knvs

I'm just wownder, do u guys change oil every 3-5k miles, or do u change around 7k because its synthetic, or do u just change oil when the FSS tells u too. Im asking because I was reading the manual and it doesn't say how often you should change oil, just bring it in for servicing when the light tells u too.

Tump43

I use full synthetic (Mobile1 0W40) and change the oil every 5,000 miles. When the FSS says 5,000 miles to go, I change the oil. The oil may last, but the oil filter will not. Your engine will last much longer the more often you change your oil -- I't can't hurt and, if you do it yourself, it's not very expensive. Benz recomends every 10,000 miles, which is not a good idea according to all the enthusiasts and Benz technicians I've encountered in these clubs.

KC36AMG

What oil and brand do you guys use?
I have been thinking about going to a 10-40 oil rather than the 0-30 to see if the "diesel" sound goes away on a C36. If you do it yourself, how do you reset the service light? The car is due for an oil change, but it will be going into storage, should I change it before or after storage?

Let me know. Thanks,

trbo2nr

Ditto! Same interval and oil

MikeL

Same here

Eurosport

i always use mobil 1 0w40 syn and change my own every 3k miles
also depends how you drive, average joe out there of course they don't need it at 3k but trust me when you see my oil and filter after 3k is just right ;p
oil is the life of an engine #1 thing to make sure you always maintain properly if you wanna keep your car for a long time that is

J Irwan

every 3K-4.5K


Regardz,

MB AMG

Damn every 5000 miles. I have to ask the dealer how much an oil change is or only half a service 'A' is. Then again a private mechanic would be cheaper...

Can you just change the oil filter instead of all the oil?

MikeL

Oil changes generally arent that expensive. Mobil 1 synthetic costs about $3-4 a bottle at any auto store. A filter element isnt that much either. It just gets expensive because of the stealer rape-age. If you DIY, its much cheaper. Changing out the oil is not a hard task. Anybody can do it. Or find a independent MB mechanic to do it for you cheaper then what the stealer charges for service A. There is no service required, simply remove the panels away from under the car, get a socket wrench, pull the oil plug, drain the oil, add new oil and change filter. It can be done on a sunday and in under 30 min. I am sure there is a write up somewhere with a more detailed explaination and step by step photos.

Chappy

I am on this routine as well.

!!!!!NJ Drive

me too...I guess were all in agreement

Teck

I also use Mobile1 0W40 but I cange my oil every 10K? Why do you change oil every 5k miles?

Tump43

Not because of the the limited life of the synthetic oil but because of the limited life of the oil filter. No oil filter will do its job properly for that many miles. In my case, I just take the oil filter out and wash it. It's stainless steel after all.

speedybenz

I guess I am the odd one out. I use Mobil 1R (racing) 0-30wt and change it every 3000miles.

ProjectC55

Every 3k for me.Count me in. Amsoil Euro 5W40!Tranny every 5-6k now! Thanx to Speedy!

guanabara

I used to be a scared cat as far as oil changes go, but then I found out we are right to be concerned with the long 10000 mile intervals the MB FSS uses for service periods.

That was until I found an oil brand that matches and exceeds the tightest and latest MB oil specifications. I have read about the oil called AMSOIL, better known in the civil aviation circles by pilots that want their cars to use oil with specs closer to what they use in their private planes even jets.

We were right to be concerned about going more than 3000 miles without an oil change when using the Petrol based oils, then came the off the shelf synthetic oils, but their quality still left a lot to desire , specially as far as the evaporation ratio, anti-oxidation properties, etc
The interesting thing is that beforfe we started seeing these off the shelf synthetic oils there was a company called AMSOIL who had been making them successfuly since the 1970's for large car fleets, such as police departments, delivery trucks, 18 wheelers and so on.

For more details read on the excerpt from another post I placed elsewhere:

Finally I found an oil that can safely be used while following the FSS change intervals. It is made in the USA, but was formulated to meet the tighter european cars specifications for evaporation, friction protection, cooling characteristics, etc.

I found out that Amsoil now offers an oil for European cars that exceeds the latest MB specifications ( MB229.5, 229.3, 229.1 and BMW LL-01/98 among others) .

If you drive a lot over 1 year (i.e. >10000 miles) it is recommended that you replace the paper filter at least once each 6 months and top off the oil.
MB recommends a new filter element (fleece?) for longer change intervals.

Unfortunately the best Supersyn oil in the US stores and dealers is not as good as the ones used in europe for the tight engine engineering specs to allow those cars to perform the way they do and to fly on the long inter country autobahns for so many thousands of miles between oil changes.

The only match I found in the US market is made by a company called AMSOIL. They started the marketing of synthetic oil for cars when all multi-nationals laughed at them back in the 70s. A US veteran fighter pilot figured that if it was good for his jets why wouldn't it be great for cars. So with that dream and vision he started the company after returning from the war. This company (AMSOIL) is today eons ahead of the big guys in oil performance. Their oil formulations have been measured against all others and produced wear indexes half of the best super-syn oil in the market and as much as one quarter of the wear index of your average oil. In addition it evaporates half the rate the best oils in the market do after 6 months of use. That is the difference between having real protection in your engine crank-case or oil syrup (I have seen that first hand when replacing the top 1 oil at the shops that was used in the E320 for 8 months or 3000 miles prior to the last change I did. It was in quite a thick state even after warming up the engine). No wonder the regular dealers and oil changing companies recommend you to change oil every 3000 miles or 3 months for the regular cars. The problem with MB in the US is that the FSS system was set for a target of 10000 miles between service calls. Most people went by that and unfortunately since the majority of the oil used here is not as good as in Europe they ended up with broken engines very fast and then went and sued MB and won their case because they were not warned about the types of oil to use. So now MB is only recommending oil products that meet their latest and tighter specifications.

So with all that as a historical background, when I bought my 2 used 99 MB, I tried to find out more about this top of the line synthetic oil made by Amsoil after hearing about it from 2 friends that fly airplanes so many times at the office. Since I made a reasonable size investment on those cars I figured I better take better care of them than I would do for a regular car.

The web site where you can read more about this and link directly to the manufacturer's web site to order oil and other products is:

http://synthetic-oil-tech.com/1265580

just click on the ONLINE STORE button and search for EUROPEAN .
You should get a list with 4 products with the european formulation. They are all the same but packaged in different sizes. Most MB (E and above) engine oil capacity is around 8.5 quarts of oil . The C class uses a bit less (6.5?). The retail price is a bit more than the "top" line of off the shelf synthethic oils, but then again the old saying that you get what you pay for applies also here. For those that decide to do the oil change for all of their cars and want to save some money I recommend signing up as a wholesale customer for 6 months at a low cost of $10 on that same site and during that time just purchase all the oil you need at the same price they sell to the direct distributors.

I also recommend you order their engine oil flush product, to be used before putting their oil so as to flush out all slush from previous oil used. It is quite simple. All instructions are on the web site and on the product label. They also have excellent products to clean the injectors and other parts of the carburation system.

I did notice even what fews a few more horse power from the E320 and noticed that the engine runs a lot smoother and revs up much quicker when demanded by the driver. I did not measure the mileage before and after for the E320, but will be doing that with the Aztek as it has a trip computer that displays the average mileage between resets.


When you use the AMSOIL oil for the first time you should use the oil flush product. In that case it is also recommended to do the oil draining using the plug in the bottom of the engine, but all future ones can be done by syphoning the oil using a vaccum syphon that goes into the dipstick tube. You can buy at boat stores and it is called Topsider. There are many other ones in the market, but this is one of the best. It costs 39 retail, but can be had for 29 sometimes on sale. It is cheap enough. So just get one and enjoy that care of your second or only lady depending on your situation. It is also a lot cleaner than getting under the car. Many dealers do it that way nowadays. You can try parking the car over a ramp so as to cause the oil to shift towards the dipstick side so as to drain the most oil you can. You can do a test, but many users of MB and BMW have found that if they take out the plug there is less than a cup of old oil left.
One detail about using the topsider or similar systems is that the oil needs to warm but not very hot as it tends to make the hoses too soft and they might clapse temporarily causing a slower drain rate.

For those that live in Texas for example who have to drive hundreds of miles daily for business or even to go shopping, it is easy to put 15 or even more than 20000 miles a year. In that case check-out the AMSOIL products that are guaranteed to protect your engine for 25,000 or 35,000 miles or 1 year on the product label (go find someone else that does that). It is called ATMTP and it costs only a bit more than the european formulation oil. Of course you would have to replace the oil filter at the intervals that the FSS recomends the oil service and would be better to use the new filter types using a fleece element instead of paper. You can still go ahead and plan to replace that oil at the 10000 mile intervals, but feel comfortable going over it if for some reason you are away from a service station or still thousands of miles away from a point/time you can afford to check her in for service or do it yourself again.
Common sense should be exercised by those that still have cars under warranty, as far as keeping the records up to date and doing the plan A or B when the indicator on the dash indicates it is time for service. notice that up to the 2004 model year, the routine service was included in the car price, but in 2005 it may have been discontinued for some. Once the warranty is over I normally get more aggressive with the way I maintain my cars. Meaning that I try to do the oil changes and other things myself , such as:
replace air filter by upgrading to K&L or AMSOIL filters that seem to do better in the long run, specially when replacing a regular paper filter,
replace wipers, bulbs,cabin air filter, . (it is quite involving to get them out of the glove compartment area) and I am almost sure that in one of my cars those filters were not replaced even though it had gone through a Plan A less than 12 months before I got to replace it myself.). By now you should be getting the flavor as to why I am trying to maintaim the routine things in my cars as much as I can. I think we the MB owners are fortunate to have a car that is well engineered . Things are usually pretty easy to replace , check or adjust, even though on the more complex ones we are still better off getting the specialized mechanics take care of (or at least try, as looking through these forums you can find answers for problems that the dealers have been kicking around the bush on your car and sometimes never fixed) . If they only read the service notes as well as most of us in these forums do, there would be a lot less complaints about their quality.

guanabara

See my posting above.
we had all been brain washed that 3000 miles is a better interval to replace engine oil.

Well if you use an oil that allows friction to do as much as 4 times more wear than the top of the line oil brand. If you use an oil that evaporates as much as 20% after 6 months (yes, evaporate, not leak or burnout) becoming like syrup concentration in no time and so on, then of course you would think that you need to change the oil often. All you are doing is:
1. Keep increasing our dependency on middle east oil
2. Wearing out your engine prematurely even if you change the oil each 3000 miles.
3. Wasting a lot of your time at the car shop or your own time doing the oil change
4. Keep allways worring if you are replacing the oil often enough or not.


Why worry about those things and not get an oil that allows us to:
1. Get a product that is produced in the USA
2. Get a product that exceeds the latest MB and other european brands formulation requirements.
3. Get a product that protects your engine parts from the time you start it cold.
4. Get a product produced by a manufacturer who is not afraid to tell you what is the real lifetime you can use the oil safely and backs that up right on the label of the product and more importantly on the quality and quantity of the important base materials that constitute their oil, instead of worry about profits and keep you on the dark still thinking that 3000 or 5000 miles is a long time between oil changes.
5, Get a product that specifically tell you not to use any of those expensive after market oil "enhancers" full of Teflon and other bad stuff that rust your engine parts , etc.


There you go, there is such a product. See above,
I found it last year. I have used it for 6 months now on my 99 E320 and have seen a great improvement in the way the engine performs. I plan to change the oil filter soon, but the oil will be changed only when the FSS says it is time to change. That is the way it works in europe. It did not work here in the US well because most oil in the shelves should still be left under the ground in the middle east.
There are some "synthetic" oils around that are actually regular petroleum based oil with the molecules re-engineered to perform close to a real synthetic oil, but it does not get even close in protection qualities.,

dennism13

I change about every 5K, but will definitely look into the 3K routine. I also use Mobile 1 synthetic.

I purchased an oil etrator from Griots (http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=10122) and it's defintely easier than crawling underneath. I haven't actually removed the oil bolt to see how much is oil is not sucked out, but from posts on this forum and from a friend it doesn't leave much. After a couple oil changes it pays for itself.

guanabara

as far as checking to see how much oil is not sucked out, I have news for you.

Draining using the tank plug while driving up a ramp in my drive way actually left a full large glass worth of oil in the sump tank of a 99 E320.

I used topsider and got more oil out of the tank after the regular darining.
The E320 oil sump tank plug is located midway the tank side. That makes it stand up higher than the lowest part of the tank when both wheels are up the ramp. You may want to try using the ramp on the left front wheel (driver side) as the drain plug is then on the lowest side of the tank.
I have posted the picture of the cup full of oil aside my topsider in another thread.

Given the good qualities of synthetic oils, I don't think a mere 8 oz of oil left in the tank, while adding 8+ quarts of oil (for the E320), would make much of a difference, unless one is trying to flush out some unknown oil used before when buying used cars or trying to do a fair future lab analysis of a new oil brand being installed.

guanabara

Hi folks,
back in April 05, I reported the results of the lab tests on the engine oil for my 2 1999 MB cars in one of the related threads.

This week I got the results of a follow on oil lab analysis conducted recently on the engine oil for the 1999 C230K. It was done after it had run 8+ months on the same oil. At this time I just replaced the oil filter. There was no need to top off the oil. I will continue using the same oil installed in Mar 05 until it reaches 12 months of use or the FSS flags it as time for change (currently the FSS display indicates 6000 miles to go on the current oil.)
The lab results state the following for the current oil:
NO CORRECTIVE ACTION REQUIRED, OIL IS SUITABLE FOR CONTINUED USE. RESAMPLE AT NEXT REGULAR INTERVAL

here is the summary of potential wear related metals for the 99 C230K:

=oil ========Iron=Molyb=AL=Co=Si=Visc100=TBN==miles==mo nths_use
Mar 14, 05
MOBIL1 0W40==11==80===3==6==5==10.27==8.7==3700===6.5
Nov 27, 05
AMSOIL 5W40==10==18===3==5==4==12.72==5.6==4360===8.5

The other wear metal counts were virtually the same.

As you can see there is something definetely going for the Amsoil oil here. It is not just a bunch of lunatics pushing for their team colors that post their satisfaction with results they observe and better yet, get it to be quantified scientifically.
I have on purpose done the test on the same car and consequently with about the same mileage (about 55,000 miles) and under the same daily driving conditions (city/highway 75/25% driving) and driver. This defuses some of the brush offs I got when I posted the initial results in Apr 05.

So here you go, Another myth debunked. There are other companies out there that make excellent quality oil without resorting to heavy promotinal and paid sponsorship. In fact the money they save in not doing that can be better benefit me when used to improve the quality and quantity of better materials in their formulation.
Another myth debunked most FSS based car owners should know by now is that, if you use a top of the line excellent quality synthetic oil it should be safe to go through the full FSS period of 10,000 miles or 12 months without an oil change in most cases of well taken care of engines still operating well. A lab analysis which costs less than 20.00 serves mostly to check the conditions of the engine or transmission components on occasional basis or when buying a used car. So in that case it is good to reduce the middle east oil dependency and brake the 3000 miles/3 months chain around your neck.
The oil filter (if not the new felt element type) should still be replaced each 6 months and oil should be added routinely (after engine has been stopped for more than 15 min), if needed to keep the level near the max on the dip stick.

StapleGun

Well to get back on topic, I change my Oil with Mobil One 0W-40 every 5K and the ATF at 20K.

CLKonDUBS

0w-40 Mobile 1 every 3-4k and of course doing it myself

guanabara

Doing it at 3 or 5K while using a good synthetic oil that meet MB engine oil specs 229.3 or more recently 229.5 (many companies have that nowadays) would be similar to taking 3 times more vitamin C than your daily requirements (i.e. enriching the anti-oxidants in the sewage system). In case of cars that of course would mean wasting resources (even if doing the right thing and recycling) and money and time.

Mind you that also driving only 3000 miles a year or less and consequently going almost 2 years to change the oil at 5,000 miles intervals is not a good plan either (you may end up with slush in the pan and rust all over in engine parts). MB car owners in europe usually drive long distances for business/ pleasure quite often and they can put 10000 miles on the car in a few months, so changing oil at 3000 miles becomes a cumbersome and tiresome ordeal. MB came out with the answer when most manufacturers were happy to continue the old routine. Eventually some started seeing the wisdom involved and more and more are today including oil life meters using between 5000 and 10000 miles intervals as a baseline. Of course , again, using specific oil formulations and not the $30/30 min corner store archaic system/materials.
I am sure that MB did have good engineering and science behind them, when they started the FSS system back around 1999. The problem is that humans in general don't like to follow directions or understand that change may occur to help their lives, so they figure that continuing the old way of changing oil every 3000 miles at the local station ($30) would be better than spending $100 at a location that uses good quality synthetic oil, that meets or exceeds MB specs, at 10000 miles or 12 months . I am not saying that all those who change at 3000 miles do it for the fact they are cheap or don't like change, as I believe most people in this forum are of course using a good brand synthetic oil that meets MB stringent european specs applicable to the FSS schedule.
From what I understand, the reason the class action won their cause was because the car manual did not clearly state in bold letters and at several strategic locations, the oil formulation or min specs that should have been used in order for the owner to follow the FSS schedule..