mreichman

'05 C230 Kompressor Sport Coupe
I have a significant leak from around vacuum pump for brake system attached at rear of engine to the camshaft. I have been told it is a common source for an oil leak. My question is: Is this simply due to a bad seal and pulling the existing pump and replacing the gasket and reinstalling same pump is likely to eliminate the leak, or is replacing the pump itself (along with a new gasket) recommended? Pump price is $180-200 vs. $3.00 gasket.

LILBENZ230

From what I've seen, it is typically the gasket.

mbarrad

When had my vacume pump gasket replaced, I looked at the "bad" gasket and could not see anything wrong with it. It is a metal gasket which is the same as the replacement. The pump was not bad.

mreichman

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies! I do greatly appreciate it. LILBENZ: When you replaced yours, did you have a lot of oil that leaked all around the area. I certainly do...a bit of a mess to clean up. Also, was any explanation given as to why leak developed? Seems weird that old gasket looked normal. I guess we just hope the replacements don't fail too!

LILBENZ230

Sorry, OP, my vacuum pump has not leaked. How many miles do you have?

mreichman

Oops sorry...I guess I shoulda addressed question to mbarrad. Car has only 26K miles. Big mess from this oil leak!

dinky228

i had the same problem. but not as bad, i caught it when it started. mine was leaking onthe pump itself, and not the gasket that goes into the head. the pump itself, has a lid has bout 5 screws holding it. with a gasket inbetween the pump and the lid itself. i tryed to oreder the oring seal for the pump at mb dealership. but they say there was no part # for it. but they gave me two other gasket which goes into the head. a metal gasket, and a small oring gasket. i had to use a oil filter gasket from a canister type filter which is working fine for me.

you should clean around the pump area and see if it leaks from the head (where the pump goes into the head to camshaft) or the pump itself. i would change the two gasket (metal,and small oring) if you plan to take the pump off yourself.

i cant see how that pump would go bad. its just the gasket or oring seals.

mreichman

Thanks. This is helpful. I will try to identify the EXACT source as you describe. So to clarify: there's (1) an o-ring between pump unit an its lid and (2) a small o-ring and metal gasket between pump and head? You "borrowed" a o-ring from an oil filter for seal (1)?

dinky228

here is the part # for the metal gasket, and the small oring. and as for the pump gasket seal i used a oil filter seal from a 08 kia sorento (only used the seal that came with the filter)

gasket, part# 271 - 238 - 01 - 80 . price 12.75
seal ring, part# 668 - 997 - 01 - 45 . price 2.70

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ar-engine.html

mreichman

Thanks...read prior thread. Haven't looked yet, but I sure hope my leak will be solved by replacing the MB part number seals. But, if not, I will know pretty much what I need to find!

mbarrad

I had a real oil mess that was cleaned up by the shop I took it to. Everything in the back of the motor was coated in oil. The tech could not understand why the original metal gasket failed since it looked fine to him. I inspected it too and did not see anything wrong with it. The tech said that since MB has not updated their replacement gasket to a better built one, I could see the problem return in the future. This unfortunately happened while my car was out of warranty with ONLY 50,000 miles on the odometer. If I have to expect this sort of re occuring issue in the near future, I had better learn how to fix this myself or look for another car.

LILBENZ230

Did you just look back there to notice the leak? I'm never under the hood on my C230. It's odd that it wouldn't ask for more oil if it were losing a good bit.

mbarrad

I noticed the leak when oil drops started appearing on my garage floor.

joeguzman2001

I replaced both the O rings. The one going into the head and the large one on the pump itself using the O ring from a large canister type oil filter I found at Autozone. It was not a perfect fit and had to be stretched a bit. For good measure I used a very light coat of RTV as not to get any into the pump when it got compressed by the lid and 5 screws. That did the trick. Use a 8mm box wrench to remove the pump from the head as the socket and wrachet setup does not work due to the tight clearance. Be very carefull not to over tighten and strip the torx bolts.