Rocker Arms replacement
A light rattling noise audible, especially around 1700 to 2000 rpm, somewhere on the right side of the engine... Probably cylinder 3 or 4 after first inspection.
Convinced to have this repaired by the workshop owner, I justed wanted to inspect visually in order to be able to pre-order the required components for repair to let it pass more quickly. As there was some time pressure... First opportunity at the workshop was for 7 August, while the next tour is scheduled from 15 August onwards... Waiting for repair as well as order duration, this could become tight...
Inspired by Kent Bergsma from MercedesSource how you can do a lot of maintenance on your Mercedes yourself, I started to inspect myself... focusing on the right cylinder bank
After taking away the air intake with filter and removing the spark plug cables, I basically exposed the valve cover being hold down with 4 bolts.
So, if I wanted to see more, I would need to remove the rocker arms, which requires special equipment. A 'spring compressor for valve spring':
On Amazon you can find a much cheaper alternative:
Depending on your desire to have the tool quickly, you can find different prices ranging from EUR 18 to EUR 36.
So, these rocker arms needed to be replaced urgently. At SLS-HH-shop I have found the replacement part:
Webshop Team cvs.de
As I had seen 5 out of 8 rocket arms damaged, I decided to replace all 8 of them on the right cylinder bank...
Another opportunity...
Now the valve cover has been removed, it provides the perfect opportunity to look at an easy task that can avoid catastrophic engine damage. And for the price, there is no excuse not to do it: https://www.auto-onderdelen24.nl/febi-bilstein/1872819
Somehow, the hardest part of the whole story: the mounting of the valve cover: after I had bolted it down cross-wise up to 3 Nm torque, the engine seemed to leak engine oil: after the engine gets hot on the exhaust pipes, the spilled oil during (dis)assembly started to smoke. However, after running for 10 minutes, the smoke still appeared... Damn!
So, in the end I had replaced the valve cover 7 (!) times with both new and old gasket, but nothing seemed to help. In the end I gave up and went to the workshop for advice. With smoke still appearing from the engine compartment, he proposed to use some liquid gasket for the valve cover. However, while explaining, we discovered that the smoke appearing from the exhausts was getting less and less...
Just to be sure, I had made 2 trips of 20 minutes to see that everything seemed to be fine, without touching any bolt...
I have done the maintenance on mileage 82.607 finishing on Sunday 04 August 2024 and at the time of writing (19 August), the mileage has increased to 83.055, so approx. 725 kilometers later. So, I can claim now the maintenance has been done successfully. Hurray!