Fred wrote:
"Symptoms:- Small thin ring of oil (?) in the reservoir, coupled with a very slow loss of coolant. There are no external coolant leaks visible. I changed the M1 from 15w to 5w (winter's coming) and replaced the front exhaust pipe and a few days later the car would start on 4 cyl. and then run on 5 after about 20 seconds attended by a small cloud of BLUE smoke." My sympathy to you. Dr. Booth would be able to diagnose this better than me, but it sounds like a head gasket. Oil is getting into the coolant. On most cars (i.e. not MB) coolant gets into the oil. But I think there are several MB engines where the head gasket failure manifests itself as oil in the coolant, and of course a loss of coolant. If it is just the head fix it as soon as you can or you will be replacing the head as well (if it is already not cracked). Donald H. Snook 90 300D 2.5 243K
