240d hit a bump, dumped oil
 

That's what I get for letting my GF drive the car.. She calls, says the car hit a bump and scraped something, that was just a block away from where she was going. She parks, comes back and finds oil all over and a trace of oil from where she came from.

It's dark now so I'll postpone going to check it out to tomorrow, but.. Is it something known/typical? Didn't find anything using search. Will I be likely looking at a disconnected oil line somewhere, or a busted oil pan?

Such a shame, the thing was running so well with very little blow-by, started every time on the first crank and no valve lash at all.. At least it looks like it was not running without oil, most of it leaked out while the car was parked.

The oil pan sits very low on these cars, and a cracked pan it the most likely suspect.....

Allrighty, time to go look for a mercedes shop around Ballard to tow it to. Too far from home..

The pan on the 616/617 is easy to replace. All you need is an allen key! :) I'd probably replace it right where the car is, fill the oil back up, and go. All you need is a new pan and gasket. (Less than $40 online) Why pay for a tow.


Sure the pan is somewhat low on these cars, but I've hit some big potholes/bumps in the road, and have never so much as scraped it....even when the suspension has bottomed out. What did she hit??! :eek:

We'll see tomorrow. First question would be, what's up with parking there, it might be that I'll accumulate more $$ in parking tickets than towing it. Maybe if it's not too bad I could JB-weld it.. Well, enough of this guesswork. Jacking the car up in the middle of a busy street is maybe a bit too much for me :)

It's a cracked oil pan. It sits WAY too low. I cracked mine a month or two ago. We have these crosswalk/sidewalk things that are pretty much as tall as a normal concrete sidewalk that's raised up IN the pavement. No warning sign to indicate how big these things are. Hit one going downhill and that was it.

Have fun. Hope a 617 is easier to take care of. We had to jack the engine up out of the car to do ours.

616 in this case. Thanks for the information guys!

Oops.

Same sentiment with the new number.

It's 2 AM.

Its easy to do the lower pan on the 616/617, shouldn't take more than an hour-ish if you work steadily. The biggest annoyance is the fact that its held on by like 16 or 18 little allen bolts. Very annoying/slimy/dirty to undo all those. Oh well. Still easier than a 603 pan thats for sure.... :eek:

A close angle cordless drill with a 3/8 ext and the appropriate allen socket does wonders for speeding this up. If its is small I would vote for JB as a temp fix till you get it home.

Be sure and check the oil pump. I bought a 240D with a huge dent in the oil pan and when I opened it up the pump was broken off and hanging by a thread:eek: No oil had leaked out where the dent was however.

So he leaves the car where it is until his online parts order comes in???? :D

So it's not the oil pan. Oil pan in nice and clean. There's oil on the exhaust pipe 3 feet down from the engine, and mostly the right (from the front) side of the engine and the bottom are all soaked. It wasn't particularly clean to begin with and was dripping a few drops of oil a day so I couldn't tell exactly what's going on by just oil spots.

Oil lines from the filter to oil cooler are dry. The upper line to the steering booster has the hose very loose. Engine mount under it has an oil puddle in it. I think that's it, but I haven't had the hose clamp to test if it is. Will go get the hose clamp tomorrow, put some oil in and see if that was where it all came out of. I have doubts because the car was dumping oil on the ground after it was parked, and that hose is not very low. So unless most of the oil was just dripping from everywhere in the engine or residual pressure in the system, I don't see how that is the only issue there.

W123 Skid plate?
 

My W126 is lowered, and a W126 Mercedes Benz skid plate (NLA) was installed at the recommendation of the Independent Mercedes shop (Prestige Imports, Santa Ana, Calif.) back in 1995.

It was a wise call, as the lowered cars lower the oil pan, too.

If you can get a good W123 steel skid plate, (and if indeed they made them)
buy one, and this will NEVER happen to you again.

The Mercedes Benz factory W126 ones, that were available until 5 years ago, only cost about $125.

Cheap insurance if you can buy it.

They did make a 123 skid plate, however, I believe it is now NLA.

I have one of them, but I never installed it.