Hi guys!
How often do you change oil and filter on your vehicles?
I used to do it every 10.000 km but now, considering my current mileage that would mean I need to change it 3 times a year
Seems to much so I would need your advice on what´s the optimal interval.
Thanks!

 

Oil is cheap. Engines are not. I do mine every 5,000 miles even though 10,000 miles is the recommended interval. That means I do 4 changes a year and go through two sets of rear tires and a set of fronts.

 

"Optimal" interval? I guess that depends on how you define "optimal". Unless you run your car extremely hard or drive your car consistently in some extreme conditions, I would say go by what is recommended in your owner's manual. The Mercedes engineers came up with that for a good reason. There are always threads on here (or on pretty much every other car forum) about this sort of thing and there is always debate on what is "best". If the manual says 10K miles there are those that figure 5K MUST be better, "just to be sure" or it is "cheap insurance". To each his own, but my feeling is that for every day driving that most of us do the recommendations in the owner's manual are more than sufficient. To me, I go by the book and leave it at that.

 

The only real way to tell when you need to change your oil is blackstone oil analysis.

 

People are concerned with the changing of the oil when the real issue is the filters. Many oil filters are unable to properly filter particulates after a certain period of absorption. The V1s in the oil however, will be fine for the 10k stretch. I usually pop a new oil filter on every 5k or so depending on my oil change schedule. A filter on these engines is easy to change and gives me peace of mind....but of course to each his own.

 

He's right on this one about the filter being a big limiter. Not all filters are equal and don't get cheap ones. I might do that since I'm coming up on the 5k mark soon.

 

All information provided above is good. I would like to add also, although not particularly relevant because you seem to drive enough, that if you DON'T drive your car often at all, you should also do regular oil changes earlier than manufacturer recommended.

AKA, if you have a 7 year old car with 16k km's (<10k miles), you should have already changed oil more than once.

 

The thing is a local dealership tells me that once a year oil change is all I need. But I know enough that it's the mileage that counts, not weeks, months or years. So I changed it every 6200 miles (10000 km-s). Considering I drive 90% in heavy traffic where engine revs no more than 2500 rpm with occasionsl blasts on highway when I really floor it to over 250 km/h just to "clean" it up a bit it shoul be enough.

 

1 year or 10k, whichever comes first

 

Yep - show me someone that had oil related engine issue with 1yr 10k changes ...most of the forum posts about sludging or other oil related issues are where people ran the oil way beyond the service interval. There are a few exceptions however - like Hyundai gdi engines ...

 

OK, if I keep my intervals within 10.000 km I should be fine?

 

You should be. I would get it around 7,000-8,000 just to be on safe side though.

 

Reading the maintenance booklet for the MB C300 2015 they refer to engine number model. Where can i find it?


Only reference i found is Engine type 2.0L L4 DOHC 16V AWD
I even lookup the VIN number but can not find any reference to the engine number model.
Anybody know?


The reason i need to find out is about oil change, in the booklet it is either 15000 or 20000km (depending on engine model number)
/1 year.

 

Personally I do mine every 10,000km, but change the filter every 5k.

 

Every 5000Km...+/- Mercedes 229.5 Oil + Filter.

 

Every 8000 miles here. I'm at 54xxx miles and will have the oil changed @ 56k.

 

The book says 10k mile intervals, all the techs I've spoken with (both dealership & independent) strongly recommend oil/filter changes at 5k. It may cost a bit more but my cars thank me.

 

Interesting, about 3 years ago I met a mining engineer, and we started talking about oil.
He said to me they did the experiments and the best oil starts to change at 7 000km, this is their max.
I acually did a lifelong experiment on the Mazda engine, got oil cheap(Not rubbish oil) and replaced it every 2500Km. I found that after 50 000Km the valves stabalised and I never had to adjust the tappets after that like before. I later used better oil and changed to 5 000Km intervals.All I do is check them, had a very few times adjust gap smaller, count on one hand. It now has near 300 000Km and engine is clean inside, no oil usage and running strong.
I buy car cash, then drive it till it unrepairable, but you have to look at the fluids. If you replce every 3-5 years you probably never has to do anything from new, next owners problems.

 

For United States drivers not on the metric system, that's every 4350 miles (7000km).

Thanks, good info.

 

The thing is he's most likely talking about conventional oil, synthetic is very different.

 

I have a 2013 C300 as my daily car and I put in 100 hwy miles on it everyday. Should I change oil every 5k or follow the book, 10K?

Tks..

 

Go by the book.