Hey everyone,
First post on the forum but I've been lurking around here for about a year or so ever since I bought my 1991 300e (m103 engine), this place has been really helpful to me so I thought I'd join and help give back and contribute to the community. I'll give you guys a little background info to get you guys up to speed before I get into the details of the problem. Bought the car about a year and a half ago from an older man who was the 2nd owner and owned it since 2000/2001. He had a lot of people lined up who wanted to buy the car but he chose me because he said I was young (I'm 24) and more likely to keep the car in good shape like it deserved. Before I purchased the car I took it to an experienced mechanic I trusted who worked on these cars at one point in time, he told me about the head gasket concerns and that mine may have a small leak and will probably be due soon. I already knew going into it that these were a problem point on these cars and had no problem shelling out the cash to get it done if need be. car was rock solid otherwise and very minimal rust on the underside (a rarity in Canada, shows it was taken care of or at the very least, garaged over winter.)
Fast forward a year and I've done quite a bit to the car myself since I purchased it: new spark plugs, fuel injectors, ovp relay, fuses, air+fuel+oil filter, thermostat, thermostat housing and most recently a new rad + coolant flush. all and all this has greatly improved the condition of how the car runs since I bought it and have no complaints on that end. this brings me to my latest and current dilemma. During the coolant flush and rad replacement I noticed there was no oil in the old coolant whatsoever (PO used green coolant
). I'm aware that head gasket problems usually manifests itself in oil in the coolant, a bit odd considering the mechanic I went to told me I may have a small leak/mix. On august 31st I flushed the system, replaced the rad and filled the system up with a mix of Zerex G-05 and distilled water, burped the air out and topped it up after the thermostat opened then went on a nice long cruise (50-75km) to even out any kinks, temps stayed between 82-87 and only got to 90-92ish in very heavy stop and go traffic but always went down quickly when things picked back up again.
So i'm thinking everything is OK with the cooling system but the only thing that threw me for a loop was that after this long cruise I noticed I sprung a pretty small but significant external oil leak that definitely wasn't there before, I'm not too familiar with the underside of the engine as I'm not really a mechanic and don't know cars too well (still learning) but it looks like oil is weeping down from somewhere near the block and dripping from the sway bars(?) onto the ground, honestly not too sure all I can say is that the leak is dripping below the drivers side of the engine bay. If I can get some pictures tomorrow I will post them and that might help show where it's dripping from. One thing that puzzles me about this leak is that it seems to be getting better. the first day it was leaking pretty bad but every day since then I've drove the car about 15-25km and the leak has gotten much better, to the point where I'm only getting 1 or 2 drops under the car after I let it sit overnight and cool down where before it was close to 10-15, I've got a bowl under the car to collect and easily monitor how much oil I'm losing. I can also definitely say it is oil and not coolant because of the location of the leak, the coolant is new and after doing the flush/rad change I can say I'm confident in differentiating between the two, also the oil on the dipstick still looks like it should look and is at 3/4 between min-max so I think i'm OK there as well.
I'm taking it to a mechanic I trust this upcoming Wednesday to see if he can diagnose where the leak is coming from, what do you guys think the leak could be? I've done some research on here and the three possible solutions I found were: valve cover gasket, timing cover seal, and the actual head gasket itself. Two of these fixes are relatively easy for someone like myself, the head gasket on the other hand is not, however I want to be 100% sure my head gasket is on its way out before I replace it. The valve cover looks to be bone dry as well as the timing cover so that's stumping me. Is it time to just cough up the $$$ and replace the HG + resurface the head for peace of mind or will I luck out on something not as severe? sorry for the long winded post btw.
First post on the forum but I've been lurking around here for about a year or so ever since I bought my 1991 300e (m103 engine), this place has been really helpful to me so I thought I'd join and help give back and contribute to the community. I'll give you guys a little background info to get you guys up to speed before I get into the details of the problem. Bought the car about a year and a half ago from an older man who was the 2nd owner and owned it since 2000/2001. He had a lot of people lined up who wanted to buy the car but he chose me because he said I was young (I'm 24) and more likely to keep the car in good shape like it deserved. Before I purchased the car I took it to an experienced mechanic I trusted who worked on these cars at one point in time, he told me about the head gasket concerns and that mine may have a small leak and will probably be due soon. I already knew going into it that these were a problem point on these cars and had no problem shelling out the cash to get it done if need be. car was rock solid otherwise and very minimal rust on the underside (a rarity in Canada, shows it was taken care of or at the very least, garaged over winter.)
Fast forward a year and I've done quite a bit to the car myself since I purchased it: new spark plugs, fuel injectors, ovp relay, fuses, air+fuel+oil filter, thermostat, thermostat housing and most recently a new rad + coolant flush. all and all this has greatly improved the condition of how the car runs since I bought it and have no complaints on that end. this brings me to my latest and current dilemma. During the coolant flush and rad replacement I noticed there was no oil in the old coolant whatsoever (PO used green coolant
). I'm aware that head gasket problems usually manifests itself in oil in the coolant, a bit odd considering the mechanic I went to told me I may have a small leak/mix. On august 31st I flushed the system, replaced the rad and filled the system up with a mix of Zerex G-05 and distilled water, burped the air out and topped it up after the thermostat opened then went on a nice long cruise (50-75km) to even out any kinks, temps stayed between 82-87 and only got to 90-92ish in very heavy stop and go traffic but always went down quickly when things picked back up again.So i'm thinking everything is OK with the cooling system but the only thing that threw me for a loop was that after this long cruise I noticed I sprung a pretty small but significant external oil leak that definitely wasn't there before, I'm not too familiar with the underside of the engine as I'm not really a mechanic and don't know cars too well (still learning) but it looks like oil is weeping down from somewhere near the block and dripping from the sway bars(?) onto the ground, honestly not too sure all I can say is that the leak is dripping below the drivers side of the engine bay. If I can get some pictures tomorrow I will post them and that might help show where it's dripping from. One thing that puzzles me about this leak is that it seems to be getting better. the first day it was leaking pretty bad but every day since then I've drove the car about 15-25km and the leak has gotten much better, to the point where I'm only getting 1 or 2 drops under the car after I let it sit overnight and cool down where before it was close to 10-15, I've got a bowl under the car to collect and easily monitor how much oil I'm losing. I can also definitely say it is oil and not coolant because of the location of the leak, the coolant is new and after doing the flush/rad change I can say I'm confident in differentiating between the two, also the oil on the dipstick still looks like it should look and is at 3/4 between min-max so I think i'm OK there as well.
I'm taking it to a mechanic I trust this upcoming Wednesday to see if he can diagnose where the leak is coming from, what do you guys think the leak could be? I've done some research on here and the three possible solutions I found were: valve cover gasket, timing cover seal, and the actual head gasket itself. Two of these fixes are relatively easy for someone like myself, the head gasket on the other hand is not, however I want to be 100% sure my head gasket is on its way out before I replace it. The valve cover looks to be bone dry as well as the timing cover so that's stumping me. Is it time to just cough up the $$$ and replace the HG + resurface the head for peace of mind or will I luck out on something not as severe? sorry for the long winded post btw.
