Valve Cover Still Leaking??
 

Need some input from you guys. I had a leak coming from bolt 11 of the driver side. I replaced the gasket myself and test drove it, but still found oil leaking from the same bolt. I loosened all the screws to see if the seal was seated properly and retightened everything in the correct sequence. Still leaking..... maybe i missed an important step not listed in the pdf?? what did i miss?? or what else could cause a leak in that area? btw, the old seal did not have any cracks or anything, was still very elastic and looked fine. I do have LTH. Could the extra heat cause anything?

If I cant figure it out, it's going into the dealership to diagnose and repair, but they want $1000 for both side. Does the price seem right? or overpriced?
They also gave me an option to do one side, not sure the cost but each side is independent of one another so....I'd assume $500, if not a small premium for splitting a job, max $600?
Passenger side isn't leaking so should I replace just one or both?
I don't mind doing it again if i missed a hidden step to save $1000 but if not then i'm SOL.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...a5028b6ffe.png

When you had the valve off, did you fully clean both surfaces of the cover and head? RTV compound could also work in you favor.
My valve cover leak came from the front and not the rear, after having the valve cover gaskets replaced twice, we figured out that the leak was actually coming form the Cam Adjuster Housing.

Take this with a grain of salt because I'm just now learning these engines, but I have valve covers pulled and took a closer look at DS#11, and that would seem a fairly odd place for it to leak - it's not really an area where oil pools internally(best I can tell)? Maybe leaking somewhere in the 2/5/7 and blowing back when driving? Only other thing I can think of, other than the obvious(not seated properly, crack) is maybe oil in bolt cavity providing some lubrication to cause over-tightening?
You're obviously aware of what it takes to install, but $500 per side seems extreme to me - worth searching for an independent in able to.

To piggyback on Yuille36, the wires below my DS front cam cover were pretty soaked with oil (not obvious and may have come from leak elsewhere) but if you need to address, part number for that gasket is #1560162221... at least I think - # was hard to find and I'll know for certain in a few days when parts arrive :)

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:

1. oil filter housing gasket
2. Both valve cover gaskets
3. oil cooler return line o-rings
4. cam adjuster housing

The red line represents my oil leak, and the yellow is the cam adjuster housing, I was describing.

1. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...bd2b5f1c68.pnghttps://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...81a652f969.png
   

Here is the location of the oil cooler return lines, these babies are very difficult to access, not to mentioned hot. Outlined in blue.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...169d5c18af.png

No, I don't have the actual procedure. My Guys at Benz Elite Automotive performed this service. But I was told, that the cam do not need to be timed. It's a simply remove and replace gasket.

No need to mess with cams.

It's a tedious job, but not hard. Pay a lot of attention to seating the gasket properly at bolt #11. You have to slide the valve cover underneath the wiring looms and that can be tricky whilst maintaining the gasket clearance.I took a mirror and spent a few mins making sure nothing slipped before bolting the valve covers down.

Ahh. Gotcha.

Understand that your only removing the cover, and that the timing isn't affected by this.

Then by all means take it to someone that knows what the hell their doing. :slap:

Once the valve covers are removed, the front covers just unbolt and remove forward. They are aligned on two dowels, so pay attention to those.

I had the same problem. Is not dificult at all. Just make sure everything is clean and the gasket seated properly before putting it back together.

it turned out that the leak was caused by a warped cover. tried resealing it a few times with new gaskets each time. finally decided to buy a new cover which stopped the leak.

$1000 seems like a lot for 30 minutes of work...

stealership here charged 250/hour and you know how they like to take their time lol but ended up bringing it to my iddy shop and got both sides replaced for like $500 and a new driver side cover for $300 (dont remember the exact cost).

Snr.
 

C63 valve covers
 

Are the plastic and aluminum interchangeable?
they have the same part numbers. Mine are plastic and I can't fathom that therefore I would like to change mine to aluminum if that is a match.
Thanks

they are, but require different gaskets, mounting bolts for the covers, and ignition coils.

you'll need to match those items to the cover in question.

also the aluminum or magnesium? covers are discontinued. a few members have spare covers for sale create a thread asking. I have my passenger side metal cover, but planning to keep as a wall ornament.