Crankshaft oil seal failure

[starspeed]

My MB dealer reports that the crankshaft oil seal on my SL500 (2003 registration, 42,000 miles) is leaking. Fitting a replacement involves removing the gearbox (7 hours labour).

Strikes me that such an expensive failure shouldn't have occurred at this age/mileage and I'd be interested to hear members' opinions.

 

[bigasotonuk]

Hi,
Regarding the oil seal i do agree with you about its premature failure, but MB are not obligated to repair but you could try for some form of goodwill contribution.
But looking at your other thread regarding the mismatched tyres it does sound like there maybe some competency issues and i would,nt be confident that the diagnosis is correct, being as you have this other issue i think i would be looking for a second opinion, if it proves correct get a price from a good reputable Independant for the job as i would imagine it would be in the region of half of what MB want for the job.

 

[starspeed]

As you'd have seen from the other post, Andy, this has been the service from hell. Entirely agree with what you say about lack of confidence in the diagnosis. It did occur to me however that since the car covers only around 4,000 miles a year the seal might have suffered some drying out.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

How much is it leaking? If its a manageable leak I'd just live with it.

Theres a patch of oil under my car right now, and I have a 450 mile trip tomorrow

 

[starspeed]

The leak is just visible, not creating a patch under the car. Good luck tomorrow...