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ML goes boom?

2K views 12 replies 0 participants last post by  Pete Fagerlin 
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#1 ·
Weird experience on my latest road trip.<br>
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I had been driving for about seven hours straight at 90+ mph carrying a total of four folks plus lots of bikes up top (windage).<br>
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We were climibing a long grade heading North into Vegas, at 90 mph, with the air conditioning on, and it was 85 degrees.<br>
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POOF. Smoke starts billowing from behinid the ML.<br>
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I pulled over got a look under the truck and there was a bit of fluid pouring from under the front seating area. It was brown and smelled like engine oil. It was running along some frame members and out onto the ground.<br>
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I quickly hopped in to make it the 1/8 of a mile to the top of the grade (better coasting if neccessary). I pulled up onto a rock to crawl underneath and the oil had stopped flowing. I checked the oil and I was only down about a half a quart. Weird.<br>
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My next thought was that it was tranmission fluid, but it was the wrong color and smell.<br>
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Long story short, I drove at a sedate pace to the MB dealer in Vegas (70 miles) who confirmed that the tranny fluid would be red, I topped of the oil, checked every hundred miles for a while, and never lost another drop in the remaining 1600 miles of the trip.<br>
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I'm looking forward to an answer to this mystery.<br>
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Pete<br>
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p.s. My shocks are also now completely shot at 60k.
 
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#2 ·
Was it on the drivers side ?

I ask because recently my wife came home in her ML430 and I noticed a lot of oil on the inside of both drivers side wheel wells. I also found quite alot of oil along the drivers side chassis rail.<br> I checked all fluids - everything seemed ok, so I presumed (hoped) she'd driven over a discarded oil can or something similar.<br> Maybe something similar happended to you ?<br> <br> No further recurrence of mystery oil 'leak'.<br> <br> Tim in San Diego
 
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#4 ·
Re: ML goes boom? . . Nice Pix ! How did you keep the shine with so much dust around?

Wish I were there. Looks beautiful, and nice composition in the pix.<br>
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I have no clue what it was that went ''boom.'' Only other consideration would be fluid from one of your blown shocks. Only a thought.<br>
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You did well to drive cautiously and stay safe. Proper attention will always reward you with a vehicle that lasts a long time.<br>
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Enjoy. - - - Jüri.<br>
 
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#8 ·
Shine is optical illusion/low light angle

We had already been through 2 dust/rain cycles when I took that picture.<br>
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Low light makes the highlights pop and the upper surfaces pop.
 
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#9 ·
was there a sound?

What exactly was the sound you heard? Was there any chance that you hit a cup or can of coke or something? Did you touch the brown fluid and smell it? Was it hot? Was it oily or water-like?<br> guy<br>
 
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