Well, friends, it happened to me... but maybe I caught it in time. Mine is a 2014 E63 AMG S, and it was running+driving fine. Startup was always immediate, no codes, great fun.

I learned of the risk of oil wicking from the camshaft position sensors and camshaft solenoids to the ECU (and elsewhere) and decided to just spend a few hundred on this to prevent it. I bought the 8 components (4x sensors, 4x solenoids) and went to put them in... disconnecting the ECU revealed oil over basically every pin. All 4 position sensors also had oil on the connectors -- but who's to say that one of them didn't corrupt the rest and the ECU too? So, 4 CPS's in (~30 mins + 2 hours unsuccessfully looking for one of them that fell into the bowels of the engine), two cans of electrical contact cleaner on the ECU and all the various plugs, and 3 out of 4 solenoids replaced.

I've only had this car a month -- it was great! Even so -- its now way better. it's basically like driving a new car now. It's much smoother. Less coarse, less pissed-off monster and more refined when not WOT and, yet, feels faster too.. I suspect the ECU was getting corrupted sensor data because of all the oil and I am just now experiencing what it "should" have been like.

My hope is that if I just check the major harness points once a week or so, spray them like mad with cleaner and then blow them out, that the oil that is currently in the harness will no longer wick in enough quantity to harm anything.. I will be diluting it over time and, eventually, reach some harmless quantity that can just live there.

So - PSA - DO NOT HESTIATE TO CHANGE THESE PARTS!!! They're trivial to change if you know what a socket and wrench are (with an exception). You will be saving yourself some massive expense later (as so many others have noted) but also your car may also behave so much better. Its one of those fun things that you get to actually feel the difference from.

But -- the one thing that didn't go well... I was only able to change 3 out of 4 solenoids. There is one behind the oil filter housing which cannot clear the metal oil lines -- the driver side intake cam. It's within 2mm or 3mm of being able to sneak by, but not able to. I'm not sure it was leaking into the harness, so I'm going to leave it in place and keep an eye on it for now.... but does anyone know a trick or shortcut for getting the driver-side intake cam solenoid out? Do I really have to tear a bunch of s**t off the front of the engine to replace a $50 sensor?

 

Congrats on the new whip! Glad you caught this common issue before it destroyed your ECU. I highly recommend the 8 sacrificial pigtails (4 for the solenoids and 4 for the sensors). You can get them here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/374594648746

To answer your question about the sensor behind the charge pipe and oil filter housing: unfortunately that one cannot be removed without dropping the oil filter housing. There just isn't any room to back out the bolts. It's easy to check to see if oil is coming from that sensor by simply unplugging it and looking at the pins on both the harness side and the sensor side. If it's not, then just keep an eye on it and call it good. If it is, then you will have to perform the aforementioned work. Speaking of that, what is your mileage? If it's 60k+, might just be worthwhile to replace the oil filter housing gasket. I recently did work in that area and ended up replacing that gasket, the oil cooler gasket, coolant pipe o-rings, new water pump and t-stat as well as the 2 plastic turbo coolant lines(common failure).

 

Thanks for the link! I will probably get those pigtails at some point... but once the oil is in the harness, well, something about a horse and a barn door...

The mileage is 55k I don't plan on messing with any housings until a leak is detected -- I am more likely to induce a problem via some intrusion than not.

The problem with the inspection technique is that now there is no way to tell where the oil is coming from. It could have wicked there from the ECU or another sensor. My only hope, I think, is to keep cleaning out the plugs where I can and then use q-tips to see if more-than-trace amounts of oil come from the plug. As long as that holds, I should be ok. Once the filter housing (or belt, or radiator, or water pump, or whatever) needs attention, then I'll get to it. At least I have the part on hand now, since Germany is likely to shut down industrially due to geopolitics... but I digress.

 

Do the pigtails in the ebay link fit the 157 engine as well as they're listed for the 278 engine?

 

You can absolutely catch the leak every single time, it doesn't soak all the way back into the ECU unless you were to just wanton abandon your vehicle and drive it out to 200k. This issue has affected the W211's and I've seen them come in absolutely oil soaked to bejeezus, coding cam angle issues, and we'd just contact cleaner spray, electrical grease, 4 VVT solenoids, 4 elbow cam sensors and we'd be 100% in the green again.

Preventatively the pigtails are just 4 small extension cords. I think people don't understand what they are half the time, you're just putting a silly extension cord without insulation on it to trap oil against the connector.

 

No you don't have to tear a bunch of **** off to remove/install that sensor. Yes there is a trick.

Step 1: Using a 12 point 8mm jewlers/hobbyists wrench loosen the 3 bolts holding that sensor. Here's a picture of it.



Step 2: Remove the bolts by hand carefully by using your fingers. The sensor should now be free-floating.

Step 3: Rotate the sensor until you find a "sweet spot" of sorts. You won't find it unless you're actively trying to remove the sensor at the same time. It's not intuitive, but once you find it it comes out easily.

Step 4: Do the exact opposite to reinstall everything.

Step 5: Send WANTED!! many beer/liquor donations.

 

Updated my response.

 

Yup. I bought the same set from that listing and it’s currently in my engine.

 

Ok I wanna see this on video. This would be a first.

 

Here is a couple of videos removing the oil filter, not the housing


I have seen it w/o removing the filter, and I will update once I find it again. Definitely possible on the V8; it requires a lot of patience and fine hands with the one in front of the oil filter.

 

Ya Kenny says in his video(bottom one) that it can’t be done without removal of the components in front of it.

 

Kenny opted not to try it. I did and can attest it can be done.

 

it requires a bit more will, but the video shows exactly the approach. With fine/thin tools and patience, it can be done, and it has been reportedly done this way by several forum members

 

Well that’s reassuring. Cause the first time I changed that one out, I was working in the area on other things so it was easy. Was not looking forward to replacing it on its own whenever it begins to leak.

 

This is very hard to believe - I had the screws out (there's an 8mm open wrench trick for that) and was looking for any way to sneak the sensor past the manifold... there was no way. It's circular, so the orientation doesn't matter at all... it simply doesn't fit. I even removed the nearest oil pipe because the retention screw was close by - no mas

If you can't produce video or photo evidence, I dont see how its physically possible.

 

About the 7 min mark, they work on the bank 2 solenoids. And a comment from the viewers

 

So if I'm recapping correctly, because you couldn't do it when you attempted it prior to my posting my steps, my steps can't possibly be right? Additionally, at zero benefit to myself the onnous is on me to make a video to show you how to make my steps work?

 

Lol - no need to get all butthurt about it - geeze. The video that juanmor40 posted was the kind of thing I was looking for... not some original content from you. Prying on a plastic sensor like that seems like a bad idea, but I'll give it a shot

 

And posting a picture will help as well


Because of the Benz technician comment I posted above, I looked carefully to the other videos and noticed the two extra lines were not present in some of the engines, and the oil filter cap is different as well. Does anyone know the difference: M278 vs M157, or else?
Here are two snapshots:

 

I believe different in 157s and 278s depending on their vehicle application had different tubes running to the oil filter housing.
I can say with 100% certainty, you cannot remove the solenoid on a e-class m157 car that is behind the oil filter housing.
I'm looking at mine now, you literally couldn't even squish a penny between the housing and the solenoid much less pull it out a half inch to remove it

 

I believe different in 157s and 278s depending on their vehicle application had different tubes running to the oil filter housing.
I can say with 100% certainty, you cannot remove the solenoid on a e-class m157 car that is behind the oil filter housing.
I'm looking at mine now, you literally couldn't even squish a penny between the housing and the solenoid much less pull it out a half inch to remove it
The car in the video you linked is an m278 from an s-class, that is not an m157 from a w212. Different motor, different oil line setup... Irrelevant.

 

here is a picture of a M157 AMG for you


identical to the S class in the video. Irrelevant? As far as I know, we are all here trying to help and widen our knowledge about the issues with these vehicles, not only the one in this particular sub-forum.

I guess you are aware in some countries, some of these vehicles do not have badges at all, so an E200 looks exactly the same as E550 in the photo unless you can isolate a particular exterior premium package.

 

This has been discussed before, and the difference between the two engines, one with extra oil cooling, and the other one without. The 157, with extra oil cooling pipes is tight. I was able to remove that solenoid, but felt that I would damage it getting it in. Because I felt the oring might catch. It’s easy enough to loosen the oil pump housing as mentioned elsewhere. Removing the cam end cap is impossible on that side since it has a dowel in it so all must be removed if speaking of tensioners or check valves.

 

Yep, that's my feeling as well. The cooling pipes do not flex at all and are a different color than in the video (but otherwise look very similar). I think there are some subtle differences in the E63 AMG S W212 M157 that make it tighter than the sample content shows. I have yet to see someone in any video do this on my exact setup. Until WANTED!! tries it and sends me the video, I am SOL (j/k man)

The problem is that if one tries to pry that solenoid out and breaks it - then they're screwed... they have a busted solenoid that might have been working and no way to seat a new one. It would be seriously irresponsible at that point to try to get the new one in there. it would probably just break also. That's potentially a tow-to-a-shop situation, depending on how the old one breaks. At the very least it becomes a teardown of a ton of other stuff I wasn't planning on.

I've been checking the plugs for any trace of oil and haven't found any yet (either on the ECU or other sensors) after I replaced them and sprayed the crap out of them until nothing by clear cleaning fluid came out.

I'm probably not going to touch this again unless 1) I find more oil on the harness or 2) I need to do a water pump replace.