Hello All,

Is there any way to reset the service computer yourself without taking it into a dealer?

I know a lot of people change their own oil, and I am wondering how they reset the service computer.

I know how to change the oil, that part is made easy by design, but the service thing I am unsure of......

Thanks,

Rguy

 

Ever read the manual. There is a lot of valuable info in it. :v

 

I have these intructions from MBUSA - and it does note to see owner's manual for details.

1. Ignition key in position 2.
2. Use the page button to select odometer readout in cluster.
3. Use the scroll button to display FSS indicator.
4. Press 'R' button on cluster for approximately 2 seconds.
5. Display in cluster will advise "to reset service reminder - press 'R' button for approx. 3 seconds.
6. Press 'R' button on cluster for approximately 3 seconds.
7. Service reminder is reset.

 

amdeutsch, I am not all that sure that you know what you are talking about. It is comments like these that continually drive me away from the boards. They are meant in jest, but they are just a big fun killer.

At any rate, for all of those who want to know what is in the manual for a c55 amg it is that the dealership can reset the interval (for about $40 last I checked) or it says you can call mercedes benz, sit through their long phone lines with stupid menu choices, that do little more than increase waiting time and maybe they will tell you. I should note I am paraphrasing I guess. Perhaps older manuals included this information gratis, and they noticed a concomitant drop in dealer service revenue.

I appealed to the members of this board so that I could find out if anyone knew how to reset the interval. I later, after extensive digging, found two methods, one was the one from kjb55 (and I thank you for actually answering the question posed), and the other was from a c320 post that does not have the FSS system but the newer standard interval system. It was the latter that I experimented with to see if it would work.

For my c55 brethren who may want to not pay for a ritzy $250-$300 oil change, if you just cycle to the mileage window and then cycle within the mileage window to the time or mileage to next service window with the key in position 2, you can simply hold down the reset button for awhile. Then after holding the reset button for awhile it will tell you that you can hold the reset button again to reset the interval. I guess this is to thwart an unintended reset, but it seems mighty silly to me. I believe the kjb55 method is meant for older vehicles with the "flexible service system" (FSS) that monitored oil quality rather than miles driven to determine the service interval.

Hope this helps. Oil and Filter should run no more than $70 and the equipment to buy for first time use (oil container to take to any free oil-recycling center like most autoparts stores and quick oil change companies, oil filter socket that attaches to a socket wrench, and a vacuum pump that sucks the oil out through the hood side rather than the drain plug (vacuuming the oil is the MB preferred way of getting the oil out because it gets sludge and sediment out better) should run no more than $30 including shipping and tax.

 

Thanx for the "Info" and for sharing

 

no troubles bubbles

 

I used the method I described on my C55 and it reset the service system correctly. I believe the steps are the same for both systems, just the wording you see on the display varies slightly.

C55 owners note that there are 2 drain plugs on the V8 - one before and one after the cross member. You'll get about a quart from the front and the rest from the back.

This really presses the question of the oil suction device - and I scratch my head that MB advises its use. With frequent oil and filter changes, using the correct oil, no sludge should be present. Any sediment that isn't trapped in the filter or suspended in the oil will settle to the bottom of the pan, near the drain plugs.

How can you be certain that the suction tube is at these locations to suck the sediment out?

I'd be curious to members thoughts on this one. The spec calls for 9 quarts with an oil and filter change. I used the drain method, both plugs removed, changed the filter and re-filled with exactly 9qts to meet the dipstick reading spec of 160mm.

Can anyone let the group know how many quarts was needed with the suction method and the mm reading on the dipstick??

Thanks.

 

Kjb55, after looking at them again, the procedures are quite similar. I think the thing that threw me off the most was that you used the FSS abbreviation which doesn't exist for our cars. To tell you the truth, someone else who used the FSS method on another discussion thread had a fairly different procedure (although it might have just been muy confusing and boiled down to the same thing), but your post had enough of the key words and structure from that one, that my sleepy brain made them into the same thing.

As for the sediment being in the corners, the sediment should be suspended almost like a milk. Engine cycling recirculates the oil in such a way that the sediment moves through it as well. You should change your oil after the engine is warm (don't race it, but let it go through the engine start warm up cycle and then turn it off) because it does exactly this churning and decreases the viscosity of the fluid to be sucked. The suction also (it's active, not passive like a siphon) actually provides a current much like a vacuum cleaner which mobilizes solids in the oil.

Now, it isn't that you can't use the drain plug method, obviously, but rather that the way they do it in the service bay (if they follow MB procedure) is suction. That is also why they put the oil filter in the engine bay, to further denecessitate hoisting the car. (Its placement should be a strong sign that this is their procedure) Basically, MB has run engines with Mobil 1 Supersyn 0w 40, using the oil change method described, for 250,000 miles. After that they tore down the block and examined it under mucho magnification. Basically at microscopic levels, they could not find a difference between the original unused block and the 250,000 mile block. This is what pushed MB to switch all their cars to Mobil One Supersyn in the last couple of years. You may recall that only the AMGs used to get synthetic and the rest got conventional. This test impressed them though.

To make a long story short, if it was good enough for them and they got the results they did that prompted the action at a corporate level that they took, then it is good enough for me. Hope this helps. Thanks for the enquiry and pointing out my grogginess in regards to your phrasing of the method.

Now for the gross analogy. I don't know how you guys shave, but I get annoyed with turning the faucet on and off every time I have to rinse the razor, so I plug the drain, fill up the sink with warm water, and then I can rinse to my hearts content. And, because I force more water through the razor, it gets cleaner. I shave over the sink and rinse my hands in the warm water after I put the shaving cream on so that I don't get the razor handle all slippery. The point I am trying to make here is that when I open the drain to let the finished water out, cream and beard fragments and all, the cream and beard fragments just stick to the sides of the sink and I have to wash the sides of the sink down to get all the "beard sediment" out.

This is the same as using a drain plug on an oil pan. When you have a central drain it creates a whirlpool (if the engine is warm enough and you're lucky) but it doesn't wash down the sides or floor of the pan. You leave a nice thick condensed coating of sediment all over the surfaces of the oil pan. Now, you see sediment in what you drain, so you figure it is all coming out, but the truth is that you are probably not getting as much out as you think.

Now imagine that I sucked out the sink water with the beard fragments still suspended in the water. Ah, now the beard fragments come out with the water rather than mostly water coming out. The result is that the sides of the sink don't need to be washed, especially if I "kick up" all the beard fragments by swirling the sink water around first. I hope this example of how viscosity and suspension works in removing sediment makes sense and better illustrates why MB might be using this. They may also figure they can charge more and take less time, which for us is bad unless we are doing it ourselves. Now I don't think that it is worth it to break out the shop vac every time I want to drain my sink after shaving, but since the engine oil in my car needs an oil change somewhere between 7500 and 10,000 miles, I figure I can take the expense and time to hook up a suction pump to my oil reservoir.

Lastly, don't believe the hype about sediment not existing with proper oil changes, that is something the oil companies call a "positive motivator" to get you to change your oil more often than you need to.... The truth is that after about day one of an oil change you have sediment because hydrocarbons on a molecular level really like to clump up especially under heat and pressure. The trick is having a enough good oil with proper viscosity at pressure and engine operating temperature that it keeps the hydrocarbon sediment moving rather than allowing it to contact the much, much higher temperature engine block metal from melting it to some sort of joint in the metal (where sludge build up really occurs. The good news is that if you change your oil on time and you don't let it sit for too too long between engine cycling (either by starting the engine and idling for a bit or actually driving, a far more pleasurable use of the gas) that build up will stay away from caking on to surfaces and you can get it out at your next oil change. If you keep your cars for 40k miles and use a little bit shorter than proper oil change intervals, then you aren't going to have a problem no matter how you change the oil, but if you are going after that million mile badge or even a 100,000 mile marker, you are going to have to start thinking about how you want your engine to run then, now.

Hope this is clear and helps.

 

I have one additional comment and this follows the logic stated in the "shaving-sink" analogy. I have always used the drain plug to change my oil and the frequency intervals have always been much greater than suggested by the manufacturer.

Here's my procedure.

What I usually will do is drive the car around at several minutes of normal operating temperature.

I first open the filler cap then crack the drain plug, drain out the oil completely with little to no drips left and then I drop in an extra quart of clean oil and flush it through the system with the drain plug open.

The purpose of this is to "wash" any leftover sediment as suggested. Short of removing and cleaning the oil pan, this is the best way to keep things really clean. Once completed, then I fill the crankcase.

I am not sure about the performance of the vacuum systems. They sound good, but is the system capable of "washing" the carbonized deposits? I really don't know.

For those who don't have the vacuum device, I highly recommend the simple flush procedure above.

 

Scovit,

That is definitely a good idea when going with the drain plug method, but of course you are taking prime clean oil and (hopefully) immediately putting another quart per oil change in a recycling bin. That costs you and the environment because it increases the rate of oil consumption. In two oil changes you can pay for a vacuum pump by not needing the extra quart and you won't need to jack your car up, which quite frankly is dangerous unless you actually use jack stands (but I don't know that many people that actually bother).

So your method by measure of engine health is better than the drain plug method, but I still wouldn't count on the extra quart evenly hitting all sides of the oil pan or being enough to thoroughly wash the sides. It is a band-aid on a problem that is caused by using the drain plug to begin with.... Again, good thinking and application of principles, but ultimately it is still easier, cheaper, and better to do it the other way.

Thanks for commenting.

 

Rguy - thanks for the great detail and time in responding. I really have to mull this one over. At least I have 5,000miles to do so. I have some great technical people to bounce this off of - plus I'll be at AAPEX and will mention it there also.

One more question - on a C55 V8 with 2 drain plugs - do you need to suck from the dipstick tube AND the oil filter hole in order to get all the oil out? And when using the suction method, does the car take the full spec of 9 quarts?

My apologies if I confused anyone over the FSS statement - after rguy mentioned it - I remember asking MBUSA for the updated method, and them replying that it basically didn't change. When I typed it - I just copied it verbatim, except for updating step 5 to match C55s.

Thanks again - great discussion.

 

No trouble about the detail. Remember, there are still people that are diehard fans of the drainage method. I just am not one of them. You could probably argue in circles for hours for either method. It is just that, for me, the vacuum method makes more sense, takes less time, and doesn't cost as much when using the wash down method Scovit described.

Feel free to bounce it off of everyone, I would be interested to hear what people who are "professionals" think about the deal. Keep in mind though that there may be some discomfort if they don't know much about the vacuum method and they might just say it sucks to protect themselves. Hopefully not though, hopefully they can tell you why they think the drain method is better. I encourage you to post those opinions if you find them. After all, this is a forum...not a dictatorship. Who knows? There might be something in there I haven't thought of that could change my mind.

As for the double vacuuming, I say go for it. It couldn't take anymore than an extra thirty seconds and if you do get more oil out, then you are obviously doing a better job. I know that you should put about a 1/2 quart into the filter reservoir and 8 1/2 quarts into the oil reservoir when you are putting in the new stuff. Don't forget to oil your new gaskets/o-rings either.

 

As to the 9 qts, you can't even guarantee with the drain plug method that you will need that much. I know it is pretty easy overfill a mercedes engine. The good news is that if you bite the bullet and go with the suction method, then you have a tool bought and paid for that will take any extra out in as little increments as you could want.

 

I changed my oil for the first time in my C55 yesterday (4,800 miles) - thanks to all who posted here for the advice. I thought I'd add some additional comments for those are haven't yet tackled that, but are planning to do so.

In terms of the two drain plugs - I've attached pictures below in case anyone is having a hard time locating them. If you go the drain plug method (which is the one I am used to) you will need to remove both engine shrouds (front and rear of engine). Not a big deal, but about 12 small bolts.

The one right near (in front of) the cross member (the first of the two pictures below) only drained a small amount of oil - I'd say maybe 1/3rd quart. Others have said they got a full quart out of there. My experience may have been due to the fact that I used ramps and drained from the rear plug first so most of the oil might have been positioned near the rear (main) plug. I did drain with the car at operating temperature (by the way).

Removing the filter element from the post it is mounted on was perhaps the most tricky part. I wasn't sure how it came off (different from the last MB I had). You have to grab the element with your hand and twist and pull it off the stick. It will slide off the stick eventually. I used a pair of latex gloves and did this once things had cooled off a bit (as the filter was quite hot for a while). Getting the new one on, also requires a fair bit of force. There are several gaskets you will replace on the post to which the filter is mounted in addition to the cap itself.

Lastly, adding the oil without a dip stick is tricky. Not sure why they eliminated the dip stick. I added about 7.5 quarts first and lowered the car off the ramps. Then I checked the level inside on the dash - you have to wait 5 minutes after shutting the car down to get the reading. I got a display which said add 1 quart. So I did (actually maybe 3/4 of a quart to be sure I did not overfill) and checked again and the level was fine.

I hope this posts helps others who are planning to change their oil. No one should have to pay the dealer's rate ($160 plus tax) for this service. It's ridiculous.

Mike

 

amgdouch prob didn't read the post!

guys, i advise a 5000 mile interval. i use a sucker and change oil filter every other oil change. get the mann or hengst fleece filters. the oil stays basically clean no need to worry about "beard fragments".

the car oil level reading is very sensitive to tilt. put the car in dyno mode for oil level, leave it on and add oil slowly and wait for it to trickle down- watching the reading go up....anyway i doubt being 1/2 quart short means much to the engine.......the oil pickup is still deeply submerged.

caveat- all the above applies to c32 but i'm sure to c55 as well.