c21no1

I recently purchased a 1995 C280 for my daughter, it has 80k miles and has a pretty good oil leak that looks to be timing cover or head gasket possibly? It does drip on the exhaust and smokes after it's hot, my questions are

1. Where is the best place to buy a head set for it?
2. How hard of a job is it for someone who does a lot of his own repairs?

Any advice from someone who has done one would be great!
Thanks
Dan

hamada128

best place to get the head gasket set would be the dealer, i think it should be around $100.
as far for the job i really dont know how hard is it.

brightwell

I had a 96 C280 which had the cylinder head gasket oil leak that is common with this engine. Mine happened at about 110,000 miles. The oil comes out at the front right hand side of the engine, looking forwards. You don't necessarily see the actual leak, but the drip tray underneath the engine collects the oil and periodically dumps it. When that happpens it can look quite dramatic, with a big pool of oil suddenly appearing underneath the car. Then you see nothing for quite a while, possibly a couple of weeks, until the next dump. I was told that the leak is not fatal and that if you can live with it all you have to do is make sure you keep the engine topped up. However, I couldn't live with it - it was like wetting my pants in public! Also, the cost of synthetic oil was such that I could see it would not be more than a couple of years until I had spent the same as having it fixed. I had it done by an independent Mercedes specialist, and it cost about £800 (in 2002). I think it was 12 hours work. I was quoted £1200 by the main dealer. The replacement gasket was to an improved design, so the problem should not recur. And it was great to be able to go out in public again without fear of "having an accident"!