Hey guys, so I recently got a new 2024 GLE 450 (not the plug in hybrid one) and I have a couple of inquiries on how to best keep my vehicle in the best shape. For some reference, on the 1 month of owning the vehicle since xmas, the odometer has now racked up 249 miles.
Aside from visiting the dealership for service A or B once a year, please let me know how often I should get my oil changed. I hear conflicting thoughts, such as every 6 months instead of every year. In addition, what other maintenances I should be aware of? For paint, I have full front PPF and entire car ceramic coated, so I am not worrying about that. I plan to use the touchless car wash at least once a month. I have heard of rust issues in other older Mercedes models, but I hope it would not be a concern here. I reside in the Seattle area if that gives any clues on the rust situation. For fuel, my local Costco supplies a 92 octane premium gas (with up to 10% ethanol). Also, I do not drive off-roading, nor do I race, or perform any trailer towing.
Thanks in advance!

 

I think the Mercedes engineers know the engine better than the guys at Quiki-lube. Service it in accordance with the manual and you will be fine.

 

I'll let someone jump in who owns a 450, but if you are only driving 249 miles a month the 48V battery may not stay fully charged. Especially if you only drive short trips.

You might want to look into a battery trickle charger. I believe it has been discussed at length here.

 

I think this is a misnomer of some kind. You can't charge 48V battery with a trickle charger, you can only charge 12V one. There were talks about 12v->48v convertor that the car may have but I've seen no evidence of charging 48V battery this way. If there is, would be great to get a link to get more information, happy to stand corrected.

Additionally, you can absolutely fully charge 48V battery doing short trips. The one you need to worry about is 12V, the app will tell you if it needs charging.

For 48V, I drove with service menu pulled up on the screen and the battery can go from like 20% to 80%+ within 15 minutes drive or so. It doesn't matter how long your trip is generally speaking. What does matter, is HOW you drive as the car pushes really high amperage into the battery and it needs to coast to engage the regen or you need to apply the breaks lightly to get the most charging power. Applying the brakes moderately or hard reduces or turns off the regen. In one trip, your 48V battery may go though a couple of charge/discharge cycles. It's like a large capacitor.

I'd do whatever the Service ASSYST says. I.e., just follow what manufacturer says and ignore the rest. It's 1y/10K miles whichever comes first. I don't think you plan to keep the vehicle for 10+ years or 100K miles for any of it to matter, in any shape or form. That's my personal take, I did the same for my 7+ year old Jeep which I got new, ignoring dealer's "5k miles oil change" or "7.5k miles" oil change, the car tells you what and when.

Sure, touchless or handwashing are better and you may preserve the gloss for longer... I found that it's not super practical. I live in New England region (MA) and 20 minutes drive this time of the year covers my car in salt so bad, so I pretty much have to wash it daily. I use regular "soft-cloth" car wash, which is like $26/month for unlimited washes. The same playbook I used for my Jeep. After 7+ years, it sure has some dents but it has nothing to do with carwashes. Unless MB paint is worse than FCA's one, it's likely going to be just fine too. You will get some rust, likely in the underbody area, which is just a nature of the region you live in.

Anything 91+ works. I typically use "Top Tier" gas stations, which includes Costco, but really, I think any major gas network should work, this is not a race car.

 

Large capacitor is a good analogy. It discharges nearly immediately when needed. And then recharges with both regenerative braking and engine torque.

But yes, a 12-volt battery maintainer can recharge the 48 volt battery. There is in fact a 12v - 48v converter, in the event that you have discharged the 48v, such as repeated failed starting attempts.
I have seen the schematic and an announcement from the MB media center, but don't have it available. That was 2020 but I doubt it has changed, although the ISG is relocated.

Of course we know that the 48v - 12v converter charges the 12 volt system for legacy electronics. There are two separate converters.

 

I change the oil every 5000 miles/8000 km. I have a combined total of 480,000 km of turbo engine oil changes done at this frequency and the engines have been perfect. With three engines; audi, Volvo and now MB.

I also tried all of the big name OEM-approved synthetics and only use Pennzoil Platinum based on cold start up protection mostly-where most of the wear occurs. Another popular oil brand caused screeching metal on metal during extreme cold starts and never with Pennzoil Platinum.

I pre-paid for the scheduled maintenance so I do my own oil changes in between them. When done at the dealership I bring my oil and have them use it.

 

We also recently bought a 2024 GLE450. It replaced our 2019 GLE400.

Regarding the frequency of oil changes; this is a topic of endless debate. Ask 10 different people and you'll get 10 different answers. My father, a lifelong auto mechanic, always said "Oil is cheap. Engines are expensive." Granted, this was back when engines were not as reliable as they are today. And back when oil wasn't $12 a quart.

If you plan to keep the car for a long time AND if you put a lot of miles on it AND if you are able and willing to change the oil yourself, it may be beneficial to do "interim" oil changes. Paying for "interim" oil changes at the dealer or even an independent shop can get expensive over time. But, if the car will be sold as soon as the 4 year warranty period is up, then obviously just do the annual service and call it good.

Some owners send in a sample of the used oil for analysis to see what condition the oil is in after xxx miles or xxx months. This may be a good option if you're concerned that you're changing the oil too often or not often enough.

As for maintenance items besides oil, you're mainly looking at windshield wipers, pollen filters (aka cabin filters), engine air filters, tire rotations and brake fluid flushes. Things like spark plugs, belts and coolant flushes are years down the road. I do change the pollen filters and engine air filters more frequently than recommended (DIY). They are fairly easy to change and aren't super expensive. Brake fluid flushes are usually done every 2 years, regardless of mileage. Some folks DIY this and others have the shop take care of it.

We live in Portland, Oregon and have never had a rust issue. However, during snow & ice events, Oregon now may use salt on the roads like they do in other parts of the county. Not sure if Seattle does the same. If you do drive on salted roads, it's best to wash the underside of the car ASAP. This will help keep rust from forming.

Lastly, for fuel, we've used Costco gasoline for many years without issue. It's a "Top Tier" fuel, like others such as Chevron, Shell, Union 76, etc.

Hope this helps.

 

Tire rotations aren't as necessary as in the past. Staggered setups can't even do them at all (not even side to side) but no one here has complained about tires wearing out unevenly besides wearing differently front to back.

 

Tire rotations are just as necessary as they've always been, its just with staggered setups you can't do them, and I replace front tires way more often on this car for that reason than I would if I could rotate them.

 

With the square setup, the wheels can't be rotated easily due to different offsets so the tires will need to be dismounted, adding to the cost and potential damage to rims may outweigh the benefit. You would probably reduce the amount of rotations in a square setup from what might be considered typical.

 

Is that true? It’s not true with the S Class. If the wheels in the rear have different offsets then it’s not a square setup.

 

Sorry then by your definition even the 20s wouldn't be considered square because the offsets are different front to back even though tire size is the same.

 

Then definitely not a square setup. I agree it makes no sense to dismount tires to rotate them, cheaper to just buy new front tires.

 

I think it's a debatable if "square" setup with different offsets is actually "square". When you have spacers and same wheels, that's one thing. The v167 GLEs have different wheels, even if diameter and tire size is the same.

 

Every time I get tires rotated, I have to deal with unwanted vibration and noise. I would rather replace the tires 6 months earlier and keep a smooth ride. With the different offsets on my new GLE 450 (20" tires), rotation including dismounting, remounting, and balancing, isn't going to save money either.

 

Sounds like BS. I've changed and rotated winter and all season tired for almost 20 years and never had an issue like that.

 

You need to have the wheels balanced by a better shop. I’ve never had any issues with that.

 

Always done at the dealership. But like I said, with different wheel offsets, the cost to rotate tires exceeds the savings from getting more miles on the tires. Not to mention the increased chance of wheel damage.

 

Yeah, I wouldn’t have any confidence in the dealership just because it’s the dealership. If you’re having issues with the wheels being out of balance they don’t know how to balance wheels.

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback. One thing I am confused about is if I really need one of those battery trickle chargers. For reference, the odometer is now currently showing 294 miles (compared to 249 miles 5 days ago). I will admit that I have driven a little bit more than usual this past few days, but overall I believe that this is still below average amount of distance when compared to others.
What I am not understanding is how a battery can discharge so fast under this amount of use. I see the standby mode function I can use while my car is parked in the garage during the week. So maybe I will consider enabling that. Though before I jump to more conclusions I suppose I should figure out how much charge the GLE battery currently has. Does anyone know how to check for the percentage in MBUX NTG 7? The Mercedes Me app is very unhelpful. Only shows the 12V Battery as Charged status. Another question is if anyone experienced the Mercedes roadside assistance? Say if my battery got discharged either at home or out on the road, can they jumpstart the car at no charge often?

Update: while standby mode is mentioned in the manual, it's not available in USA 2024 GLE 450 infotainment menu unfortunately. Sorry for getting your hopes up.

 

Try to enjoy your new car without worrying about problems that may not happen. My 2021 model is only driven 3 miles roundtrip daily and has never had any 48V battery problems, even without using a trickle charger.

 

To echo the above, don't worry about 48V and worry about 12V only when the app tells you to. It says "Charged", one level down will be "Partially charged", can't recall what message the below that but it will become "red". Side note, having a 12V charger at home is usually a good thing for car owners no matter what but you don't need to use it until it's required.

 

I was putting a large and complicated load in my GLE, and it took two days. I kept reopening doors to keep the interior lights on, amounting to several hours.

On the second day I got simultaneous email, text and app notifications "starter battery critical."

There was no mistaking the warning. I kept loading and the car started, no hesitation, after another hour.
FWIW.

The load onboard:


Only half of the load after unloading:

I think I was overweight.

 

Everything in the car wakes up when a door handle is touched. I got the 12v battery warning shortly after acquiring our GLS as I had been in and out of the car many times over the course of a couple days adding emergency items, configuring seats, garage door opener, etc.... Charged it up and haven't seen it since regardless of usage.

IMO it shouldn't need a maintainer unless it's going to be parked for weeks. You'll get plenty of notices before it results in a no-start condition. After things get low enough I'm also guessing the car stops waking it self up unless you press the start button. That alone will conserve plenty of power.

 

I agree about the "need" for a maintainer, in that the battery will be able to start the car if left for several weeks, or longer.

However battery life is shortened when left in a partially discharged condition, so a maintainer can lengthen your batteries life.