87 300D Significant Oil Leak (sometimes)

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ScottD - 09 Jul 2007 23:50 GMT

My daughter's 1987 300D (W124) has developed a significant oil leak
during highway driving. No significant oil loss in normal city
driving but it goes through a quart of oil in 100 miles at highway
speeds, and leaves a huge puddle of oil when she stops.

She has a pretty good mechanic in her town who took a quick peek and
said it "looks like the turbo". She is going take it back for a
closer look but I'm somewhat skeptical about needing to replace the
turbo.

I searched for posts with similar problems and found replies talking
about return line seals and separator problems, but for models (even)
older than this one.

Any thoughts on what this might be and/or anything we could point her
mechanic to look at?

....................Scott

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-->> T.G. Lambach <<-- - 10 Jul 2007 01:26 GMT

Cylinder head gasket.

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heav - 11 Jul 2007 05:15 GMT

> My daughter's 1987 300D (W124) has developed a significant oil leak
> during highway driving. No significant oil loss in normal city
> driving but it goes through a quart of oil in 100 miles at highway
> speeds, and leaves a huge puddle of oil when she stops.

Could be a blown "O" ring in the oil return line from the turbo to the
oil pan. How may miles are on the engine?

> She has a pretty good mechanic in her town who took a quick peek and
> said it "looks like the turbo". She is going take it back for a
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> ....................Scott

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ScottD - 12 Jul 2007 15:41 GMT

Over 250K miles on engine.

..............Scott

> Could be a blown "O" ring in the oil return line from the turbo to the
> oil pan. How may miles are on the engine?

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Richard Sexton - 13 Jul 2007 10:39 GMT

The turbo oil return line seal is in my experience the biggest
source of oil leaks on these engines. It's probably original
to the car and rubber just don't last that long; it should
probably be replaced on principle. At the risk of sounding
snotty a mechanic familiar with these cars would now this:
they all leak from there at some point.

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Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

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DougS - 13 Jul 2007 14:31 GMT

> The turbo oil return line seal is in my experience the biggest
> source of oil leaks on these engines. It's probably original
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> 1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages:http://rs79.vrx.net
> 633CSi 250SE/C 300SD |http://aquaria.nethttp://killi.net

Mine (turbo return line) is actually leaking on my 84 300D. Its
actually the only thing dripping oil on the entire engine. (262k miles
on it)
I bought the replacement O-rings, and lower rubber gasket, but how the
heck do you get that thing off? The only place it is mentioned in the
Haynes manual is when you are removing the turbo. Can I do this repair
with the turbo still on the car?
If not, how big of a pain is it to remove the turbo? (i.e. Am I gonna
make things worse if I take the entire turbo off to fix this leak?)

Its leaking less than a quart for the 2500 miles that I have had it.

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Richard Sexton - 14 Jul 2007 16:26 GMT

>> The turbo oil return line seal is in my experience the biggest
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
>Its leaking less than a quart for the 2500 miles that I have had it.

It's probably possible with the turbo still on but I sure wouldn't do it and
it's not too hard to remove. The trick to gettinf the old one seal out
is to put a hose clame around it, compress then pull it out. It's still
hard, and hard to get back in though... but doable.

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DougS - 20 Jul 2007 13:33 GMT

> In article <1184333494.468933.91...@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,
>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> 1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages:http://rs79.vrx.net
> 633CSi 250SE/C 300SD |http://aquaria.nethttp://killi.net

Thanks for the reply Richard. I am getting things in order to do the
repair soon, so hopefully everything will go off (and on) well. Are
there any other seals, gaskets, etc. that I would need for this
replacement? (As in for the oil supply line, or manifold connection.)

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Richard Sexton - 27 Jul 2007 04:00 GMT

>> In article <1184333494.468933.91...@q75g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>,
>> >> The turbo oil return line seal is in my experience the biggest
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>there any other seals, gaskets, etc. that I would need for this
>replacement? (As in for the oil supply line, or manifold connection.)

Patience, hard liquor and/or drugs helps. It's really a pig of a job.
You'll need a manifold gaskets.

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