All I know is that when I add oil to Gump for a change, I go to the
top. Drive her around and it drops to the bottom. Check and check
and never goes below. Add a bit just in case it was all sucked into
the filter, still goes to the bottom and stays there.
clay
On Jan 14, 2009, at 11:39 AM, tyler wrote:
This reminds me that Marshall Booth used to always say to keep MB
diesels around the bottom mark on the dipstick, and that oil
consumption would be as much as 4x higher when at the top mark than
the bottom mark, but I don't remember him saying why... I wonder how
common level sensor leaks are?
Tyler
Peter Frederick wrote:
My "new" 300D has always used way too much oil to suit me, and had
a leak I couldn't spot (besides the front crank seal, anyway). I
finally took a good look last time I changed oil, and found a very
dirty oil pan, but still no obvious leak. Uses a quart in 1000
miles in normal driving, more like a quart in 500 on the highway.
More blowby that I like (I prefer none at all, of course), but not
enough to account for that much oil with easy cold starts and
perfect running behavior.
Things got pretty crazy around here in November and December, and
the oil level sensor was acting up again (starts coming on
intermittantly less that a quart below the top mark, but doesn't
stay on when the lever is really low), and I forgot to add oil for
a while. Funny, when I checked it it was at the low mark, so I
took off and forgot to buy oil. Remembered at the next fillup 400
miles later, checked it again, and hey, STILL at the low mark, no
real change. Next 400 mile fillup, it's still there....
So this weekend I pulled the level sensor out of the wrecked car,
and installed it in the new one with a new seal. Sure enough, on
the bottom edge of the sensor is an scaly oil mark where the
blasted thing has been leaking for who knows how long!. No oil
spot the last two days at the job where I park on a slope (usually
doesn't drip on the flat parking lot at the other job). I wonder
how much oil has run out that stinking small gap over the years?
I'll fill up again tonight at a station that does a big turnover so
I don't get summer fuel (getting down to 0F here tomorrow night)
and I'll check the oil then to see if it's holding after the oil
change. If it does, I'm switching back to 5W-40 from 15W50 in the
winter for easier starts.
So far it's started perfectly -- run the GP 10 sec after the light
goes out and crank a second or two and it runs on all six, but we
shall see Friday morning what happens!
Peter
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_______________________________________
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For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
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