SFCabs

I'm about to buy a 2008 GL320 which hasn't had the Oil Cooler Seal replaced and doesn't currently look to be leaking oil.

Is it going to eventually leak so I need to plan on replacing it fairly short time?

I plan to DIY it, but I rather not have to do it right away.

alx

What is your question here? Some last forever, others leak at 30k miles. Depends how you drive and how often you replace your oil.

Cross that bridge when you reach it.

dieseldoc

Any things possible. Mine leaked more than once.

SFCabs

The GL is currently at 70k and I was just trying to get an idea of the odds of it leaking in the next XX miles. It seemed like many (most?) people on the forum replaced theirs before 100k miles. I only saw one person mention having their first replacement beyond 100k.

Milroy Paul

My 2012 GL 350 started to leak after I took my car in for regular service. The service tech apparently found an oil seep and changed a hose. Then days later we started seeing puddles of oil on the floor, that was never the case before. We have 100k+ miles, and the dealership said it would cost $3250 for oil cooler replacement and another $1700 if they have to replace the rear main seal.

Also we noticed that our front air springs starting to fail, that's another $2400. Our perspective is that we took our SUV regularly to the dealership to be services, and we never expected our vehicle to come back in worse shape that it went in. So we are trying to get the dealer and MBUSA to pickup most of these repair cost. Total repair estimates with some other maintenance item is about 8-9K. This is ridiculous after spending 2900 on initial maintenance.

SFCabs

Are you still under some sort of extended warranty? Let us know if the dealer or Mercedes will actually cover any of this...

I've accepted that I'll need to the Oil Cooler Seal, air bags, and other things.

For the Airbags, you can buy two front ones for $700 and put them on yourself.
https://www.arnottindustries.com/par...55_gid725.html

dieseldoc

All of this was covered under extended warranty on my GL. I had a Mercedes warranty followed by a Mercedes extended warranty. I had four oil leaks. All 4 corners of my air suspension was replaced. I also had a steering rack replaced.

johny75

Mine is leaking slowly, never a drop on the floor, but I see oil mess on components when I look under. It has been like this for few year snow, 111K now. I am also not loosing significant amount of oil to have to add oil, I maybe add some oil very 6 months, like 1/4 of a quart. I am driving it until I see a bigger leak : )

clvincent

milroy if the dealer changed the orange turbo seal and the y pipe that holds it was cracked or they cracked it, very possible you could have a big leak there now

if it was me i would take it to a good independant and get a second opinion on exactly what is leaking etc

and i would definitely use arnott lifetime air shocks etc over mercedes replacements

good luck

SFCabs

I bought it and it turned out it had the oil cooler seal replaced. Hopefully, I'm good for awhile!

Milroy Paul

Thank you all for providing your insight. I just want to give you all an update on my 2012 GL 350. I always took this SUV to the same dealership (Germain Mercedes at Easton Columbus OH) for regular maintenance. Other than breaks and tiers, I had the fuel tank and ignition components replaced long ago under warranty. Never had any engine related issues.

This time after going back and forth and involving the leadership team, the dealership agreed to absorb 40% of the total cost. I talked to MBUSA, but that did not help that much. So I paid to $5114 of the $9800+ bill for oil leak related problem, the front two air shocks, and transmission fluid flush (unrelated). When I brought the car home Tuesday, I again noticed the compressor cooling down warning on the dash. This time they replaced the compressor for the air shocks at their own expense (same day)

Given that I had roughly 100K on the odometer and did not have any extended warranty, I feel alright about the dealership for owning at least the Oil leak problem. I was just about to get my attorney go after them and MBUSA. I hope this is the end of the troubles for me.

Still not very happy with MB reliability and quality. 1. I feel as if the gaskets were made out of Swiss cheese. 2. Airmatic or not, no shocks should fail like this. 3. The choice of materials for the components and location of these components were not well engineered. It costs a lot of labor and money. 4. The dealership was using trial and error approach to diagnose the problems. They had no clue as to where the oil leak was or why the shocks were malfunctioning. Or, they were withholding information from me.

a2j

I did all that work myself for under $2k. I can't imaging paying $10k for all that, or even $5k. You can buy GL450 for that much.