allhwydriving

I have a 2006 C230 with 14k miles. It last had an oil change at 8k miles, which was about 14 months ago. Certainly, the oil is no longer golden, but it's not black either. Should I still go by distance, or is 14 months too long to run on the same oil?

I'm getting an indicator for scheduled maintenance (Svc. B), since it's past a year since the last one, but I'm wondering whether I can wait it out for a little while. Thanks for your opinions.

acr2001

Do you plan on keeping the car for a long time? Then you should probably change the oil after 12 months.

KIRA

i do it every 3months/3000 miles, i always stock up when engine oil are on sale

acr2001

Every 3 months?? With mobile 1?

Unless you're filthy rich......

Between the mobile1 and the fleece filter its meant to last quite a bit longer than that.

KIRA

last time i pass my 3000 miles period and notice my oil start getting darker so is not a good sign, and once you changed it you gonna notice a BIIIG difference.

DIY cost you nothing, oil + filter cost you 40bux at MOST.

don't give your car too much care if you gonna sell it.

love it if you are gonna keep it forever

Defiant

I keep hearing about fellows doing 3K changes with synthetic. I'd like to hook a pipe to your drain pan.

It probably won't hurt anything. You've heard the rest of the arguments, and I'll spare you. It's a great sign that your oil gets darker with use. It means it's doing its tertieary job (after lubricating and cooling), which is to suspend contaminants. If you ever see your oil getting lighter, that's the time to panic. It would mean it's lost its ability to keep that junk floating, and that it's washing up somewhere on your engine's beach.

For the OP: if your oil is getting fully-used, heated all the way to operating temperature and run for at least fifteen miles on most trips, you're okay to run it the full mileage. But if you're only rolling to the market, shutting off and driving back, up your changes.

Best rule: if you're feeling guilty about your oil, go ahead and change it.

Now, let's get back to something we won't squabble about. Like, how to raise your kids.

datgai

I do 5,000 / 6 months. I've read enough white papers on oils that I dont like to run it past 7,000 and 5K is easy to remember on the odometer

e1000

I don't think it's bad to run the full 13K/1yr period but I have a very short commute and drive my car hard so I usually change mine every 6.5K miles.

esemes

my 07 is one year old this weekend, and im going for the first service next week

ive amassed 6100 miles on it, so i feel its fine (but think 250 for A is absurd on this car)

yeuchau

just do oil change, service A it's not worth it.
go check the service/inspection list between Service A and Oil change then you'll know service A is just a waste of money.

esemes

think the dealer would have any leverage on warranty issues if i dont have A done?

the timer in my car reads only days left till A is needed. (annoying!)

Glyn M Ruck

I comment as a retired Oilco man - ExxonMobil must love you guys with your ultra short drains especially with Merc's large sumps where the oil charge is not particularly stressed. Good filtration practice is also in place.

As alluded to by others in this thread modern highly detergeant/dispersant oils should darken - they are doing their job

Short trip vehicles should be given a good run from time to time to evaporate water out of the oil which can build up to a couple of percent if engine seldom runs at full operating temperature for long enough.

Stick to MBs maintenance schedule. There are time related issues with hygroscopic products like brake fluid which should always be changed on time - (read the manual) - There are also issues of warrantee & negative effects on resale value should scheduled servicing be ignored. Maybe resale is less effected in the USA but where I come from a full service history adds big bucks to the resale value of a Merc

mleskovar

Any recommendation for an oil change interval other than FSS without Oil analysis is a guess. Spend the $20 and know how your driving environment affects your oil. Get it analyzed at your next change. I found that the FSS was conservative with its' change recommendation on my car.

Glyn M Ruck

Wise words mleskovar! - & apart from contaminants, wear metals, additive concentration etc. Make sure they give you water content. In dynamometer testing I did some years back on fuel consumption over 10 & 20 kilometres from a cold start I was surpised to find H20 levels of between 5 & 8% in our test vehicle fleet. That's a lot and detrimental. Short trip vehicles need a good run from time to time, at full operating temperature, to evaporate that water out of the engine breather system.

04C320

Should you be covered on this? You are well within the factory 4 year/ 50k miles.

jhartmac

In all honesty the oil change hype and synthetic story is all fake and truly unreal, there is no such thing as sythetic its just highly refined think about it, if there were really synthetic we would have synthetic gas..hence no fuel shortages....now on to oil changes, if you check out amsoil or can't remember the other one I think donaldson they will sell you a oil filter that is 3-5 microns filter capability, then your best solution is to use diesel motor oil that is the best and most highly refined oil on the market, if you use the retro fit oil filter think like oil changes in excess of 30k or more, this is absolutely NO BULL.........the oil industry and of course jiffy lubes would love for you to keep comin every 3k but thats just not real, in fact, Mobil just not too long ago came out with the 15k oil and filter........so its worth getting the retro fit oil filter and saving yourself alot of money and of course saving your engine=longer life.

This information was obtained for a summit between auto makers in the late 70's when as you all may or may not remember when the import cars mainly japanese were outlasting the american vehicles something like american engines getting 100K max and imports like 170 or better this was because of one reason the filter, american cars and the manufactures were around 12microns and the filter media was that junk paper sort of what it is now, the imports were using like 5 microns and better material, now of course as stated above the retro kit filters use fiberglass material and metal as the media and provide 3-5microns of filtration.........its worth the investment.........and to finish the summit story the agreement was for the american manufacturers to start producing oil filters with better filtering capabilities because of the lopsided auto industry.

Glyn M Ruck

This is an unfortunate post because it is belligerent and only partially correct. It put an end to useful discussion. Lets revive it. The commentary on oil filtration is mainly correct

There are three major reasons for changing oil:
1) The oil is contaminated. Dust - fuel soot - combustion by-products etc. Here good filtration can extend the useful life of the oil by the removal of particulate contaminants. Conventional filtration cannot remove contaminants that are miscible in the base oil or liquid or it would strip out the additives. Thus water and fuel contamination as examples are not removed by filtration
2) Additive depletion. In simple terms some additives are used up (sacrificial), such as those that neutralise acids formed in the combustion process, and others simply wear out. Viscosity Index improvers, which are milled polymer are chopped up under conditions of shear in the engine. Long drain oils can have additive treat rates in excess of 18% - they have a finite life
3) Base oil oxidation which leads to thickening (sometimes offset by fuel dilution) which ultimately results in breakdown and polymerisation.

Synthetic oils are not fake or a scam and are synthesised from a host of building blocks which could be petroleum derived but also from a host of other sources, gases, coal, esters of substances etc. I'm keeping this simple because we are already going well beyond what the consumer is interested in. They are synthesised from small molecules and tailored to give totally predictable characteristics. Petroleum based products unfortunately, even after refining, retain molecular structures and many undesirable characteristics of the crude oil they came from.

The no fuel shortage story if synthetics were real is nonsense. Synthetics are expensive to produce and that while synthetic fuels are produced in, for instance, the Sasol process (Coal gasification) they are not viable in global terms.

Synthetic oils have many benefits over their conventional petroleum cousins and I will list but a few below - If people are really interested in a long dissertation - which I doubt - we can start another thread.

a) Synthetic base oils contain no unstable molecules so they have inherently excellent oxidation stability that reduces degradation at high temperature and gives long stable life, lower additive treat requirements & lower wear
b) Synthetics contain no wax like petroleum products and thus do not become thick or solid at low temperatures. This low temperature fluidity allows easy cold starts with minimum wear
c) Synthetic oils have a very high viscosity index - that is they thin down far less for a given rise in temperature than do petroleum based oils. This means they maintain viscosity at high temperatures without the addition of high volumes of unstable VI Improver or Viscosity Modifiers
d) Synthetics have low volatility (NOAC values) which prevents evaporative loss & thickening.
e) Synthetics have very high thermal stability leading to excellent lubrication under conditions of high temperature high shear giving low wear in highly stressed areas such as cam & follower
f) Lubricity, Film Strength & good Fuel Economy are other attributes.

A good synthetic oil will perform for longer in service and will reduce wear to almost negligible levels. Observe Mercedes Benz service periods & service product recommendations for the long life of your investment.

TemjinX2

its a either or, so change after 10,000 miles or 10months which ever comes first. if your doing all highway miles, then you can probably go longer. If your driving almost all city then i would change it earlier.

city driving puts a lot more stress on your engine then highway.

Most modern oils can last a pretty long time, your filter will go bad before the oil. Hence why mercedes uses special fleece filters now.

Glyn M Ruck

Follow the Service Indicator !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mleskovar

Informative post, thanks. I don't know of any negative aspects about synthetic oil other than cost. I'm sure it saves money in the long run though.

AsianML

You can't really tell how good oil is just by looking at it...

Buellwinkle

Time based oil changes intervals are based on a person driving very few miles regularly. What happens is that the combustion process generates moisture. Normally you drive far enough that as the motor heats up, the moisture evaporates faster than it's generated. This is why you see white smoke coming out of the tailpipe as the engine heats up and evaporates what has collected since then. So if you drive a few miles a day, this moisture builds up and over time contaminates the oil. In those cases, change the oil more often. The other way to put on few miles is to drive very infrequently but longer distance. This allows the moisture to be cooked out of the engine and you can go much longer on oil changes. The theory is the FSS is supposed to calculate this, especially on the 6 cylinder cars. The 4 cyl cars have a much simpler FSS and it's like a fixed 10K miles or 14 months.

Defiant

And
4) The actual molecular structure of the oil is destroyed mechanically as they are cut at severe pressure points such as the valve stem/lifter and camshaft/follower interfaces.

mistertonyn

I have gathered that most peoplle would recommend changing it yearly regardless of mileage. My car sees short daily commutes in the city so it is not too good for the engine. I'll probably do it yearly..since I do it myself anyway and save $$$ compared to having the dealership servicing it.

alpinweiss

Your comments on synthetic oil are very good.

On the topic of synthetic fuel, yes it is indeed possible. All it takes is money; lots of it. Think in terms of at least triple current gasoline prices, and maybe more.

We do not currently have production facilities for synthetic fuels, so these would all have to be built. This would take many years; and again, lots of money.

At some point, I believe synthetic fuels will be viable. But this will not happen tomorrow, nor even in the near future. Other fuel technologies are a lot closer to reality.