HELP! Oil all over 300 TE engine compartment!
 

I have an '88 300TE and am 500 mi. from home. Here is the scenario. After a high speed run, the low oil level light came on but pressure was still up at 3 bar. I filled up w/gas and checked the oil level which was low so I added a quart. After tha car sat about 30 minutes we got back on the highway and the level light was out but lots of smoke was billowing out from under the car, after a few minutes, the smoke disappeared so we kept on truckin'. A short time later, the low oil level light came back on again but since the pressure was good, I watched it closely and kept running about 85 mph (approx. 3800 rpm). An hour later, we pulled over at a rest stop and I idled for about 15 minutes waiting for everyone to "rest". Just before we were ready to pull out large amounts of smoke started coming out from under the hood (same color as before). I popped the hood but could see no discernable leak. However, the exhaust manifold was covered with oil (hence the smoke) and the passenger side of the engine compartment and the top of the engine was also covered enough that there was a puddle under the car. The puddle was warm but not hot, the engine oil level is acceptable, oil pressure idles at 1 bar and maintains 3 bar at speed. I'm thinking hydraulic oil from the leveling system but where is it coming from? Anyone out there with similar problems? Ideas? Thanks in advance...

300 TE hydraulic leak
 

More info. It is definitly hydraulic oil, the reservior is almost empty. There is a hose coming up from under the front of the engine that turns toward the rear and attaches to a metal line going out the back of the engine compartment. The outside of the hose shows signs of cracking. Could this be my culprit? Is there a certain spec. hydraulic oil I must use to replenish the reservior? Should it be available in a local parts store or is it a dealer only item? Thanks in advance...

You need a fluid which meets MB specs:

Options: Dealership or a mercedes parts dealer which would carry a febi fluid for this application. I'm told the MB spec lines up with a MIL spec for aircraft.. not sure if it would be cheaper and you'd be purchasing gallons instead of liters.

If you cannot find the leak, wash everything and let it dry. Then start it up. I would make sure I didn't run it dry=0)

Hoses can be replaced or rebuilt by a hydraulic specialty shops. It's ussually just a cost issue on which way to go.

Michael

Get a new oil filler cap -- the gasket is bad and oil is getting pushed out at highway speeds. If you don't get the cap on right, also, this will cause large quantites of oil to blow out -- about a quart in 500 miles or so. Will cause oil to burn off the exhaust when it runs won the valve cover. My TE used a quart on the way to Cleveland and almost a quart coming home this summer, at which point I discoverd that the cap was on crooked. Still leaked after I got is on right, so I replaced it. No oil usage to speak of since.

There's only a couple quarts of hydraulic oil in the whole system -- the amounts you describe would require obvious spray from the hose to get over to the passenger side, the hydraulic pump is under the PS pump pulley.

Peter

rjk,
If you're sure it's hydraulic from your selfleveling system it needs to be replaced by the MB ZH-M or the Febi ZH-M (1 litre part no. 02615). The Febi brand is available at MB parts suppliers like Randy Steele at www.epsparts.com or a local indy that specializes in MB's. The dealer will have the MB brand ZH-M. The system holds a little over 2 litres as I recall.
Obviously something's come loose or a hose has failed. The power steering pump and the self leveling system use the same pump. Actually, it's one pump with two seperate vanes and compartments for the whirling works. The forward section houses the PS fluid and vanes; the rear has the ZH-M and impellers for the S-L system.
As one member suggested, clean off the motor, drop the lower engine panel and see where it leaks. You DO NOT want to run this system dry. Bad things happen to PS pumps when there is no fluid to lube them. Same goes with the rear of the pump. Depending on how severe the leak is you may want to have the wagon flat bedded to a shop. Cheaper in the long run.
May I humbly suggest that you buy a Service Manual CD for your wagon. It makes for a stronger relationship between you and your car and you and your tech.
Good Luck,
Hazen
91 300TE 4Matic
133k mi.

Thanks guys, I found some fluid locally and bought a few quarts, the reservior wasn't completely empty. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Hazen, I do have a CD but it is in GA. (home) and I am in VA., hence my frantic plea.

Well, I suppose even today that's too far away to help much....

Keep an eye on the engine oil level -- I'd still bet you have an oil leak instead of hydraulic fluid. If you have to add more in a couple hundred miles, find the leak (oil filler, clogged breather hose, bad valve cover gasket.

The rear end will droop if you run low on hydraulic fluid before the pump goes.

Peter

Epiphany!!
 

Reading this thread, i think that next time i take the old girl on the road (she's itching for a long dance!!) I'll take my laptop AND my shop CD's. I normally take a few tools and "spares, but never thought about the CD's until now. Thanks!!

home at last
 

Well, I stopped at Lowes before I left VA and got an external clamp type pipe repair unit. I clamped it over the leak in the hose (it was easy to find once I refilled the reservior, started the engine, and had someone climb in the back). It stopped it from gushing and slowed it to a slow drip. Apparently, both engine oil and hyd. fluid are tied in to the low oil level light so when the light came back on, I just refilled it. 2 qts got me home (500 mi.). It goes up on the lift tomorrow and out comes the hose. Thanks again...

Good show! At least a hose clamp fixed it long enough to get it home -- no other way that I know of.

Nice to know that the oil light works for both, too -- missed than in the manual!

Peter

Repair woes
 

OK, you see the date this thread started.

I tried getting the hose rebuilt but none of the shops around here I tried would touch it. "It won't fit in the machine."

Ordered it from Fastlane and Phil has tried his darndest to find one but to no avail. No dealer in the land has one. Germany doesn't have one either, they are making them as I write this, I guess. Phil said he would overnight it to me once it got to the states (supposedly around 23FEB).

Anyway, I just needed to vent, some selling point for MB huh? 16 year old car cannot be fixed because the parts don't exist. I can get parts for my '68 Shelby without a problem. Guess what I'm going to start driving more.

I do not think the hydraulic reservoir has a low oil sensor. I see no wires on it -- it needs a wire on it to light up a light.

Sensor
 

I think you are right, I see no wires to my reservior either so unless it is tied in somewhere else (not likely I would think) the oil level light just indicates engine oil. You have to forgive me, when I start diagnosing 500 miles from home with the wife & kids (+ 1 future son-in-law) depending on me to get them home, my mind spins off in various directions trying to make sense of all the symptoms. Then I add to that it is a MB and I can come up with various weird scenarios that make sense at the time.

There is no fuel line available for the pressure side of the fuel distributor, either, as I discovered a couple weeks ago when the TE sprang a leak. The fix is to get the correct type of hose (fuel injection line, rated at 80 psi in the case of the fuel line), force it over the barbs on the steel parts, and use some hose clamps to keep it on.

Seems these parts don't fail very often -- my friend Hans has never replaced that line on a 300E.

Peter

Leave it to me to find the difficult stuff...:rolleyes:
The line looks like it degenerated due to heat. It does run near the exhaust manifold. Maybe your buddy will be replacing them soon.

RJK, did you get this replaced yet? I am now in your same boat. No part no where no how. I have found a local hydraulic line shop here in Seattle, as referred by the MB dealer, who can make a new one or repair the old one -- they'll decide once they have the part in hand. My car is at the dealer next week and they will give me an estimate.

List for this was $181. My service writer said the locally made one should be less, maybe around $100. 1-2 hours labor. My wife may be enlisted to ferry the part to and fro to save time the car sits in the shop.

Has Mercedes reached the point of not having parts in stock for 15 year old cars? I always thought that a major advantage of owning MB's was that parts would always be readily available (whatever the cost). When my SLS high pressure hydraulic hose failed in 1996 on my 1983 300TD (returning from vacation and occurring in, of all places, Virginia) we limped home with a 5 gallon container of cheap hydraulic fluid. Once home in Florida, I was able to obtain in one day the high pressure hydraulic hose through the MB spare parts system. Don't remember the price but it wasn't too bad. As I recall, the cause was the hose chafing on the fan belt pulley. We always had the MB part supply situation pretty good in Jacksonville since one of MB's regional depots was here. Since has been moved to Orlando I think. Maybe MB doesn't think that their cars will last 15 years anymore so they don't need to have the parts available.

Two dealers said this was confined to hydraulic lines. One dealer found they could not get one for a '79 6.9 recently either.

update
 

No, no part yet, if everything is going to plan (HAH!), it is in transit from Germany to the States. Should get here inside of a week, then it gets overnighted to me. Cost is around $178 I think. Apparently, the connection at the pump end is the sticking point as far as rebuilding it goes. The bracket and bends disallow use of the machine.
Anyway, I got disgusted over the weekend and looked closely at the old hose, the hose itself is a GATES hose which makes me think it was rebuilt at one time, unless the MB supplier over in Germany uses GATES hoses. The hose was bad only where it passed the exhaust manifold (cracked & bleeding due to the heat), so I had a brainstorm. Why not cut the bad off and run a brake line to replace the missing hose? Should work. So I did the deed and it didn't take too long to reattach the connector the the shortened hose (don't get me started on the inabilities of "machine shop experts" not knowing how to do something by hand if their power tools don't fit). I had the connector off, the hose cut to length, and the connector reattached within 30 minutes, not easy, but certainly doable.
Then it was off to PEP Boys and Advance Auto to look for a brake line. Couldn't find one that fit, I needed to match the fittings and they were 12mmX1.0 thread size. After scrounging around their back rooms, I found an adapter from male 12mm to fem 3/16". Now I could get a 3/16" brake line to hook up. Unfortunately, there was no combination of adapters I could cob up for the other end and I was stuck hard and fast. It was Sunday, so NAPA and the better parts stores were closed. I briefly toyed with the idea of cutting the hyd. line and replacing the male 12mm connector with a 3/16" or 1/4" conn. but thought better of it. I didn't want to do anything I might regret later. However, if the hose doesn't get here soon, I'll hunt down the gates hose and rebuild the %@$#%@#$ thing myself. :mad:

So much for teutonic efficiency!

I think Gates was the original hose supplier. I guess the German and American divisions don't know what the other does.

My Update:
My dealer felt they could get the hose fabricated locally from a trusted source for a reasonable price -- half of the list of the unavailable part. We did this and the new hose made a funky noise when the car was under power. A surging thrumming droning which could be felt when holding the new hose. They swapped in another customer's old hose -- from a 4Matic -- and the noise was gone. They have worked with MB specification tech reps and found the 4Matic spec hose should fit well (I think hose is just a bit longer), and the part is available. It is en route to the shop now. I will update once complete.

Update
 

I'm still waiting but think I will wait some more considering the rebuild problem. Was your hose for the susp. system like mine? or was it for something else? Mine is the line from the pump, under the engine to the pass. side, then back past the exhaust man. to a steel line that goes down & to the rear susp.

Job is complete. Part is for the same thing, but for the 4Matic. Part number is 124 320 70 53

Thanks, I'll look into it immediately!

Forgot to mention, it costs more too, $141 for the vanilla part and $181 to $195 (vin specific) for the 4Matic version. I don't have details how they matched my VIN to get the right version. More $ but it works, and no more driveway stain. Prices are from Caliber Motors in California. My dealer charged more, as they usually do, but my MBClub discount brings them back in line.

Oh well, I tried the 4matic hose and it is back ordered, too. Germany already reneged on their first promised ship date (23MAR) and now say it won't ship until 6APR. I wonder if that is 2004 or 2005? I think I'll machine the adapter I need to make the brake line idea work. We got this car for my daughter, she loves it and wants to drive it. Too bad it has been down since New Year's waiting for MB to milk the rubber trees so they can make the %!?@&#$ hose.

HALLELUJAH!
 

Well, MB Germany reneged on shipping out the part on 23MAR, next promised ship date is 6APR. Am I holding my breath? HAH! So I keep trying to find an alternate method of fixing this. The brake line idea won't work since I am short one adapter no one believes exists. As I am relating my tale of woe to a sympathetic counter man he asks if have tried to get the thing rebuilt, duh! I tell him of no one wanting to touch it because it won't "fit" in their "machine". He suggests a guy in the next town who works out of the back of a little hole in the wall shop specializing in custom rods. I figure what they hey and wander over. He worries about the restrictor inserts throughout the hose but 4 hours and $45 later, voile'! Rebuilt hose! No fuss, no muss, no excuses.

Next order of buisiness is to find some copper washers to fit. No deal, so I get some of the correct O.D. and file out the I.D. to fit. It is all back together now and working as designed! (I think, knock on wood). No weird vibrations/noises, maybe because the guy pulled the restrictors out of the old hose and put them in the new one. BUT I DON'T CARE, MY DAUGHTER WILL SPEAK TO ME AGAIN!:D

Anyone in this position in or around Atlanta, look up Hose Wizards in Loganville, highly recommended!

OK I'm bringing this thread back to life as I have this hose leaking oil and it does have "Gates 2TD DN10 329D88/ DBL 6260.00" written on it. I checked at the local merc dealer and the catalogue had a picture of it but no part number.
I was going to try the local hydraulic place to get a replacement hose.

What I would like to know is where are these restrictors that you are talking about and how do I remove them from the hose.
And does anyone have a part number for this hose from MB and have they been able to buy it?
Thanks,
Grant.

I think you need to talk to Tom Hanson from here. He is a great guy and if it's out there he can find it.

Location, Hours of Operation

The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center (www.mbusa.com/classic) located in a
28,000 square foot stand-alone building at 9 Whatney in Irvine,
California, adjacent to Interstate 5, will provide its complete,
specialized services for Mercedes-Benz classics Monday through Friday
between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and can be contacted at
949-598-4850. Parts purchasing assistance is available via its toll
free number – 1-866-MBCLASSIC (1-866-622-5277).

I might still have the OEM hose MZB finally sent and insisted I pay for. It is in a box somewhere and I am in the middle of moving but if you want me to look, I'll scrounge around.

The only problem is I'm in Australia, and I want to get the car back on the road before easter.
But if I have trouble locating a hose here I would be interested in buying yours.
Also did you see the restrictors that were pulled out of the old hose?
Thanks,
Grant.

They were a series of plastic tubes with a small orifice at one end and radial protrusions on the other to keep them centered in the hose. I think they went from end to end. Each one was about 3/4" long. Not sure, it was a number of years back.

OK went to a hydraulic hose place today (Pirtek) and the guy behind the counter knew all about the hoses on the self levelling suspension. It took 1.5 hours and $100aud and I had a new hose.
I was over joyed as MB quoted me $715aud for the hose.
Unfortunately after fitting the new hose the car now has a buzz or vibration at 2000-3000rpm and I think it's from the new hose.
Moral of story buy genuine when that's all there is, as there's probably a good reason.:(

I did find my genuine MB hose, it has been gathering dust since my rebuilt hose works fine. I am convinced the buzz you and others have described it due to the lack of orifice inserts (lack of a better name) in the rebuilt hoses. Notwithstanding, I would put up with some buzzing if it cost me 1/7 the cost of a new hose. If you are interested in the genuine article, let me know. It is available.

K