Originally Posted by
Jack G
Don't panic. It is highly unlikely the engine would need to be removed to do a high percentage of the most common repairs. Your leak appears to be minimal and could be coming from the valve cover gasket. This is a common problem but I would wait a while and keep monitoring it. Most oil leaks are related to leaky seals or gaskets. Remember, even though your car only has 25k miles it is 16 years old. Some gasket materials degrade when immersed in oil over time. Once you find where the leak is coming from I would recommend you have a local MB repair shop verify the leak and have them fix it if you are not mechanically inclined. Do not go to a Chrysler dealer as most on this forum will tell you. They know nothing about our German cars.
Cheers
Yeah, when I inherited my father's '04 XF with 50K on the clock that had been sitting for 2 years with a dead battery and a wasp nest in passenger wheel well (got stung replacing the battery), I started it up and a few minutes later it started to smoke as oil was burning off the exhaust manifold. Leaking valve cover. However, I didn't worry about it. I saw the oil residue there and figured the seal had dried up and separated a bit somewhere and car just needed driven again for a while. So, fast forward 1-1/2 years and just getting hot oil flowing around the inside of that valve cover and that cover's sealant combined with overall engine heat the leak sealed right back up on its own immediately... No more leak, no more smoke, no more problem. I personally don't worry about any oil leaks unless it gets to the point that oil needs top be added between oil changes and even then I'm not overly concerned. Old cars can burn oil and leak oil. Oil is cheap, the European auto repair shop is expensive if you're not a DIY'er willing to get into that level of repair.
I'd take an XF that has been driven relatively regularly with 100K on the clock over a dry-rotted garage queen with 10K on the clock all day long... Probably couldn't drive the garage queen home without leaving 1/2 the vital fluids on the road along the way.