When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Just bought my 2016 GLE350 couple month ago did an oil change notice some oil spot around the engine bay looks like gasket seal may need replacement uploaded some photo please zoom in, anyone had this issue cost of repair? Thanks
I have similar leakage on a 2017 3.5L V6 M276 DE35 with 45k miles. It’s a kindergarten level fail for Mercedes Benz.
The oil cap residue looks like it could be spilled oil from the oil change, the pictures are not very good quality.
The others are what the dealer and Mercedes call “vapors” and in their view are not leaks. Therefore in their view are not warranty repairs. There may be the usual variation in interpretation among dealers on this.
I don’t see cam cover re-gasketing reported on this site much. It could be that these leaks, which is what they are, do not sufficiently increase over time to cause concern.
Replacing gaskets looks tricky to me because there are three or four parts that come together (poor design Mercedes, you know better) at the front chain cover, cylinder head, cam cover and cam position solenoid cover plate. This means a lot of disassembly and care when resealing is needed.
I have experience with leaking poorly designed engines, namely the 4.2L inline six from Jaguar in the 1980s. A bad design cannot be made to be leak proof.
In the M276 DE35 there are too many parts coming together at a physically concentrated point, and the normal engine vibration causes the seals and gaskets to fail. No amount of resealing would fix something like that, it recurs again and again.
I know it's an old thread. My friend (Mercedes Master Tech) said it's very common leak on all the M276 motor. He said some coating that they use at the assembly manufacture plant. He told me to clean it and get the coating off and should fix it.
07-16-2020, 04:35 AM
