Oil Filter Housing Split
 

Went out to start my car this morning, heard a pop and preceded to back out of my garage. Luckily, it was dark and I looked back to see that the garage door was closing and saw that I was leaking a trail of fluid. I pulled back into the garage,shut it off and opened the hood to see oil everywhere!. Pulled the front engine cover and saw that the Oil Filter Housing had split! Relieved that it was not a major engine failure I called my local MB dealership parts department and was told that there was not one in stock state wide. They ordered one from a neighboring state (Ohio) to be delivered tomorrow AM to them. No additional shipping cost to me so that was good news. I have my R230 covered and put away for the winter in the back of my garage so it will be put back on the road to fill the gape until I can clean up the mess and install the new housing. I just turned 101K miles so theoretically, 9-10 times that cover has been R&R'd for oil changes. I did the last one so I guess perhaps I was the straw...................!?

Bob


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Ouch!
That 25Nm is paramount. Back when I still trusted Stealership techs I was hanging out with one of them when he tightened the plastic oil filter cap on my E60 BMW. The rating was something like 27Nm but he was using a breaker bar and actually put some muscle into it. I was so stunned that I didn't even have a reaction. The thing didn't break but I don't think it was too far from it.
Yours might have been a bad one if you tightened it according to spec and it did this.

Good thinking to stop and check.
I sometimes buy spares of certain components, many of which admittedly sit for a long time lol.
Although I only hand-tighten that housing, I did get an extra one as it seemed eventually torque and heat cycles could crack it. Wasn't that much as I recall.

Edit: just a comment that it's amazing how much oil can be lost in just a few seconds. I'm sure that the generous oil capacity of this car was a blessing. I had an oil pressure sender split on my 57 BBC, in just about a block , a few seconds , it lost a bit over 5 qts out of a 7 oil pan.

Yeah, dealer quoted only $38.50......

Wow, that plastic housing is definitely the weak link.

Any kind of failure is bad, but I think Bob got kind of lucky that it failed in his garage and not ~500 miles away from it.

Max

Wow...

Oil cap not installed completely = oil all over the engine... https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...gine-need.html

Oil cap installed TOO completely = oil all over the engine... WOW, just WOW

I've done 15 oil changes with that filter cap on two MBs to date. A good two-hand-tightening is all that's needed. Haven't seen any oil 'cept what goes in the siphon pump. YMMV

So that's what happens if you over tighten those. That sucks.

I recommend you replace the belt as well. large amounts of oil contamination can degrade the belt. Then buy yourself some electronic cleaner spray (fancy aerosol alcohol spray) to clean the nearby electrical connectors.

I don't think the oil filter housing was turned too tight. You can see the flats are very sharp and NOT deformed/rounded off.

To close out the thread,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Just finished cleaning motor area and under body paneling. Some areas were almost completely inaccessible under the steering rack but I was able to stuff rags in and sop up most of the mess. All in all, turned out better than I expected.
Installed new filter housing and new filter purchased at the dealership. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the cost of the OE filter at $24,50!! I bit the bullet and paid for it anyway as I felt like they really did a good job of getting the filter housing over nighted to them at no charge to me. I usually pay less than half that for OE quality filters from online sources. I drained out what oil was left in the crankcase then added back 8 Quarts of Mobil1 0W40, I then reinstalled the new filter and housing using a 74MM x 14 filter wrench torquing to 25nm exactly. 25nm is just slightly more than hand tight for a weakling like me.

Now on to the really big mess on my garage floor!!

Bob

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For garage floor - rent pressure washer. You will need to cover walls from overspray, but that will remove the oil residue.
Still expect some stains soaked into concrete, where Coca-Cola is a good bleach. Yes, the stuff we drink

Actually to get oil out of concrete take some Palmolive or Joy dish soap detergent from the kitchen. Drip in on the oil stains then rub it in with your foot. Leave it, then in about a week hose it off and most of the time the oil stain is gone.

Thanks for the suggestions. It's freezing here in Michigan and too cold for dragging the hose and/or power washer out. I've got all of the wet oily residue cleaned up so only the stain itself to worry about. I'm just going to put down a light coating of oil dry for now and wait for spring thaw. My garage layout is such that I can walk around the oily stain area and not track into my home.

Thanks again,

Bob

Dang, 25Nm is really nothing. Makes me want to grab a new housing next oil change, and the proper socket to remove it. I've been using an adjustable wrench (has hex socket fitting on top of my housing) and just snug it up.