Doing things ***-backwards, I've purchased a 1999 CLK 320 with 155,000km from a friend, THEN did the inspection. The MB dealership has informed me that sometime ago the balance shaft snapped, and cracked the top of the oil pan, resulting in a slow oil leak. They estimate C$8,000 to pull the engine and fix the pan (the balance shaft was repaired earlier).
For 20 hours labour (estimated), this still seems a high price to me. Anyone have any experience/educated opinion on this?
Thanks!

 

How slow is the leak if you can live with it i would not mess with it.

And try somewhere else other than a "stealership"

 

a) Not sure if cracked pan will pass the necessary provincial inspection in order to register the car in my name
b) What are the dangers of leaving "as is"? Contaminating oil? Increasing the size of the crack? What are the odds of the pan eventually failing?

I believe the leak is fairly slow at the moment. And I will definitely seek quotes from a different garage, but being relatively new in town, I'm not sure who I can trust. How complicated is the fix?

 

Well i dunno what Canada needs to pass inspection and if the crack is very slow i dont think that it will contaminate the oil however if it was to get bigger then that would be a problem. I assume that the oil pan can not come off the engine while it is still in the car (i have never looked under a CLK)

 

The dealership says they have to pull the engine, so I'd imagine they can't simply remove the pan first. This is far outside my technological knowledge though, hence my question to those in the group with more experience. It's just a pain-in-the-*** learning these things the hard way

 

According to Mercedes WerkstattInformationsSystem you should be able to remove the bottom pan whith the engine sitting where it is. Maybe this could helpyouto weld a small crack in the upper panwithout removing it. Also according toWISit is possible to remove the upper pan by removing left exhaust pipe/catalytic conv.at the exh. manifold. Detach ATF lines at bellhousing, unbolt the two front engine mounts, remove the front rollbar and some accessories connected to the engine AND RAISE THE ENGINE FRONTCAREFULLY5 to 10 cm. Now the upper pan should be possible to unbolt and remove tothe front of the car, the crankshaft could be needed to rotate slightly.The danger of leavivg it as isis that the crack could suddenly open up and you could loose oil quickly, the engine monitoring sytem should warn you in good time thou. Also its not to funny to leave i little pool of oilon the garage drivewayas a sign when you visit your frieds. 8000 dollars for this worksounds ridiculus

Hope this could be of any help.

TMW

 

Hi, I have actually done this repair.
I ran over some junk in the road, and it broke my pan.
It CAN be done without removing the engine, in about eight hours.
I recommend it without removing the engineto eliminatedisconnections which include powersteering, A/C, coolant etc. Its just too much work.
You will have to remove the exhaust, unbolt the engine mounts and "raise" the engine abit above the frontframe to have enough room to remove the pan.
There is an upper and a lower pan, I'm assuming your upper pan is damaged.
Be sure to buy the Mercedes pan/engine sealer; it is literally awesome.
You may have to "thread-tap" your new upper pan, checkthis before you install it!
clean the sealing surfaces with laquer thinner until they are bone dry, apply sealer, install pan, install bolts.
This is NOT a same-day project but rather a weekend,take your time;do it properly.
And of course you should be mechanically trained.
Wow, I made that sound easy...

Good luck,
Blue