I have 1995 E300 Diesel that has had a slight diesel smell in the car. Over the past few weeks it has been getting stronger. I thought some fuel must have been tracked in the car from a fill up, but over the weekend I decided to remove the carpet from the trunk and check the tank. To my suprise , I noticed a puddle of fuel under the fuel tank and cleaned it up and after a few minutes you can start to see the tank leak fuel through the welding seam. These are pinpoint size leaks. It looks more like it's sweating at the seam. I called my local MB service center and of course the car is 10 years old and over 1K to fix it. Is this normal? This sounds more like a safety issue to me, my wife pointed out that I was complaining of headaches after long car trips and this makes total sense to me. The tanks looks new, there is no corrosion of any kind on the outside of the tank. The leak is also at the bottom of the tank. I was hoping to get 300K from this car and it's only at 120K.

If someone pasted out while driving the car, would MB want this PR nightmare. No luck on MB getting back with me on helping to address this issue.

 

You coulda got a bad load of diesel that was contaminated with water. This water will gradually turn into acids. These will attack the steel tank.

Pull the tank out of the car, empty it completely, flush it out with water and ventilate it with a fan for a day or so. Then get a borescope attached to a videocamera and videotape the inside of the tank. Save this for evidence and send a copy to MB. You can bet that they do not want that videotape showing up on the evening news!

Next, seal the tank up, all openings, fill the tank with water (no air bubbles at all). Attach a pressure gauge and with a bicycle pump, slowly pressurize the tank. (BE DAMNED CARFEFUL TO NOT BE IN IT'S WAY IF IT WANTS TO BLOW UP.

Somewhere on the tank will be a DOT pressure rating. Fill to that pressure rating. At the DOT web cite you can probably find the "hydrostatic test" pressure. This is the value that manufacturers are supposed to use to certify any pressure vessel.

I bet the thing will be leaking like a sieve and you will be hard pressed to keep water in it. There's a pretty good chance that it will fail catastrophically and split and/or make a big booming noise.

Videotape all of this, wear protective glasses, safety helmet and stand behind something big in case the thing detonates.

Show the tapes to the dealer, send a copy to MBUSA, tell them that the local news channel wants to see the tapes and that they may air your videotapes as a news story.

Betya will get the tank replaced for free with an apology from MBUSA and the dealer.