Also sometimes, you might think that the oil leak is coming from a bad valve cover gasket, but actually is coming from somewhere else. As in my case.
The oil leak from the drivers side cam adjuster housing, was just running down the edge of the valve cover, then migrating along the bottom towards the back. So it appeared to be a bad valve cover gasket.
So since we needed to replace the drivers side valve cover gasket, why not replace both driver and passenger sides, so we did. Then the oil leak came back, replaced the gasket again.
This time we called Mercedes, and asked them did we possibly get a bad batch of gaskets. And they say no. Then we realized the oil leak was actually coming from a different spot, the cam adjusters housing.
So we replaced the driver side but not the passenger side. No more oil leaks. Then months later another oil leak. We immediately thought it was the valve cover gasket until we realized the we didn't replace the cam adjuster housing gasket on the passenger side.
And that was my very issue. So lesson learned replaced gaskets in pairs. I then had another oil leak, this time it was the oil cooler return lines, that run back into the side of the block. The o-rings seals went bad, had those replaced. Now officially no more oil leaks whatsoever.
As these cars age, all the gaskets and o-rings become brittle, and start pissing oil out everywhere. At this point, I've replaced the:
oil filter housing gasket
Both valve cover gaskets
oil cooler return line o-rings
cam adjuster housing
The red line represents my oil leak, and the yellow is the cam adjuster housing, I was describing.
hey whatsup, I know this post is kind of old, but I believe I have a valve cover gasket leak as well. Do you know if the cam adjuster housing gasket is in the same area as the valve cover gasket? Was wondering if I can just change that while I’m changing the valve cover gasket
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
