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I've never experienced sludge in any of my vehicles ever. I only put oil in the car, nothing else as far as oil additives or cleaners. It's a different story if you buy used and don't know history or coming into a problem. Totally get that. I'm sure that would be a scenario in which I'd have to come across and try to fix if it were my vehicle.
That being said with nearly 200k miles on my truck and my wife's car approaching that zero sludge, zero need to ever run any cleaners through it and always do regular oil changes. Zero problems. I'm just under the mindset that if things are going as they should I don't want to introduce other chemicals into a spot that is designed for oil only.
I made that mistake once of adding some performance bottle of something into my trucks transmission and all it did was make the tranny slip and search for gears. After 50 miles I said enough of this and flushed it all out and put in new fluid/filter..etc. Never had that issue again.
Engine oil sludge is an odd thing. I can imagine it happening with extreme neglect, but there were some (Lexus/Toyota) engines that developed it even with proper changes. As I recall, the theory on those cases was that the engines were made in such a way that some of the internal oil passageways did not get enough pressure to sufficiently move things along, so the oil would sit stagnant. Like Nigel, I've never had sludge problems, ever. Of all the cars I've owned and maintained in my family (mine, wife's, kids') we've well surpassed the million mile mark with no oil related issues. I once even had a crappy old Chrysler with the 2.2l Mitsubishi turbo engine and it went over 200K miles with oil changes every 10K miles (full synthetic) and other than the rest of the car falling apart, the engine was strong and didn't burn or leak a drop.
BTW, some people see some "jelly" on the oil cap and immediately think that is sludge. It isn't. The jelly is just condensation that is easily cleared out by some good driving at operating temperature. If the lid always seems coated with "peanut butter", you could have a problem with water in the oil, usually coolant due to a crack or a bad seal somewhere.
Well I shall see real soon. My CLK has only been to the dealer for oil changes and I follow the standard interval in the car which looks like around 13,000mi between changes (for me that's about twice a year). Anyway, I've now got 200k miles on it with a developing oil pan leak. Since the dealer siphons the oil on changes I'm a little scared to see what I find in the pan when I take it off.
Also note I've started buying cans of BG MOA on Amazon and throwing one in after oil changes. I can't tell if its really doing anything or a waste of money.
Been putting off fixing my oil pan leak cause of the cold winter. I'm due for an oil change so I'm going to tackle this in the next week or two.
#1 There seem to be many gasket gels out there, some high priced, some not. What everyone's take? What should I use? Tossing around the idea of using Reinzosil.. Is this good or bad? Autohausaz has a whole listing of them
#2 Has anyone gotten a leak from above the upper oil pan? Hopefully its only leaking from between the upper and lower pans.
#3 The shop said getting the old sealant off of the bottom is a real b*&ch. Is it really that hard? I'm thinking of buying some CRC Gasket remover spray and a plastic scraper.
It was the lower pan seal leaking on my CLK550. It was caused by the dealer when they did the "balance shaft" repair. They either did a poor job of installing he sealant or did not wait until it was fully cured before filling and running the engine. If the leak is on the upper seal, then you do have to lift the engine to remove the pan.
As for which sealant to use, I ordered genuine MBZ stuff. I also ordered their removal and cleaner chemicals. It's all made by LocTite, so you may find that cheaper elsewhere. The gasket removal chemical worked fairly well, but I still have to scrape old RTV off the surfaces. WIS warns NOT to scrape the surfaces, but it really can't be helped if you want a pristine surface. I used a plastic wedge so not to scratch the surfaces. A microfiber cloth is also good at removing old RTV, but it requires a lot of elbow work. After the surfaces were free of all old RTV, I used the cleaner prep spray, let it dry, and then used a bead of RTV. It sealed perfectly.
BTW, the MBZ sealant comes in a tube designed for a dispenser tool that's basically a small caulk gun. That tool is not cheap, so what I did was use a piece of PVC pipe that fit perfectly inside the back of the tube, and then inserted all that into my regular-sized caulk gun. It worked well.
Now having said all that, I have used Permatex quick-setting black RTV on other jobs, for example the breather covers on the valve covers for M112/M113 engines. I also used it on my older daughter's Ford Windstar oil pan. It comes in a dispenser tube that works like a can of Cheese Whiz and is ready for refill and engine use 15 minutes after installation. I was a bit skeptical of using it on an oil pan, but it worked fantastically. I am not sure I'd try that on my MNZ oil pan unless I was just not afraid of possibly having to redo the job but in the case with my daughter's car, it was outside, in her driveway, with a busted oil pan, and I did not want to make two 120-mile round trips to finish the job. It worked quite well.
It was the lower pan seal leaking on my CLK550. It was caused by the dealer when they did the "balance shaft" repair. They either did a poor job of installing he sealant or did not wait until it was fully cured before filling and running the engine. If the leak is on the upper seal, then you do have to lift the engine to remove the pan.
As for which sealant to use, I ordered genuine MBZ stuff. I also ordered their removal and cleaner chemicals. It's all made by LocTite, so you may find that cheaper elsewhere. The gasket removal chemical worked fairly well, but I still have to scrape old RTV off the surfaces. WIS warns NOT to scrape the surfaces, but it really can't be helped if you want a pristine surface. I used a plastic wedge so not to scratch the surfaces. A microfiber cloth is also good at removing old RTV, but it requires a lot of elbow work. After the surfaces were free of all old RTV, I used the cleaner prep spray, let it dry, and then used a bead of RTV. It sealed perfectly.
BTW, the MBZ sealant comes in a tube designed for a dispenser tool that's basically a small caulk gun. That tool is not cheap, so what I did was use a piece of PVC pipe that fit perfectly inside the back of the tube, and then inserted all that into my regular-sized caulk gun. It worked well.
Now having said all that, I have used Permatex quick-setting black RTV on other jobs, for example the breather covers on the valve covers for M112/M113 engines. I also used it on my older daughter's Ford Windstar oil pan. It comes in a dispenser tube that works like a can of Cheese Whiz and is ready for refill and engine use 15 minutes after installation. I was a bit skeptical of using it on an oil pan, but it worked fantastically. I am not sure I'd try that on my MNZ oil pan unless I was just not afraid of possibly having to redo the job but in the case with my daughter's car, it was outside, in her driveway, with a busted oil pan, and I did not want to make two 120-mile round trips to finish the job. It worked quite well.
Thanks! Looks like I got work to do. I think my CLK is starting to completely fail. I cant keep up with the issues anymore! Right now I have oil leaks, PS hose leaks, occasional misfires (which I'm starting to think is from a stretched timing chain, etc..uhhh). End of the summer its time to upgrade to that CLS I've got my eye on.
I seriously doubt your misfires are due to a stretched timing chain. They almost never fail on the M272 engines, and when they do, you get some specific error codes. Misfires are usually due to ignition issues (plug, coils, wiring) or problems with things like the MAF sensor, O2 sensors, or end-of-life catalytic converters.
I seriously doubt your misfires are due to a stretched timing chain. They almost never fail on the M272 engines, and when they do, you get some specific error codes. Misfires are usually due to ignition issues (plug, coils, wiring) or problems with things like the MAF sensor, O2 sensors, or end-of-life catalytic converters.
The misfires are rare (once or twice a year) but I just got one today, if it continues I'll change the coil. Its not really the misfire that bugging me... its the odd idle that seems like it wants to stall sometimes (never actually stalled) and no particular error codes. I haven't really thought about the catalytic converter nor do I know how to detect if its bad other than a bad smell (which I've never had with this car). Back to the timing... I read somewhere that it should be between 10-15deg and if it goes over then it could be a loose chain. I was going to watch it on my scanner on my way home today to see what it reads at idle. Will see. Not to change the topic of this thread.
I am surprised to hear that these cars specify 0 weight oil. That concerned my in my wife's new Honda, but it's a 2015 model. That's really what recommended for these cars? I always thought 5w was thin but I always use what the manufacturer recommend, but I don't always trust the recommended intervals. There is incentive to reduce the estimated operating costs of new vehicles. One reason we are seeing timing belts going away. My New Mustang states the transmission is sealed for life and needs no maintenance. I say hogwash. It's getting serviced at regular intervals. Dang Ford components are starting to cost as much as MB parts, somtimes more!
The misfires are rare (once or twice a year) but I just got one today, if it continues I'll change the coil. Its not really the misfire that bugging me... its the odd idle that seems like it wants to stall sometimes (never actually stalled) and no particular error codes. I haven't really thought about the catalytic converter nor do I know how to detect if its bad other than a bad smell (which I've never had with this car). Back to the timing... I read somewhere that it should be between 10-15deg and if it goes over then it could be a loose chain. I was going to watch it on my scanner on my way home today to see what it reads at idle. Will see. Not to change the topic of this thread.
Please keep us posted of your findings regarding the odd idle? I have a similar 'almost stall' situation combined with a barely noticeable 'blip' in the idle. I notice the stall most typically when car is on any degree of incline, especially if I have foot off the brake. My initial suspicion is that the car may be slightly low on transmission fluid? It's like the car struggles to hold the grade in D, if that makes sense. The idle bumble seems to my novice head like possibly a coil pack on its way out. I hope to secure an SDS copy and start that search soon enough...
Please keep us posted of your findings regarding the odd idle? I have a similar 'almost stall' situation combined with a barely noticeable 'blip' in the idle. I notice the stall most typically when car is on any degree of incline, especially if I have foot off the brake. My initial suspicion is that the car may be slightly low on transmission fluid? It's like the car struggles to hold the grade in D, if that makes sense. The idle bumble seems to my novice head like possibly a coil pack on its way out. I hope to secure an SDS copy and start that search soon enough...
Any/all thoughts most welcome!
Mine does it when it's cold, sometimes it seems like it is going to stall from when I take my foot off the break and go to the gas.. It never does stall, but acts like it's going to.
Does anyone know if a missfire will turn on the CEL? Can the Icarsoft i980 detect missfires?
Also, if I idle with my foot firmly on the break pedal there is no roughness, but if I let off the pressure
on the brake pedal it seems to be rough.
What are the common thoughts about motor mounts causing this?
We might as well hijack this thread since it got ugly earlier.
Last edited by Kelvin Bellrose; 03-29-2018 at 11:27 PM.
Finally got time to replace the oil pan seal... Ran into all kinds of issues! First I don't recommend this unless you have all the normal mechanic goodies. Emptying oil and taking off pan was pretty easy except for one bolt behind a support bar that takes a 47 Torx. After breaking two of my Torx I decided to used a narrow socket extender to go beside it. ( then I got it off ).
Putting the thing on was a different story... I stripped one bolt and broke another off so oil ended up leaking out of the broken bolt hole LOL. I even noticed a helicoil on one bolt already (The dealership must have stripped or broke when years ago when they did my balance shaft repair) Since I have no experience drilling out bolts and taping in a helicoil I decided to bring the car to a cheapo shop near me. They ended up charging me $130 to take the pan back off, fix the broken bolt, put two helicoils in and put the pan back on (they agreed to use my MB sealant and reuse the oil I had put in a day before. All in all I got out of it easy with $130!
If you try this job yourself (DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN)
As for the pan it was pretty good, no gunk or anything. There was a few very small pieces of plastic in the pan (no idea what they were from).
08-25-2017, 09:53 AM
