65.000 miles 1997 E320- hard leaking crankshaft seal
 

I am ready to buy a 1997 E320. It's crankshaft seal is leaking at 65.000 miles. is this a sign of an abused car?

I would suspect it is more of a sign of overfilling the oil.

crancshaft seal
 

Thanks,

it means for me that this car may still be OK after the seal replacement

Make sure you check it out good BUT if you will read the cap of the oil fill hole you will see a printed warning about over filling it. I did it once on my E320 and the rear crank seal started leaking. It is a pretty healthy job for a diyer - easy to replace the seal - the hard part is getting to it.

dkarp:

I have the same car with 59kmi.

Make sure it is the crankshaft seal leaking. If it is, I would like to see complete service history or I will find another one (lots of themon the market).

This car is prone to leak around the timing cover and head gasket. Mine was replaced under warranty. So make sure the source of leak is exact.

GREAT advice. The M104 is not known for leaking main seals, unless someone overfills the crankcase. (As one of my local dealers does...)

It can be tough to figure out where it is leaking from, but get your mechanic to try REALLY hard. No sense replacing a main seal only to find out later it was the head gasket.

BTW, in most MB's I've seen with a leaking rear main seal, the front seal is leaking too from the cavatation of the oil in the crank-case.

Also, if the crankcase was consistently overfilled, it will dramatically shorten that catalytic converter's life. These are the reasons I do my own oil changes...