2010 ML350 severe oil leak

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boblydon

Active Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
79
Car
merc e320...jaguar xk
Hi Guys,
My partners ML has developed a huge oil leak with the engine running, it's coming from the bell housing area, gearbox has been removed, crankshaft seal has been replaced (even though it was fine).

Eventually traced the leak to a hole about the size of a pea in the bell housing, this is a proper hole made dueing the casting process, it has not appeared afterwards, the are no bolt holes or cover plates missing.

The dealer has never had this problem before, WIS and EPC show no mention of it, as presumably it comes sealed with the bell housing, we first thought that it may have had some sort of core plug in it for oil pressure???.

The hole is about 11 o clock looking at the flywheel direction, there will be no problem making a sealing plate for it, drilling and tapping the bell housing, just curious what was originally there and what it did.

Any ideas????

Will take a picture of it tommorow when the car gets recovered back here for repair.

Bob
 
oil

This must be an automatic yes, i can not see why its there you should take it up with higher mangment at Mercedes. I would want to know why its there. Check it out with an automatic transmision repair shop.Ask them about this .If its normal they will know.
 
The bell housing is a dry area with holes all over it, engine oil is in the engine block?
 
The bell housing is a dry area with holes all over it, engine oil is in the engine block?

I agree. Sealing that hole will not cure a problem that should not exist in the first place? You should NEVER get oil pouring into the bellhousing.

Neil
 
Tottaly agree lads, the car is in at a specialist auto gearbox place (that's all they do, they to have never seen anything like it), they took it up with mercedes who had never seen it either......apparantly the merc dealer took it up with germany, they to had no idea.

Getting it recovered back here today so will post a picture later.

Thanks for the replies.

Bob
 
It must be ATF fluid coming out the auto box or torque converter I would think.
Keep us posted
 
Well a bit of an update,goethe car recovered back here yesterday and started have a good look at it.

The oil leak is not coming from the bell housing, it's behind the flywheel, flywheel removed and there is a whole in the engine block casing.

This hole is meant to be there as it looks like its a drain whole from under the turbo between the mainifolds, removed turbo and can't see anything obvious as to what can be leaking, any ideas lads???, car is a 2010 with 31000 miles

Bob
 
for got to add, there was a lot of oil under the turbo area, checked the orange inlet/turbo gasket and it was fine..........what does the other breather pipe do that goes into the inlet manifold(about an inch in diameter with the plug in conecter)

bob
 
for got to add, there was a lot of oil under the turbo area, checked the orange inlet/turbo gasket and it was fine..........what does the other breather pipe do that goes into the inlet manifold(about an inch in diameter with the plug in conecter)

bob

Hi bob l posted a similar issue a while back regarding oil leak from turbo running down to the auto box bell housing area . Over tightening of the (orange ) seal will result in a leak . Also you need to smear on some type of silicone base sealant to aide . l have had 80,000 no leak doing it this way. Before l was over tightening and not properly seating the gasket correctly. Hence the leaking travelling to the housing .
 
Hi Sherco450

Thanks for the reply,

How bad was your leak???, this leak is considerable, you would think that there was an open end when the engine is running, i did not think that much oil would be going towards the turbo intake.

Bob
 
I had a similar issue a few years ago on an C320 V6 which I imagine is the same family as your car. It was the Oil Cooler that sits deep in the V under the Turbo etc. Obviously they might have moved the cooler...

Garage found it by making bypass pipes up to run without the turbo.
 
It could be a bore hole that was used in the casting of the engine block,these are blanked of with a core plug during the engine build. Not that common but they have been known to leak and drop out,volvo had a problem with them on the V70 engines.
 
Are you sure it's not the oil cooler in the V?
Then leaking down through a drain off in the casting!
 
Got mine back from the dealer today. It was the heat exchanger (oil cooler)gasket, I was loosing 1-2 ltr a week.
 
hi did we get to the bottom of this problem ?? as I have exactly the same problem with a merc ml .. leaking oil out the small hole
 

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