the whole time... leaking into the coolant is a new thing.

Gilly · #4 09-19-2006, 08:44 PM

Not sure on the 126, but there may be a puke tank connected to that fabric wrappped hose. May be oily crap left in there from the previous problem which is now getting sucked into the pressure tank on cool-down. Worth checking out. Color looks more like engine oil though. Make sure you check out that puke tank if you end up replacing the head gasket.
Gilly