Glyn M Ruck

Your main sources of Silicon are from Silicone air release/defoamant agents added to the oil & Silica from dust/dirt getting through the air filtration system, a leak in the inlet system or disturbing the filters that always gives you a spike.

Silicone air release agent will typically vary between 6 to 12ppm - sometimes higher in new oil. Unfortunately the addition of silicones can vary from batch to batch of oil dependent on that particular batch's tendency to foam/not release air. Minor changes in raw materials & very minor contamination in the blending process can cause this.

Every batch of oil blended has to meet specific air release specs & thus varying levels of silicone additive are added to bring the air release within range.

Mtu

I'm confused, which oil is now recommended by MB? Is it 0w40 or 5w30? Does the location (weather wise) matter? Say, the car is in "Torrid Zone" where avg temps is high 80s.

Glyn M Ruck

Hi Mtu - You are jumping between forums - 0W - 40 oils are formulated to operate from the freezing cold to the middle of a desert. See my comments on your post in the W204 forum & read you cars handbook. If you take your car to Tanzania where it is perpetually hot you can use an oil meeting the 0W (winter) spec but you don't have to because the temps don't reach minus 18 deg Celcius where the W spec is measured - as I have said in the 204 forum you can use 5W or 10W - 30 or 40 as long as it holds a 229.5 approval.

Your owners handbook shows different acceptable viscosity ranges for differing ambient temperatures. So yes - the ambient conditions matter. You are not going to be driving in a blizzard in Tanzania.

pawe

very informative thread! I didnt know MB dealerships are starting to replace their 0w-40 stocks with 5w-30.
So Glyn, based on your post, its better if i use 5w-30 since im in Arizona and as long as the spec is 229.51 right? (i dont have an owners manual)

Glyn M Ruck

I don't think that dealerships are going 5W - 30 or 5W - 40. I think that Mobil 1 Euro formulation 0W -40 is still the most popular oil in these cars & is supported by the F1 sponsorship.

Please note if you change viscosity it still has to meet 229.5 for gasoline passenger cars NOT 229.51 - 229.51 are low ash oils for passenger car diesel with Cat & particulate filters.

MB ban the use of 229.51 in Gasoline engines & vice versa. See my Definitive oil thread.

Using 5W - 30 is not better than 0W - 40 in Arizona. 0W - 40 is in fact slightly thicker at operating temperature than 5W - 30 - Either oil would be fine as long as it's approved.

All I am saying is that it would be OK to use a 5W or 10W - 40 in a warm place like Arizona. You are never going to be trying to start a car at Minus 18 deg C in Arizona

Mtu

GMR,

Thanks for the clarification. Sorry for "jumping around", when I was posting over there, I didn't realize the thread was for w204, but I appologized right after realizing my mistake. I'm going to stock my trunk with enough oil and filters, before shipping the car to TZ. Can you recommend anything else that I might need over? I know for sure I'll have to get a code reader

Glyn M Ruck

Hi Mtu - it's no problem to me. Oil & filters, oil, air, cabin etc & other wear components like light bulbs, belts, brake pads etc you can take with you, but apart from consumables, sods law will conspire against you that if you have a spare - that part will never fail. OBDII/CAN reader is a must. You will be able to get everything you need in Tanzania - if they don't have it they will just get it up from South Africa in a few days - you will of course pay higher prices than you are accustomed to. Benz & Toyota vehicles are popular in Africa because they are tough so spares availability is good. I would take a spare set of castor bushes because they are known to fail & will have a hard time in Tanzania. Also make sure that you have the pigtales fitted to your cam sensors before leaving the US.

Mtu

Is this (Pigtales) a DIY thing or I'll have to take it to a stealership? For the bushes, I can't find the part numbers in the forum, do you happen to know them, or a walk to the dealership is required too? Thanks again.

Glyn M Ruck

Bush Part No - MA 203 333 10 14 Bearing (Benz calls them bearings) - when you buy them quote your VIN & ask them if there is a new part number - They have been redesigned & are now softer but none of us on the forum have seen a change in part number - just ask. I think they did a running change & left the part number the same.

Pigtales are an easy DIY, Just unplug the engine harness from the cam sensors - plug in the extenders (pigtales) & tie them up with zipties so they don't get caught up in the Poly V belt.

C230 MB

I enjoyed reading your thread... just got an oil changed a couple months ago, and my MB mechanic changed and used Mobil 1 5w-40 instead of the 0w-40 wts. and advised me to change the oil every 5 - 6K miles.
He told me that recently MB have recommended to use 5w-40 wts on most of the cars except AMG models. I'm still trying to analyze if there's a difference in performance of my car, so far it drives the same. Paul

LILBENZ230

C230 MB - go back to 0W-40 and stick with what the computer tells you to do. Indy mechanics are full of worthless advice.

XenonBenz

DO NOT use Mobil 1 5W-40 in your car (ESP Formula). This is only recommended for the MY 07+ Diesel cars needing a MB229.51 oil. When this oil was first released, MB recommended it for any car with MB229.5, however they found out this oil is bad for MB Gas engines and have since removed the 229.5 approval on this oil.

Go back to Mobil 1 0W-40, which meets MB229.5. Since you have an 03, you can use any oil that meets MB229.3 or MB229.5. I have switched to Castrol Syntec 5W-40 (MB229.3) because my car was burning about 1 quart every 5,000 miles with the Mobil 1 0W-40.

JoeVal

It is confusing, but apparently there is a Mobil 1 Formula M 229.5 oil for gasoline engines and a Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 229.51 oil for diesel engines.

As so is shown on each of the MB original spec sheets. The key is to read the label for the specific 229.5 or 229.51 approval, each good for only one type engine. The 229.5 aren't necessarily low in ash (as needed for diesels with particulate filters and catalytic converters), and has more Sulfur which the diesel should not tolerate well but is beneficial to the gasoline engines.

The rest is put quite right by Glyn Ruck in his preceding post #30. One point though, synthetic oils must use fleece filter (e.g. Mann #715-8x).

It is pleasurable to participate in this thread. Thanks everybody who brought so much, so professionally.

JV

barrysuperhawk

Edit: Good lord, I seem to have ressurected an OLD thread.. Sorry, but I do think it's topical..

Here's the results of a bunch of M1-0W40 oil changes. Ignore the 90k test, the grease monkey contaminated it.

kluvsbenz

I just acquired my first Blackstone report. I am paraphrasing," No problems showed up in initial report. All wear metals read well within the average range for this type of engine(3.5L, V6). Viscosity was slightly low(%67.8) for a 5w40. Just a passing interest. We didn't find any contamination in the oil and the engine wear looks great. Low insolubles show your oil filter was still doing a nice job and silicon shows good air filtration. Try 15,000 miles on the next oil." My Phospherous(893) and Zinc(1016) was slightly above the average range. What could be the culprit? Other than that, at 91k, I am very satisfied

Glyn M Ruck

Zinc & Phos. are antiwear additives. The fact that they are in good shape means the oil is not tired.

Good news - no signs of sprocket wear on the balancer shaft.

barrysuperhawk

Mobil1 0W40 and 5W40 [and 15w50] all show up with higher levels of Zinc and Phosphorus, they are anti-wear additives and those formulations have more of them.

Glyn M Ruck

But not higher than universal average for that product!

splinter

+1 Those zinc and phosphorus levels are about average for HT/HS (229.5) blends.

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/...duct_Guide.pdf