KleemanE550

I recently purchased a 2012 E550 4matic, 100,000 miles in great shape. It has been tuned by Kleeman in Colorado and has amazing power. I noticed a slight burning oil smell and had a well respected local shop look at the car. This shop does quite a bit of Mercedes work, but works on everything. I do not have a mercedes dealer in my town. Shop said my right hand turbo is leaking. They insisted the oil lines to and from the turbo were not leaking. The said it’s not leaking a lot. They said to fix it would require a new turbo and removal of the engine, a job they don’t really want to do.

My understanding of turbos bid is the dont usually just leak - unless the oil drain is line is linked or plugged or if the car has too high of crankcase pressure.

Any thoughts anyone?

MBENZTECH

I haven’t looked at your vehicle but I can tell you that most likely it is leaking from the front cylinder head covers.

kajtek1

My thoughts are that you need to get your hands dirty, wash the area, stuff paper towels where the oil shows up and pinpoint the leak by observing it after short drives.

mercy-me

Turbo replacement according to WIS does require engine removal. You are looking at 15-20 hours labor not including parts, see attached flat rate bare bones R&I times. This is major work and does require some specialized equipment to R&I the engine/trans unit. I agree with the other two posters. Kajtek1 has a point.

Wish I had more to offer,

Good luck,
Bob

KleemanE550

I researched turbochargers in general. One site sais clogged engine air filters can cause a turbo to leak. I checked mine (like I said I had just purchased the car) and there was an actual pile of dirt on each filter. I replaced them, seems like the leak is gone. I took the car on a 400 mike trip - no burning oil smell.

S-Prihadi

Hi Klee,

01. It wont be that simple. If this is a true turbo only issue, you probably have carbon deposit build up at turbo oil gallery which may raised the oil pressure ,
or
02. Your turbine wheel shaft and the oil seal is not in a good condition already.

Suction from engine alone even with quite a clogged air filter, but has no impact on your RPM to redline performance, can not suck oil from/thru oil seal.
Those oil seal can withstand good oil pressure and any additional vacuum ( negative pressure ) created by clogged filter is not enough to suck oil from/thru oil seal if 01 and 02 is healthy.

With 01 and/or 02, clogged air filter is the final hammer.

Doesn't your engine have the vacuum sensor to detect clogged air filter/s ?
On my M276 DELA30 I got one sensor on each air filter housing.

.

KleemanE550

I took another trip of 600 miles or so. At normal driving rpm it seems fine, where before it would leak oil and burn off. However, if I run the car hard, I will still get oil burning smell. It doesn’t seem as bad as it was but still noticeable. I do have sensors in the air box. So, I guess I will drive it for a while and see what happens.

cocobeex

Do you have oil deposit on those hoses and solenoid ? like mine in the picture.

S-Prihadi

Hi Klee,

Hard driving spin turbo fast and the oil leak out of the unhealthy seal and/or shaft imperfection.
Damn, that is one dirty air filter

You don't need to drive long distance to get un-healthy turbo to leak oil.
Do redline RPM many times 1st and 2nd gear aka brutal acceleration, that will suck oil out of the un-healthy seal/shaft.
Get a friend to see mild blue smoke coming out of your tail pipe, to confirm that indeed this is turbo related or partially turbo related.

I hope its not piston rings or valves being worn out too.
Get your workshop with a scope to do "relative compression" test for obvious uneven compression values , its fast & much easier than mechanical spark-plugs removal type compression test, albeit no real pressure reference value.
So at the least you have a peace of mind dollar wise if indeed this is only a turbo issue and not 1 or more cylinders burning oil too.

Your description of : I noticed a slight burning oil smell can mean many things.
.

KleemanE550

I purchased used turbos, had them rebuilt and balanced by Tims Turbos, and then installed. Right turbo was leaking oil, left was fine. The turbo wheels seemed pretty tight.

On the rebuilt turbos the waste gate mechanism needed to be rebuilt too. Tech said it’s a common issue with internal waste gate turbos.

I had contacted a couple turbo repair shops, Tim’s was the only one that I could find willing to work on them.

Costs:
used turbo - $300 each
rebuild turbos - $900 each
labor - $1600
additional parts - $900

total $4900

lessons learned: You should also install new coolant lines, there are a bunch of o rings and other bits that need to be purchased. The turnaround time was so fast from Tims Turbos, I think the purchase of used turbos didn’t gain me much - the car was at the shop for weeks - as they were sourcing other parts - I could have had my turbos rebuilt.

So, not an expense I wanted, but the car works good now.

TeeEl

Only $1600 in labor seems like a hell of a deal.

KleemanE550

I think they were sorry for the low quote.