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C350 exhaust smell with foot down and sunroof open

merc07

Active Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
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776
Car
C350cdi & C220cdi
I mentioned this on another related post but thought I would start a separate thread.

As the title states, only if I put my foot down and have the sunroof open can I smell the fumes.

I have noticed what I assume is exhaust exiting around the turbo, difficult to see in the pic but alot of black soot around the linkage - is this normal ?
I was told due to the staining it has probably always done this.

I was also told I had 2 X leaking injector seals and 1 possible bad injector. - On inspection from another indy, all 6 are clean and bone dry - does this mean they are ok ??

There is some gunky mess under the right side air intake and around the air inlet to the turbo seal - this might be old as the recently replaced intake manifold still looks clean - you would think there would be dirty finger marks in that area though ?
This was done at the same time the oil cooler seals were replaced so everything was out..
 

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I guess it must be normal then or no one else has had or heard of the issue ??
 
Are you saying fumes from the turbo area and smell are normal or the oily mess on one side of the engine ?
Surely not ?
 
Have you had some leaks in the past?

My OM642/E350 car has a bit of a smell to the engine, when it's hot. I mainly notice it getting out of the car when I get home, and sometimes I get the odd whiff of something through the vents, but I have no idea if I'm imagining it, or if it's just the car in front spewing out crap.

I don't believe that my car has any leaks currently, but in the past it's had oil cooler seals leak, PCV (oil) leak, and a fuel line leak. The crappy turbo seal is always leaking a bit (or I'm paranoid that it is), and I've actually just bought a £30 seal to try to sort that. The diesel fuel leak would smoke up during DPF regens and cause a right mess, took a while to diagnose that one.

So, my thinking is that the residue of those leaks is probably everywhere, and unfortunately stinks it up when the engine warms up.

I have access to another E350 and it doesn't have the same smelll to it, but it's only done 40k miles vs my 140k+ miles, so...
 
I have had the oil cooler seals let go in the bottom of the 'V' - that's also when the intake port was replaced due to the swirls gunked and not moving.
Apart from that, nothing else.

Turbo seal looks messy as in the pic but the tech told me they removed the turbo as a complete unit so didn't touch and seals.

As for the turbo itself, is there some sort of pressure relief / waste on there as I have definitely seen a 3 foot plume shooting out of that area.
Again, the tech said it's normal and probably always done it ?
 
Um... are you sure it's not a leaky PCV? That's just to the left of the turbo, if you're in front of the car, facing the engine.

It's also possible that the green o-ring on the big silver pipe from the turbo to the intercooler has let go, that can spit out high pressure oil/oil vapour. You'll notice oil residue/sprayed to right hand side of the turbo (again, facing the engine)
 
I'm not sure but you would have thought that would have been picked up when most of the engine components were removed to do the oil cooler seals.
I need to find another indy be honest as I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone around here.
 
Are the seal and PCV a straightforward job, maybe worth just changing them anyway.
Does anyone have part numbers for the 2012 C350 ?
 
Are there any videos or pics online - I haven't found anything so I guess it's either not that common or a dealer job ?
 
Hi,

The green and black seal on the intercooler pipe will only be 1/2 hour labour at an indie, it's not too difficult to do on your own. The green and black o-rings are only a couple of quid. Here is a thread I started on it - in the end I ended up taking my dad's car to the indie, but I now am able to do it myself on my car: OM642 Green O-Ring replacement instructions? | Engine

With regards to the PCV, as you have a 2012 I'm not sure exactly how it works as it's not on top of the engine like in my 2009. But here's a long thread about it: OM642 PCV Upgrade | Engine

The new design PCV is about £135 from MB, from memory

Cheers,

Ed
 
Thanks, had a good look but couldn't see the PCV ?
It seems the oily mess on the right side is since the last works as I took pics when it was all apart.
I still think the exhaust leak is coming from the turbo area.
Behind it, there is black soot that can be wiped with your finger. I looked at similar pics you posted when you were looking to do a seal mod but they don't quite show the same area.
I was told this is normal and probably always done it ?.
All this has been off before as you can see.
 

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Happy to take a pic of my car/behind the turbo inlet for you in the next day or two

I had a look the other day and although it looks 'dirty' and a bit brown there, there is no soot per se, but I can double check if/when it stops raining!

On the later 265bhp engine, the PCV is located slightly differently to my 231bhp engine, it's tucked in 'under' the engine, on the left side as you face it, I don't have a picture of it on my phone but I think I posted pics in one of the PCV threads about the difference. Obviously you have a C-class too so it might be a tiny bit different in layout.
 
I have seen a few images on google relating to fumes - turbo or some exhaust gasket.
I'll try and have a better look tomoz.
If you could check yours when you have time that would be great.
Also just gone through the pics on my phone - I noticed the problem 3 weeks after the work was done.
 
Ok, took it to another specialist today, now I am told the turbo it's self may be cracked as the leak is from the actuator area - a common problem.
I have googled but can't find any info on this.
How common is it ?
 
I’ve not heard of that in the 18 months I’ve had this car/been on this forum. Can you see/photograph the leak/crack?
 
He says it's underneath and won't know 100% until it is removed.
 
You can see the dark stained areas near the turbo in the previous pics..
 

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