Sorry- I meant to put "simple" on the topic, not "simpe".

Did a search- no luck.....

As some of you know, my cars missing/stalling was diagnosed as having "fuel injector seal" leaks. The tech said that it will run about $185. to replace and that the valve covers also have to be removed, requiring more $$. He said it needed injector "seals AND cups". What are the cups?

I was thinking of seeing if our other mechanic may be able to do it, but wondering what all in fact is indeed involved before I check. Do the valve covers have to be removed? What all else and are they difficult to get to? Seems like they are cheap, only about $3.00 each, so I am wondering what all else would have to be replaced with them, or it is as simple as replacing those seals only? If he is able to do it and at a reasonable rate, I will go ahead with the repair.... if not, the car will be sold. BTW, the car is a 85' 380SE.

Here is the link to the seals. http://catalog.eautopartscatalog.com/mercedesshop/sophio/wizard.jsp?partner=mercedesshop&clientid=catalog.mercedesshop&baseurl=http://catalog.peachparts.com/&cookieid=20Y01UKF920Y01UQCS&year=1985&make=MB&model=380-SE-001&category=C&part=Fuel+Injector+Seal

Thanks in advance.

Hmm. Must not be a common problem area?

Thanks anyway.

As one that is in the middle of working on a 380 motor, I would say it's pretty simple but for 185 is not bad. It would take you a couple of hours if you new what you were doing.

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Thanks, Juan

Thanks Juan.

What happens... do the seals become brittle or something? He said mine was sucking air - not leaking fuel. I hope it does not turn into that.

I think that it's time consuming and requires some nice fuel line wrenches (don't want to round off the fuel line fittings!!!) but not terrible. You may have to get the AIR distribution hoses out of the way and these will probably break because they get brittle. They aren't expensive to replace but if you break them and don't have them its of course a PITA.

TEST FOR LEAKS before driving off!!!!! Important!!!!

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86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

Simple job, you should do it yourself, couple of hours at the most. Don't know why the valve covers would have to come off. Not sure what cups would be, perhaps caps, pintle caps.

Hi 86560SEL,


The valve covers don't *have* to come off, but it can sometimes make things a little easier, since the gasket has a tendency to overlap the injector ports by a smidge.

Couple of notes if you plan on doing this yourself:

Clean the engine well around the area of the injectors, it gets dirty there and you certainly don't want any dirt falling in the injector holes.

Clean everything as you go, lube adjacent linkage, etc... using a "flare nut" wrench on the injector fittings (at least the smaller ones at the fuel distributor) is a good idea. Also be very careful not to bend the lines, makes them difficult to get back in and increases the likelihood of bungling the threads (they're a "fine" thread at both ends on those).

Replace the air hoses, and get a few extra plastic plugs for the ends of the hoses... they break easily.

Lubricate the o-rings around the plastic cups a bit, if you insert them dry you risk tearing them... and winding up back at square one.

BTW -- IMHO, $185 is a smokin' deal for that job (including the v/c gaskets?), if done correctly. (Your guy is right, the injectors fit into plastic cups (holders) which probably should be replaced, they get brittle with age.) You could possibly do it yourself for the first time in under two hours, but IMHO it would be difficult to do a real nice job in that amount of time, even for someone more experienced.

(My apologies if any of the above sounds overly obvious! Just want to pass along a little info from someone who's done it a time or two. )

Thanks for that info. I am wondering, would leaky seals cause low power?

A little bit, but usually nothing too dramatic.