GDawgC220

wonderin' what lenth (miles) you guys wait b4 doing oil changes on u'r 202's...pre FSS.

dealer writes 5000 miles on my window sticker...

how long do you wait?

sph17

FSS started with 98 model W202. Owners manual in pre 98 W-202 reccomends replacement at 7,500 miles. Since I drive that in about 5-6 months, I follow their reccomendation using synthetic oil.

I would change every 7,500 miles or every 12 months (with synthetic oil), whichever comes first unless you do lots of city, stop & go driving. Under hard useage circumstances, every 5,000 miles would be reasonable.

FYI. I have (had) three W123 with over 200,000 miles each that I religiously changed the oil every 5,000 miles and never had any engine problems. That is not to say the engines in the W202 are anywhrere as well built as the old diesel engines MB use to make. MB reccomendations on oil change intervals for W-123 diesels is every 5,000 miles to remove the sulfuric acid that builds up in the engine oil of diesels because of the sulfur contaminants in diesel fuel.

tpliquid

i didnt kno ur supopse to change oil in our cars

DougandhisC280

I just use organic 20W50 every 3,000 miles.

sph17

Castol makes an excellent 20W50 that I would consider using in my W-123's if I lived in the south like you. Up north, except between May and Sep, 20W50 would be a bit thick. Castrol has a 5W50 sythetic that I use in my W202 so I have good coverage if my oil changes overlap the late summer and into early winter.

There is nothing wrong with Dino oil for 3,000 to 5,000 miles between oil changes, but I choose the synthetic for a bit better gas milage and to streatch the oil changes to the reccomended 7,500 miles.

BTW 20W50 is also a great choice for a higher mileage car in a warmer climate.

DougandhisC280

That's exactly why I use it. If I switch to synthetic I worry about developing new leaks because of the thinner oil. The way I look at it, I think it is better for me to change my oil and filter twice as much as doing it with synthetic. Because organic oil is so much cheaper, it costs about the same price to do it twice as often.

sph17

I have had problems as you discribe switching my W123 to synthetic. One 300TD I purchased used with 60,000 miles developed a new oil leak almost immediately after an oil change to synthetic. Mobil denies that this happens, but some auto people in the newspaper collums say that dino oil cloggs up small oil leaks in gasgets and causes "false plugs" and the superior detergents in synthetic oils with their usually thinner rating is a recipie for the false oil plugs to spring leaks. I also had this happen with a W123 I ran synthetic in for 40K, then swithced to dino oil for 20-30K then switched back. Now I never switch from Dino oil to synthetic. If I have a car that has had synthetic it's whole life, I keep it on synthetic, until it gets tooooo old, and needs the thick stuff. If I am not sure, I do dino oil, usually 5W30 or 10W40.

davis449

The dealer set my intervals on my 95 at every 7500 miles. I don't really like it, but that's what they say, so that's what I do. I do believe I run 5W30 Mobil 1.

cil254

Excuse my ignorance, but what does "FSS" stand for ?

DMXtremeZ

i do one every 3500 to 4000 since it services every 7500

BadAssBenz

I change my 10w30 synthetic every 5000 miles, so that way every time my mileage is divisible by 5, I change it. Obviously, you have to start this when your mileage is actually divisible by 5...

sph17

FSS= Flexible Service System i.e. car keeps track to total number of gallons of gas consumed (and other perameters?) and sets your oil change intervals based on that. For example, if you get many miles per gallon on 55 mph highway driving you may go 10,000+ miles between the reccomended oil change interval according to your car's FFS.

vas2vas

when i got my 95 c280 it was leaking oil around timing chain cover.....a couple of oil changes with castrol 10W40 (winter) and then 20W50 (summer), made the leak go away....think whoever had the car before was using 5W30 or something......

branshew

I believe it stands for "Flexible Service System" or something like that.

In a nutshell.....

on my 99 C280 It means I could go up to 10K without changing the oil (according to the manual at least). I believe that there are sensors somewhere in the lubrication system that determine how dirty the oil is. Once it reaches a cetian point, a "countdown" mileage timer is set to visually recommend the next servicing.