E430 oil leak, oil cooler or oil filter housing

[E430Mad]

Trying to figure out where the leak is coming from. Anybody experience in this.

At first thought it was the seal under 46mm nut in oil filter housing. But oil leak seems high up on the filter housing.

There is a crack in oil filler cap also but that is too far away from this leak.

Hope the attached pic helps.

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
The seals between the actual oil cooler and the oil filter housing is a very common issue, they go hard, also the seal under the large nut in the housing, can be an issue but less so
Parts are cheap and took me less than an hour on my 55k to do all the seals.

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I have posted the link above to give you an idea the type of seals between the cooler and the housing and the base of the housing, I am not recommending the supplier in any way and to be honest I would only use genuine MB parts as they are relatively inexpensive.

 

[noogieman]

Just above the belt tensioner pulley there is an oil test port, there is an rectangular gasket.
Early editions were hollow gasktes, later version depending on engine serial number has a different design on gaskets.

There are 4 gaskets which can go wrong.
2 oil cooler gaskets.
One larger gasket inside oil filter housing
Gasket behind the oil test port above belt tensioner puller

 

[E430Mad]

Had a good look with all your info in mid. Definitely coming from oil cooler seals.

Also under the oil filter housing is completely covered in gunk so probably from the oil filter housing seal under the 46mm nut.

Have the seals ordered and will tackle this as soon as they arrive. Will degrease and gently power wash the area first.

Thanks

 

[Petrol Pete]

Just as an aside , see that circular plug bolt directly above the centre pulley ? Thats where Mercedes Benz should have fitted the take off for the oil pressure lamp/gauge , but they decided that anyone in the world diving a car with this engine would have no interest in knowing if their engine was eating itself alive due to lack of oil pressure for whatever reason.

Fair play to MB , these engines are very robust and rarely fail if serviced correctly but it just seems such a daft thing to leave out, especially since the 'hardware' is right there. Kits are available on line to retrofit an oil pressure monitor straight into this blank plug and wire it to a lamp.