I have a C-Coupe with 6600 miles on it, 4 months old. The "check oil level" indicator went on today. When I checked it according to the procedure in the manual (wait 5 minutes, level surface) it said to add 1.5 quarts. It says the first A service is still 4300 miles off. How concerned should I be about this? Thanks.

 

I've had the first service last week. In 9,500 miles it used a half quart and the dealer put it in at about 4,500 miles. Use the dipstick to check the oil, it's more accurate than the MFD. Mine says add 1 qt, yet the oil level on the dipstick is 3/4 of the way between full and add.

 

Assuming that the crankcase was full when you took delivery, the oil consumption has averaged 0.14 litres per 1000 km. That is very low oil consumption, especially so considering that Mercedes-Benz suggests that this engine is not considered to have an oil consumption problem unless it drinks SEVEN TIMES as much oil as your car does.

The other thing to consider is that your oil consumption from this point forward will likely be lower than 0.14 L/1000 km, as the engine has broken in by now. I'd bet that from now on your oil consumption is under 0.1 L/1000 km.

 

Well, when I dropped my car off today for my first oil change, the tech said that anything less than 1 qt per 1k miles is ok. That just sounds wrong to me!

Here's my oil consumption story: 11.8k miles, added 4.5 qts so far, this morning: says to add 1.5 qt (did not get a malfunction, though manual says that I'll get a warning when I'm a qt low), dipstick is half-way between max and min, and the diagnostic said that I've got 5.8 qts in.

I don't know which to believe, but I don't have much interest in adding a qt of oil every month. I did that on my crx, and that's a 13-y-o car!

 

Thanks guys. I had a 2000 ML320 to which I NEVER had to add oil. I traded it with about 25,000 miles and while it went in 2 or 3 times according to the FSS, I never had to add any oil. Maybe the Kompressor engine is a bit more thirsty than the V6 320?

 

Tommy, I trust the dipstick. I guess halfway between MAX & MIN says your 1/2 quart down.

Right now I'm halfway too and my diagnostic test says around 5.6-5.8 (same as yours). Adding 1/2 qt. would bring it up to 6-point-something. The book says it holds 7.4 so that doesn't make sense either.

Is it the check-oil level screen that says to add 1.5 quart? I have never tried that screen because I'm too impatient to wait the 5 minutes.

1 qt./month is crazy. I would think you'd see blue smoke out the tailpipe at that point (assuming that's where it's going).

 

Yes, it is that screen, and yes, it is a pain in the *** to wait.

I don't like getting so much conflicting information in the same car, you know? I agree - the dipstick is the best source, but if they go to the trouble to have all of these electronics, you'd hope that you'd get three sources that would say the same thing.

Since the diagnostic says 5.8, so down 1.5 qts sounds right, but not by the dipstick. So, that means that I have two electronic sources of data that are both wrong. Of course, if they're both reading off the same sensor (don't know about that), it would make sense that they're both wrong by the same amount. Looks like I'll have to check the oil level every other week or so, which I didn't really want to do on a new car. And no, I don't think that trusting the diagnostics to tell me when I'm low sounds like a good idea at this point.

 

SFVideoGuy: i think you should be okay. MFD is not that trust worthy. Because for me, it tells different story eveytime when I measure the oil level. Sometims is saids add oil and coupe of days later, it doesn't. So I just trust my dip stick too. My coupe already has 21K miles and it's only 6month old. Between my driving habit, I bet i burned more oils than most of you here and I've never had to add any oils.

 

My experience is that the high/low marks on the dipstick are about 2 qts different. My low oil warning didn't come on until it said to add 2qts, and by then it was at the bottom of the dipstick. I added 1 qt and checked it, and it was half way between the high/ low mark. I haven't added any oil since then, and the low oil warning has not come back on. It seems to have seated the rings, etc because it has not used any oil since then.

 

I have a new C230K At 8000 miles the OSD gave a warning to add oil. It said to add 2 quarts, I added 1. The car just reached 10k miles and the OSD is saying I still have 2400 miles until the first service A. Can this be right? Is there an actual sensor that tells how "good" the oil is? Maybe its reading more because of a fresh quart of oil? Should I go get the oil changed now or wait until the OSD says so? Is the service calculated by your average MPG or ave speed? Could be that I drove the first 10k miles in 3 1/2 months. I can't help it, that car is awsome!

 

My MB Tech told me that the service miles are calculated based on driving style. Whe you drive it off the showroom floor it is set to 10,000Mi. It adjusts up or down after that depending upon conditions.

 

If you wanna pay for it, sure, bring it in! I'm sure that your dealer would love to make a few easy bucks - since you'll be bringing it in ahead of time, it'll be on you, not MB. I see no harm in waiting - I trust the diagnostics.

However, I don't trust the oil level sensor. Every time you add oil, check the dipstick against what the monitor is telling you. If it says to add 2 qts, add 1, and check the dipstick. Nothing worse than overfilled oil.

 

I'll second this thought. My car said to add 1.0 quart, so I added 0.5 quart. The sensor now said "Oil level O.K." and the dipstick was right to the top of the full mark.

Cheers, BT

 

My car said to add 1.5 quarts, and the stick was below the middle of its range. I add 1 quart and the stick showed just barely over full by about 1 mm.

 

My car is in getting its service A and some warranty work done (minor things). Came up for service A at 10,400 mi. The car required one quart at 2400 mi and a second at 6000 mi but none since. I checked using the dip stick before taking it in and it was full. Because one of my warranty repairs was the inaccurate average speed computer (see post last December) I quizzed my service manager yesterday for how service intervals are calculated. He says it is time, distance traveled and optical transparency of the oil. Evidently there is some sensor that checks this. Don't flame me I'm just reporting what I was told. After having several new cars this was what I expected for oil consumption. You burn a little during breakin but if you didn't stress the engine too much during this period you shouldn't burn much more.

 

Sounds like some of you Hatchback owners burning more oil than gas per mile!

 

So the tech said time to service is caluculated from Time, Dist Traveled and oil transparency. I didn't check the before and after when I added the quart at 8000 miles. If there is an oil sensor, I'd like to know.. next time anyone out there needs to add oil, check the mileage to the next service before and after the oil is added. I'm figuring if it does affect the MTS (milage to service), and thats not really a good thing. Lets say the OSD says 3k miles to the next service, you add a quart of oil and now the car says 5k to the next service. The other comment that the service is based on driving style makes me laugh cause I take off fast, I've spun the tires more then once and I've had the thing up to 110mpg a few times. My driving style is pretty bad. Anyway lets keep this going with regard to the "oil transparency sensor". Any comments on that?

 

A good example of how companies like K&N, etc. do so well selling products that do nothing.

Its all about psychology, not mechanics.

There is NO WAY adding a quart of oil made your car run "much better", have more power or run smoother. Period. Its all in your head.

(If anything, adding oil would only make a car LESS powerful, that's just more oil the crank has to fight through).

 

Wow... Jeff - first time seeing thid word.

I am impressed.

Peace

 

Not impressed enough to spell it correctly, though, huh?