good day guys.... on me sons 1985 190e merc i raised rear of car and replaced rear brake pads and whilst there decided to check the rear diff oil level as we've had the car only a week ..... so i busted me chops to undo the 14mm plug out and stick me little finger in and absolutely no oil in there to be felt ... so i put in castrol diff oil of about 600 to 750 ml in no problem.. whilst i had the car still up i decided to start and run it to bed the pads in ....i had a look after i stopped motor and there was a drop of oil on the pinion flange where it meets the driveshaft .. and and above that on the body i could see and feel thats where during its life where it has leaked from and on to .... so question is would it be wise for a home mechanic as myself to change the pinion seal or will it take special tools ,methods etc? i have done a couple of other brand cars and found them straight forward to do except the undoing of the large nut inside the pinion gear is the merc 190e very hard to do and a difficult proceedure ( ""any boooby traps to look out for "")? any help appreciated

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good day guys.... on me sons 1985 190e merc i raised rear of car and replaced rear brake pads and whilst there decided to check the rear diff oil level as we've had the car only a week ..... so i busted me chops to undo the 14mm plug out and stick me little finger in and absolutely no oil in there to be felt ... so i put in castrol diff oil of about 600 to 750 ml in no problem.. whilst i had the car still up i decided to start and run it to bed the pads in ....i had a look after i stopped motor and there was a drop of oil on the pinion flange where it meets the driveshaft .. and and above that on the body i could see and feel thats where during its life where it has leaked from and on to .... so question is would it be wise for a home mechanic as myself to change the pinion seal or will it take special tools ,methods etc? i have done a couple of other brand cars and found them straight forward to do except the undoing of the large nut inside the pinion gear is the merc 190e very hard to do and a difficult proceedure ( ""any boooby traps to look out for "")? any help appreciated

I have looked at the procedure, and the only thing was that it has you tighten until the rolling torque is some value (10NM or so). I have never seen the torque tool they had in the drawing, so I don't know where you'd get one.
I can say that on my 3 high-mileage MB's, the source of diff fluid drops has been the vent on the top of the diff housing. It looked like pinion seals, but they were OK.

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Prost!

so u suggest to not pull the pinion gear and seal out ... rather check the vent leak on top of housing .........but i dont recall seeing /feeling one ,,tho i did see a breather hose and it looked dry ....

If yours continues to leak, especially after you added the new fluid, then it could be the pinion seal. My vent leaks were sporadic.

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Prost!

ok i had a look and found that vent on top of the diff housing rear and it was real grimey dirty oil stuff there ....is that vent easy to undo take off and clean ?? the pinion seal strangely there is no oil on the driveshaft and exhaust ..maybe i should clean out that vent first ...................

ok i had a look and found that vent on top of the diff housing rear and it was real grimey dirty oil stuff there ....is that vent easy to undo take off and clean ?? the pinion seal strangely there is no oil on the driveshaft and exhaust ..maybe i should clean out that vent first ...................

The vent has a torque value of 25 NM, so it should just screw off.

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Prost!

yep will do