dduke

I have a '99 430, and experienced the failed harmonic balancer.The SA said it scraped the oil pan & could cause future leaks. About 6 mos. after the repair I noticed a leak down dripping on to the 2 hoses underneath the chasis. Only evident when the cars is running.Wouldn't an oil pan leak at all times?

Could it be something other than the oil /oilpan? It has resently stopped leaking & there have been no apparent loss of oil during the leaking period. Could this have been from the Defective /Recalled Power steering clamps? No way to check the Transmission level and all seems fine?

Any thoughts or ideas?
Thanks

azinn

I had a faulty Oil Quality Sensor replaced this fall due to and engine oil leak. You might have the shop take a look at it. Not sure where it's located though.

dduke

What were the symptoms of the faulty oil sensor ,other than leak? Was the FSS working accurately?
Thanks
David

azinn

I didn't even know about the leak till the tech pointed it out to me while in for the harmonic balancer upgrade. He also caught a leak comming from the transmission. As far as I know the FSS was working okay. Since you've experienced the harmonic balancer failure you might want to keep an eye on this thread
http://www.mercedesshop.com/shopforu...threadid=63512 Seems Mercedes might have an offical recall for this problem soon and you might recover some $$$$$$'s.


Alan

ML God

If your harmonic balancer fell apart that bad to where it scraped the oil pan the I am sure it did damage to your front timing cover. If this was taken care of during the warrenty period them the oil pan and timing cover should have been replaced. Very commen. we replace a lot of timing covers and oil pans. The way youroil pan is you have an upper and a lower one. it is the upper one that gets scraped and may not leak oil untill the engine is running

dduke

ML god,

Is there an epoxy that I could use to seal the leak? If not what's the labor & cost involved in replacing the upper oil pan?

Thanks for the Help

ML God

If the timming cover and upper oil pan are scrapped and leaking then no you can epoxy it..I know warrenty pays us 18hr to replace the timming cover and oil pan, then i am sure the parts are around 800-900 bucks...it is a very expensive repair...but it is also very comom. A lot of times MBZ will pay for the repair even if the vehicle is out of warrenty. Ask your dealer if you can get a "RFR"

dduke

Thanks for the quick reply. $900 will buy a lot of oil..........

When it happened(harmonic balance failure)the SA said he would try to get MB to cover parts since it was a common problem. They did not because I had 70k on the vehicle.

I understand there may be a recall comming soon.Maybe then I can get them to cover my past losses as well as repair the leak.
I have since purchased an after market warranty ,I wonder if that would cover it?

Thanks,

David