Dame78

I've had my 2007 s550 for about 10 years, went from driving it almost everyday to barely driving it but I would start it just to hear it run.. last week after about a month of sitting I took her out of the garage and drove her, about 5 miles down the road i began to hear rattling when I accelerated so I pulled over and cut the car off, cut the car back put it in drive and it took off but kept rattling so I pulled off the road again and cut it off again.. called a tow truck driver, as I waited I started the car up and accelerated while in park and everything seemed ok but the car wouldn't move, when the tow truck driver picked the car up he noticed a small puddle of oil.. I haven't took it anywhere to be looked at yet but when I start it and look under car I don't see anything leaking but when I put it in gear you can see a small oil leak... has anyone been through this before or have any advice before I take it to someone that I know is going to try and scam me.

BOTUS

that's not enough info - it certainly doesn't sound normal

without catastrophic failure of engine or gearbox the rattle doesn't makes sense 9and a catastrophic failure of these is also rather odd for a car that's done nothing
when it drove aside from the noise, did the engine power and gearbox behave as you remember - or was performance and gear changes impacted ?
could be noise from other components making the noise

is it a 4 wheel drive version - will say 4matic inside or on the boot ?
ABC suspension ? this can leak and make funny noises - its an optional higher spec suspension system so me had
PAS steering pump noise?
Perhaps the Alternator / PAS / AC / Water pump drive belt idler bearings self destructed and the leak it from the belt flying around and damaging something

if your skills aren't enough to take a look, you will need to find someone... merc interdependent's are used to crazy cost jobs - they shouldn't rip you off - all Mercedes from the last 20 years are so unreliable they have no time to rob you - the queue round the building gets longer every minute - and they can't even spend all the money they make as there isn't enough time in the day

Dame78

Thanks Botus really appreciate your reply, it gives me more things to look at. I thought it could be the timing chain snapping, blown head gasket or transmission issue being that the car now won't move, you can put it in gear and it will roll either way a little but that's it, car starts up fine, revs up fine when in park. Don't know how to describe the last time I drove other than the rattling noise that did sound like a chain rattling noise as I accelerated but I'm going to go ahead and take it to get looked at and hopefully it's not catastrophic. Thanks again

BOTUS

....auto gearboxes don't work they way you infer - there is no connection between the wheels and the engine, transmission fluid does the connection

the fact you say it doesn't move and you have strange noises, is now making me think your torque converter has blow its brains out - plug in some diagnostic gear and see what it says

Polo35m

I am really taking a blind stab in the dark here but where is the oil leaking front of the engine rear of the engine or somewhere else but I'm going to take a stab and say that maybe the harmonic balancer on the front of the engine which is the main Drive pulley has gone bad and the noise you're hearing is it possibly rubbing and that's where your oil leak could be from but if they total stab in the dark. This happened to me once years ago on a different model

Dame78

Thanks again guys, I'm going to take it to get looked at and definitely put on the thread what I find out

BOTUS

lets hope you find a good experienced merc specialist - never heard a good story about any in USA - in the UK most do it for the love of the brand, and operate more like a charity than a full on rip off garage

in the UK main franchised dealers need to pay the 10m annual lease on the building and rip off salaries for the 10 sales guys and their bonuses - the real workers are on min wage - but all that means $400 lab cost to the customer for servicing, where the indy garages charge $150 an hour - but the real benefit comes where the interdependent ones have actually seen all the faults and fixed them - where as the fully trained franchised dealership only know where the bonnet release catch is (and a jet washer)

Dame78

Still leaking even tho I didn't touch it today, still waiting to get it towed but by the pucs you can see the drip..

Polo35m

Okay please don't take offense. But for a car that is now 17 YEARS OLD,.....that is not a very substantial oil leak. That is to be expected from a car that old, probably the low back corner of the valve cover or something. Your noise is probably something else unrelated which could be a belt, a pulley or something else. I'm sure the shop will sort it out.Just a friendly warning... my stepdaughter has a 10 year old BMW that had a tiny oil drip she got soaked by a repair shop $2,400 to replace the valve cover gasket and the oil filter housing gasket. This was a small, tiny leak that she could have easily lived with but got bullied by the repair shop. I myself could have fixed it for $50 in parts. How many years since your last serpentine belt change?

Dame78

@Polo35m the leak started after the chain rattling issue when I last drove it, if I start it up now and rev it up it won't leak but If try to put it in gear then it's leaks.. the pics that I shared are from starting the car up and putting it in gear, that's when the leak happens..
before the initial issue when the last time I drove it there were no issues or oil links and the belt was changed in November of 2023 and the car was rarely driven after because of work schedule and I have other vehicles, it's basically a weekend car... thanks for your reply and I'll keep updating the thread once I find out the problem

BOTUS

get hold of a few drips rub between fingers and smell it - trans fluid is very different to engine oil - if you pull the engine dip stick you can compare (blue thing front left of engine as you look from the front)

nath_h

Since this is sort of a catch all thread...I've got a new noise in my drivetrain. Car is a 2008 CL550 w/ RWD and 65,000 miles. The noise in the short video is induced during acceleration and especially deceleration and varies with RPM. If I shift the car to manual mode the noise stays constant in third gear. Any guesses what to look for? Maybe flex disk? The sound is most noticeable between 10-13 seconds of the video.