E320 - smoke oil and shifting issues

Sep 5, 2023 | 12:00 PM

VivaJ73

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S211 E320 4-matic

E320 - smoke oil and shifting issues

I have a couple of issues with my 2004 E320 4-matic (W211, M112 E32 engine).

1. There is a burning smell coming from the car. after inspecting today. there seems to be smoke coming from around the sparkplugs and exhaust. I see some oil but not much.
I recently changed the valve cover gaskets. I doubt they are leaking (will check anyway).
I suspect I may have overfilled the engine oil. There is no signal from the car and the board computer says 6 liters (which would actually be very low I think - it should be 8?, also a low oil level should trigger an alert.
The dipstick however shows the oil level over the max part (around 6 or 7 cm in total).
- I guess overfilling could lead to smoke. but why would the car indicate there is only 6 liters in the engine?

2. This week I had 2 occasions where the transmission wouldn't shift gears (automatically or manually).
No indicators or alerts on the dash.
After stopping the car and restarting, the problem was gone.
There are several issues that can cause this, but could it be related to the oil overfilling?

Any help welcome! thanks in advance

edit:
- I drained the oil and got about 7.0 - 7.5 liters from the drain plug. This seems normal I guess. Doesn't explain why the computer shows only 6. Could be because my car was only on front jacks?
- There is some oil at the bottom of of the AC compressor. At some point I spilled a considerable amount of oil when filling the engine. I expected this to be gone by now. Perhaps there is some oil in the AC compressor and power steering pump (this one also makes a whirring sound)?

Last edited by VivaJ73; Sep 5, 2023 at 01:14 PM.

Sep 5, 2023 | 11:21 PM