Milazzo

I have a small oil leak coming from the where the transmission and engine meet at the bottom of the truck.
Is this the head gasket? if not - what is it . Is it a big or small job to have the gasket replaced between the transmission and engine.
I have 170k miles on the truck and try my best to keep it in good shape.

khomer2

Possible cause

Milazzo

I am thinking it may be time to say Goodbye to my ML. I told myself that I will keep the truck until it does not give me a big problem. I think I now have a Big Problem.

khomer2

One man's junk is another one's gold.
You won't know for sure until you investigate further.
GL with your ML

BigRob

One location I found that was hidden was in the oil housing gaskets. It's a fairly minor job. I belive it's like 3 or 4 gaskets that start to leak on these. Easy to do during an oil swap. Let me know if that helps or if you want more information. Take care.

Milazzo

Hey BigRob,
Do you mean the value cover gaskets or something else ?

Brettriehl101

That will most definitely be your rear main seal. The part is cheap (the seal, as well as the aluminum plate its pressed in to which should be replaced) but you need to remove your transmission to do it. I think it's possible to do in a day on a lift but on the ground using jackstands it's a big job.

BigRob

Something else. There are a few rubber gasket seals that seal the oil filter housing to the oil cooler and below the housing. These go bad and cause a leak that drips down and look worse than they are. If you do a search on YouTube for ML Oil Filter Gasket Replacement you should find videos describing what I'm talking about for more clarification. Hope that helps. Not sure if posting a link to YouTube is a forum rule or not.

Rob