Darkmann

I have a 05 500 as most of you know. I also have a 01 E430 and some other cool rides. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, out of curiosity, I popped off the plastic engine cover to just take a look. Boy was I surprised. At 72K, there was clearly a slow oil leak somewhere on the passenger side of the engine rocker cover. I investigated and it looked like it was coming from the coil pack area or head gasket. I took the car into my local MB shop for diagnosis and I believe they think it's the head gasket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, since the E430 and the ML500 have basically the same engine, I popped up the cover of my ML500 and, yep, you guessed it - similar oil leak. So, check yours, especially if you're near end of warranty!!! The ML is still under warranty so she'll go back in for that sometime soon. It's not a drip-drip you'll notice on the garage floor. If your's is leaking you'll notice the area is quite wet from oil vapors. I don't believe this affects the V6 engines, but check anyway.

Please post if you observe this with your motor. I'll like to keep a list.

I'm editing this several hours after the original post:
Here are some pics - I found out after posting that the culprit could be the oil collector (whatever that is) and not the head gasket.