GL550 Oil Consumption
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Member
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 162
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From: Greenville Delaware
2015 GL 550
GL550 Oil Consumption
Roughly half way between annual services our GL550 needs a quart of oil. We presume the missing oil is consumed by the turbochargers as there are no leaks on the engine or the garage floor. As our annual mileage is low we are adding a quart of oil every 3,000 to 4,000 miles.
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From: In my garage
E55, GLS450, GL63, GLE350
The bad part is the dealer will tell you a quart per 1,000 miles is an acceptable loss. I don't have to add any oil between oil changes for my GL63 with close to 70k miles or my 164 GL 450 with 250k miles. Something could be wrong or you have the bad luck of owning a loose engine that burns oil.
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 162
Likes: 11
From: Greenville Delaware
2015 GL 550
Good point, @maneesh! The service advisor said that their technician found no oil leaks, which I hope is the case. A quart of oil every 3,000 to 4,000 miles every six months isn't much so I'm inclined to blame the turbochargers.
Member
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 154
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From: South Florida
GL550
I was very concern when I first saw that in our GL. I thought I was going to have some crazy engine problem but, I took it to the Indi and said, the M278 runs at high temps and causes it to burn oil, its common according to him. I now have a quart of oil at home just in case. I want to avoid the trip to the dealer/indi for the free refill, with my luck, it tends to happen when I'm super busy and have a long commute. I don't want to drive around with low engine oil.
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From: TX
2023 GLE3502W, 2024 GLC3002W, 1967 Pontiac GTO 4 sp (sold...sniff)
Thanks for this thread. I was 1k miles from my next service when that notice popped up. I too had a little fear that something had sprung a leak. I will ask the dealer to look carefully, but I did "get on it" quite a few times during the 9k miles.
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From: unbegrenzt
2017 GLE350 4MATIC
SaniDel, has the dealer given a total diagnosis for your vehicle? You report in separate threads loss of coolant and oil consumption. How many miles are on this vehicle, and what is the service history?
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Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 185
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From: Southwest Florida
2013 GL450
so I was spoiled on my 2010 BMW 750LXI with a beautiful digital bar graph display of my engine oil level (I never had to check the manual dipstick, don't know if it even had one) on the center dash in the command center control ... to my dismay, my 2013 GL450 has NO such display ... surely it's buried somewhere in the menus ... uggghhhhh .... so yeah, gotta check the manual dipstick every so often ... that 2010 bimmer drank a quart of oil every 2,000 - 3,000 miles, so I always had extra oil in the garage and always had a quart in the trunk, as I do now in the GL (in the spare tire compartment) ... but with the GL it is more like 1/2 a quart maybe every 5-6,000 miles ....
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From: Chicago burbs
2015 S550
Just keep a 5 qt jug of Mobil 1 in your garage. You can often find that on sale for around $20.
FWIW, it is likely down more than 1 qt when the warning comes on. It could be as much as 2-3 qts low. But since these motors hold 10 qts, it shouldn't be anything to worry about.
FWIW, it is likely down more than 1 qt when the warning comes on. It could be as much as 2-3 qts low. But since these motors hold 10 qts, it shouldn't be anything to worry about.
Thread Starter
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 162
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From: Greenville Delaware
2015 GL 550
Thanks for everyone's comments. It seems oil consumption by the GL550 is to be expected ... presumably through the turbochargers into the combustion chambers and out the exhaust as no evidence of an oil leak has been discovered.
It's a non-issue for us as we live less than two miles from our Mercedes-Benz dealer so we use the warning as an opportunity to reconnect with our service advisor. At most it takes a quart of oil so we're not worried that we are low. It happens only once a year roughly mid-way between services ... and it's free!
It's a non-issue for us as we live less than two miles from our Mercedes-Benz dealer so we use the warning as an opportunity to reconnect with our service advisor. At most it takes a quart of oil so we're not worried that we are low. It happens only once a year roughly mid-way between services ... and it's free!
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 8,882
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From: In my garage
E55, GLS450, GL63, GLE350
Gasser owners - "I'm having to add a quart between 10k oil mile changes. Is this OK? I'm worried." "My air strut is leaking at 80k miles and I'm pissed." "Any easy upgrades to the nav system?"
Diesel owners - "I'm adding a quart of oil every 1k miles. Is this normal." "Oh, crud, my engine just blew at 80k miles and dealer wants $30k to repair" "Hey, how hard is it to do a timing chain? Mine is making noise at 60k miles and dealer want's $4k to change." "How much should I pay for new oil cooler seals. Is $2.5k, too much?" "My turbo is blowing oil. Who does the rebuilds?"
