Hello all,
Getting ready to address the latest outbreak of that bugbear of the M116/M117 motor – excessive wear on the passenger-side camshaft. This would be the motor's 3rd right-hand camshaft since new while the left-hand one is still a nearly pristine original after nearly 190,000 miles.
Go figure.
So the big question – as always - is who are the current producers of M117 camshafts in 2014 and in whose box(es) are they to be found?
Wrote to the nice folks here at Pelican and they informed me that TRW camshafts are no longer available since late 2011. Doing a little searching through various threads reveals that FEBI (who used to re-box TRW) is now re-boxing some manufacture from Turkey.
So if anyone has any recent experience with having replaced a M117 camshaft I think that this might be a good place to hear from them as to what was in the box - whether dealer or aftermarket - particularly as I have the strong suspicion that the dealer item is now a “Made in Turkey” item as well.
The reason I write this is that a few years ago when I replaced the passenger-side cam on my 380SL at the dealer it failed just after a year and in far less than 12,000 miles. The cause was “determined” to be inadequate heat-treatment/hardening. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
Thanks in advance!