hachiroku

That the previous owner, maybe not knowing had the valve cover glued together using some sort of weak epoxy. Anyway, well it was the cause of my ever growing oil leak on my driver's side.

now I have to wait 2-3 business days for Mercedes to have the special order part come in. so many **** shops out there. now I'm without a car for X number of days. Also there seems to be a oil leak behind the AC compressor...my mechanic thinks it's a sensor of some sort that is leaking, but won't know until he disassembles that area. This is on my E63.

Dublinoh

Sorry to see that. I have also had to chase down oil leaks on my E63, valve covers and something called timing covers (?), make sure your Indy reseals those while he has it apart.

MACEDON

Sucks man. Idk what type of mechanic or owner would do bull**** like this, that's unacceptable.

Yuille36

A timing cover is bolting to the front of the engine, which contains your timing chains and

Dublinoh

Maybe somebody who didn't want to tell the owner they nackered his valve cover? Unacceptable is kind.

Yuille36

So how much $$$ are you looking at as a replacement valve cover?
I sure that about $300-450.

Max.H

over torqued and snapped most likely.

pearlpower

I have a nice used one for sale

rapidoxidation

Or a ham fisted DIY type owner that doesn't quite understand how a torque wrench works.

hachiroku

well...according to the dealer I purchased the car from the previous owner of my car had a million dollar home in Beverly Hills and that he always had his car serviced at Mercedes Benz of Beverly Hills. He was the second owner. The first owner had their car serviced at another Southern California Mercedes Benz, Woodland Hills Mercedes Benz I believe. Don't know how much truth to this was, but he also had a 4 year old Escalade ESV that my dealer had on the lot as well. He did provide me with a carfax that outlined some of this stuff as well.

When I head into my local dealer for my eventual fuel sender or what not replacement I will ask them for a full print out of service records. Hopefully they honor my request and print that for me.

from the looks of the stress marks, it looks as though, this idiot of a mechanic didn't use the criss cross from center outwards tightening technique, with multiple passes across. he just tightened the bolt in question until it bottomed out and popped. our valve covers are fairly lightweight and due to the lightweight nature, fragile.

genuine mercedes parts website has this listed at 249. i'm not exactly sure what the shop cost on that is, but my mechanic ordered that for me. i'll report back with pricing once i pick up my car tomorrow.

hachiroku

so after further diagnosis my mechanic has identified the lower oil leak...it's from

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/in-which-the-mighty-m156-is-taken-apart-for-a-2-00-o-r-1651935795

really sad moment right about now.

cmpcpro

Ouch! Very sorry to hear that man... I don't think any houses in Beverly Hills are cheap enough to be had for a mill.. my house is worth 1.2 (I didn't pay for it, my Grandfather did).. it's sad that So Cal is so ridiculously expensive.

mightar

Wow, really sorry that you're dealing with all this. That said, just because a car is serviced at a dealership, it doesn't mean they are competent. Audi of Stevens Creek crashed my S6 Avant in front of me. They have also scraped the clearbra and the paint off the hood when they were "detailing" car.

Dublinoh

Link and my iPad not playing well together, where was the leak?

hachiroku

copied from the website





this is the photo he sent me...they added white paint to identify what is a new oil leak. basically AMG as smart as they are designed an access port that is behind the timing chain cover.

I assume this failed because they used the same o-ring material as the failed o-rings at my oil cooler hard line coming off the block. I had my mechanic change those o-rings last week. they were hard as rocks and brittle as hell. at that time was when he discovered the valve covers were leaking as well as something near the AC compressor. dealer gave me green replacement o-ring for the oil lines after calling the magical Mercedes hotline where they have all the answers. not sure what material they use but I've never dealt with a Japanese built engine where any o-ring ever failed even over 200k miles. only on the coolant side, but never on the oiling side of the engine. I'll have to inspect as they tear down the front of the engine. really a shame, I'm sitting at 121k at the moment...the only thing that could happen next, crossing my fingers would be a head bolt failure. really hope I don't have to deal with that. these ticky tack repairs are putting me farther away from being able to do a head bolt job.

hachiroku

does anybody know if this part has been updated? Other than http://oppositelock.kinja.com/in-whi...o-r-1651935795 I am unable to find that this part has been updated.

also is 155-185-02-80 the correct part number for the replacement o-ring? is this a black o-ring or green o-ring?

hachiroku

ORDER SUMMARY
$11.20 Timing Cover Seal
Part #023-997-84-47
$245.00 Valve Cover, RIGHT
Part #156-016-20-05
$560.00
32 x $17.50
Valve Lifters
Part #156-050-02-25
$168.00
20 x $8.40
Cylinder Head Bolt
Part #156-016-07-69
$33.60
4 x $8.40
Mount Plate Bolt
Part #910105-012018
$25.20
4 x $6.30
Washer
Part #156-051-02-75
$162.40 Serpentine Tensioner
Part #156-200-05-70
$29.40 Pulley
Part #156-202-08-19
$26.95 Serpentine Idler Pulley
Part #156-202-05-19
$2.24 Pulley Cap
Part #001-988-57-35
$29.40 Pulley
Part #156-202-06-19
$33.95 Serpentine Belt
Part #013-997-87-92
$392.00 Water Pump
Part #156-200-05-01
$14.70 Gasket
Part #156-201-02-80
$1.40 Gasket
Part #156-203-03-80
$4.20
2 x $2.10
Gasket
Part #155-185-02-80
$22.40 Oil Temperature Regu
Part #159-180-03-75
$1.89 Spring
Part #119-993-10-01
$38.50 Regulator
Part #113-180-00-75
$3.85 Gasket
Part #156-015-00-80
$10.85 Seal Ring
Part #014-997-17-46
$20.65 Valve Cover Gasket
Part #159-016-02-21
$23.80
4 x $5.95
Elastomer-Molded Sea
Part #159-016-00-21
$10.92
13 x $0.84
Water Pump Bolt
Part #000000-002439
$13.65
13 x $1.05
Screw W Collar A Dri
Part #010-990-67-04
$2.45 Bearing
Part #156-090-00-89
$0.98 Mount Plate Bolt
Part #001-984-43-29

Have a discount code? Click here
Subtotal $1,889.58
Shipping $43.78
Total $1,933.36

Dublinoh

Thanks for the useful post, parts numbers. I've been through the oil leak thing, don't think they did the stuff inside though. So maybe this will be my third oil related issue down the line. Hope your back on the road again soon.

latemodel21

I checked a couple of prices that you listed
(valve cover and lifters) and the prices you show are about 30% below list ... very good pricing. 27% off list is about as good as you normally find from online discount mercedes parts hubs (oediscountparts.com, Mbdirect, etc) Sorry to hear about this problem, but at least someone is doing you right on the parts.

good luck,
Chris

hachiroku

thanks, i ordered from genuinemercedesparts.com their customer service and response time is ****, but prices are the best. since my buddys shop had to remove pretty much the entire front of the engine, I've elected to refresh many of the items that are still good. i'm currently at 117k, and figure preventive maintenance is the best maintenance since we're already here.

camshafts already have lost some of their chrome coating on some lobes. i hope that doesn't affect performance at all. lifters look fairly good from what i recall. once the car is back together i plan to coat with LiquiMoly Ceratec, then follow up with MoS2.

i wasn't exactly sure if the valve covers come with gaskets or not...same with water pump so i've removed valve cover gaskets and spark gaskets from the list. lets hope i don't bite myself in the butt. upon the last service the guys already replaced one side's valve covers with the updated plastic units. my local dealer charged $468 (wholesale) for this part. that's pretty much MRSP. horrible if you ask me. some dealers really rape you on pricing.

their website has ZERO contact information, but here is it below. it was only provided after order was confirmed.

Company Information
genuinemercedesparts.com,
Alpharetta’s Premier Mercedes-Benz Dealer
345 Mcfarland Pkwy
Alpharetta, Georgia, 30004
USA
support@genuinemercedesparts.com

and for parts confirmation i used https://partsouq.com/en/catalog/genu...24&vid=1334&q= as well as contacting my local Mercedes Dealership.

Forrest Gump 9

How much for the labor $$ for all this?

hachiroku

TBD...for the previous work which included, replace valve cover ($468 dealer markup),replace the O-rings for the oil cooler hard lines, and reseal the lower oil pan, which required engine to be lifted and sub frame to be lowered was $1,200-1,500 price including valve cover. I started to stop remembering how much things cost. i'm happier that way.

hachiroku

here are some updated pics guys. i have also included pics of the updated parts for reference. it seems they changed the design and functionality of the oil cooler thermostat. it would seem now the spring fits onto the cover side vs inside of the bore. the updated design also doesn't use a "piston" but rather a tapered piston. the new cover does still say AMG on it...but much smaller in comparison to the original part.

Z_de_Suisse

Impressive work that you are performing on your E63. Good indication for me if I end up having new oil leak problems.

I also see that your car will look like mine, with one side with an aluminium cover and the other one with a plastic cover.

Reason for that for me is that I used the latest technical info available regarding the torque required for the Valve cover without knowing the cover reference changed and went from Aluminium to plastic. Result was that I broke the cover (but did not glued it) with the higher torque recommended for the pastic cover. Maybe that happened to a previous mechanic working on your car ?

hachiroku

yikes! well with the aluminum valve covers, they "bottom out" and any further torquing will snap the end. you can see the half circle etch marks on your head was an indicator of being over torqued. in my case it looks as though the idiot just went full force on the one bolt and did not cross torque the covers. if you're doing multiple passes with increasing torque you'll feel the cover bottoming out and you should stop. things like valve covers just need their gaskets smushed. i generally never worry about torque readings here. the new valve covers do not have a stop point, hence the higher torque capacity, but i believe their bolts have metal collars that prevent you from over tightening and snapping the plastic valve cover. you'll snap the bolt before the collar of the new setup.

last week my second valve cover arrived. i now should have matching black valve covers, but they weren't cheap. they do look pretty though, having black valve covers on an engine. aside from them being composite/plastic.