Larry:

I believe that in previous posts, you've mentioned changing out VALVE SEALS in a 300E.
Afterwards, oil consumption went down consideraby.

Question? - Were the plugs oily before changing the seals? Thanks for your time.

Mike Murrell
'91 300-sel(M103)

Mike, if it means anything, on my 89 300e the plugs were an oily mess. This was just before the head gasket let go, with 165k on the motor..

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Jeff Lawrence
1987 300e
1989 300e
2000 Dodge Grand Caravan SE

Jeff - thanks for your reply. I'm now beginning to believe my oil consumption is due to gasket leaks rather than guides/seals.

Regards...Mike Murrell

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I'm in Europe and find it very challenging to connect in Hotel rooms.

The experience I have with the valve seals involve records of the problem and the repair before I purchased my car. The records consisted of every receipt for every repair ever performed.

I do know that the oil usage went from a quart in hundreds of miles to virtually NO oil usage. I questioned this and found that there indeed was a SEVERE problem with the M103 engine.

It's hard to imagine a leaky gasket contributing that much to oil consumption. An oil leak so bad that it caused a quart of oil loss in a few hundred miles would probably absolutely paint the entire engine compartment and smoke while it was doing it.

The valve seals cost less than $10 from Mercedesshop parts shop and are replaced with a few hours labor. I would consider doing this before more major repairs unless the engine compartment has a nice solid coat of engine oil.

Good luck,

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Larry Bible
'84 Euro 240D, 523K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles