1998 Ml320 Forbidden Oil Glitter :(
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Nov 2024
Posts: 3
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From: Thousand Oaks, CA
1998 ML320
1998 Ml320 Forbidden Oil Glitter :(
Just purchased my 98' ml320 of march of this year: 70k miles 1 owner garage kept and in (almost) perfect shape. Immediately changed all the fluids including the oil (Mobil 1 euro blend 5w-40) which looked perfect (I didn't know when it was last changed but the car appears to be well maintained) and plugs and filters, no red flags. Only major issue I've had was the water pump was showing signs of failure (wobbly pully/fan) at 74k which was promptly replaced (part was described as a water pump including oil cooler? I didn't do the repair myself so I wish I knew more info on this). Today I went to change the oil @75,600 miles and noticed a fine, gold/bronze glitter from drained oil, mostly non-magnetic, and I have yet to cut open the filter however I couldn't find any particles after shining a flashlight. This was extremely concerning considering I didn't see anything like this during previous oil changes of this car or my w123 with 250k miles. How cooked am I? Where did this glitter come from? Is a little glitter normal for these engines? How much longer does this engine have before I have to start looking for a donor? Will any 3.2 m112 work or does it need to be specifically from an ML? My only thought for the cause of this is maybe something fell inside when I was changing the plugs or a piece of sealant could've broken off and gotten stuck in an oil passage when I resealed the valve breather covers (both unlikely but I'm truly stumped). I know the majority of the internet says this is basically the beginning of the end for my engine, but I've never seen this issue before on a relatively low mileage, well cared for m112.
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Nov 2024
Posts: 3
Likes: 1
From: Thousand Oaks, CA
1998 ML320
Update
Just thought I would provide an update on this issue even though its been awhile. I suspect it was some sort of oil delivery blockage/sludge issue since the car was rarely used by the previous owners over 26 years so I doubled my oil change frequency, bought a magnetic drain plug, and added Liqui Moly engine flush before the next change. Now almost 10,000 miles later the "glitter" has just about completely disappeared and the engine runs just fine. The "milky" color of the engine oil was just due to my camera, I had a mechanic do an overnight coolant system pressure test just to be sure and it held, never had an issue with loosing coolant on this car anyway... knock on wood
