exceeder

hi guys, i just picked up a 2003 e500 and changed the oil using the extracting method with a mityvac.

with the mityvac tube all the way down into the oil pan i only extracted 6 liters of oil.

since the car has 138000 miles i figured some oil has either burned or leaked since the last oil change 4000 miles ago.

i filled the engine with 7.5 quarts of mobile 1 0w40.

i checked the computer and it said OIL LEVEL OK

since i was still not sure exactly how much oil is in the car now , i ordered an aftermarket oil level dipstick reading tool.

i stuck the dipstick all the way down the tube until it hit the bottom and pulled the dipstick out, the oil goes up to 115mm on the aftermarket dipstick.(4.5 inches up the dispstick)

is this level near full?

what should the full level be in inches?(because this way we can use any dipstick and figure out how much oil is in there by just measuring how far up the dipstick the oil goes)

i read a thread on here that had a screenshot of the mercedes technical manual saying that the correct level is 150mm and then another thread where someone used an aftermarket dipstick and he came to the conclusion that the correct level is 120mm, so if that is the case then i am maybe half a quart low?

cmriv

m112 and m113 motors do not have oil dip sticks. A v6 takes about 8.5 and v8 9.0 or so depending on oil pan application. It varies depending on vehicle. I would go with 8.3 since you can't look at an actual value.

cMazara

Owner manual states the following:

e320 - 8.5 US qt
e500 - 8.0 Us qt

(page 366)


I would stick with the oil level indicator.
I have an oil leak, so whenever I see to add 1 liter, I just add a quart unitl I can fix the issue.

cmriv

and why might you think a v6 requires more oil then a v8?

cMazara

than*

I don't know why the V6 requires more in this case, V8's generally have larger oil pans and require more oil.

equitiesguy

Couple of points.

Did you release the oil from the oil filter canister prior to sucking it out of the pan? 6 quarts seems very low to me.

Two, the computer system in the car is highly accurate in terms of gauging the level of the oil. It basically gives the same reading as STAR, because it's taking it directly from the oil sensor. The sensor in the car will tell you if you're one quart low, or one quart high. You can enter the special screen in the dash and get an actual value for the oil level, but I'm only familiar with the AMG 55 engine in terms of the numbers.

The dipstick values, and the engine oil sensor values are no where near the same. On my car, 167-170mm is essentially "full" as a reading coming from the motor electronics / oil sensor. However, the dipstick down the tube only reads 135mm when full (as matched to 168mm on STAR at the same time).

The truth is you can't use a dipstick until you find the actual level of the oil in the engine off the software. Even then, I get a significant enough discrepancy that I don't like using the dipstick and still hook up the computer when I travel, with the multiplexer.

One of the few real disadvantages the German cars have over my new Italian one --- the Italians still put in a dipstick, even for a sump.

tjts1

2017 called. It wants it's thread back.