As an old-school veteran of always doing 3,000 - 5,000 miles oil changes, I'm a little skeptical of Manufacturers' recommended oil change intervals of 10,000 - 14,000 miles.
Even though I've always used Mobile 1 (5w-30), $40 for 8 quarts + $10 filter for both my BMWs & Corvettes for the past 20 yrs. Guess $50 is cheap insurance, in between the Dealer's $150 - $200 oil changes.

Lately, I've been using this oil extractor:
http://blog.bavauto.com/8511/changin...hod-diy-video/
It eliminates me from getting under the car, & still gets out 99% of the old oil.

So now, figured I'll still do an oil change at 5,000 miles in between MB's rec every 10,000 on our new ML350.

Thoughts?

 

3,000 - 5,000 mile oil changes is an arbitrary figure. In the old days we were comfortable with it because if we followed that rule we seldom had oil related problems. Today's engines and oils are much, much better. Synthetics can easily protect 10,000 miles or more (normal driving conditions) and this has been proven many times in every type of vehicle through Blackstone Lab oil analysis. Better still is going by the maintenance minder found on most modern cars. Virtually every manufacturer has a specific criteria set in their oil life expectancy monitor and it is based on many factors including temperature, driving style, start ups, time, etc. Those factors are set up to accommodate the specific engine in the car and the recommended type of oil. Based on those factors, it will indicate when service is due and those oil life expectancy gauges are very accurate. Although I do not have a Mercedes yet, I am sure the maintenance minder works the same way as Honda, GM, etc.

Although we may feel more "comfortable" doing frequent oil changes, they really are not necessary and only waste time, money and the resource itself. If Mercedes tells you to change oil at a certain point I would have to believe they know what they are talking about and know the engine better than you or I. This is especially true of the first oil change or two when leaving the factory oil in for the duration may help to break-in the motor. Some people say there is no special "break-in" oil and that may be true but often time the factory lubes are part of the oil (usually high in moly) and should not be removed from the engine right away. My Honda Ridgeline manual was very specific about not doing the initial oil change until the maintenance minder reached at least 15% oil life expectancy (in my case that was nearly 7,000 miles). Having said all that, after that initial first drain, you certainly can't harm the motor by doing an extra oil change between the recommended intervals.

BTW, that oil extractor in the video is neat. In my current ride I have to get under the truck anyway to change the filter. Because of that, I have installed a Fumoto valve in the oil pan to make the drain very simple and clean - just open the valve, attach a drain hose to the nipple and out comes the oil. If the filter is in the engine compartment, I would buy one of these extractors and never crawl under the car again.

Incidentally, how many quarts of oil does the ML350 take and what weight is recommended? I know the BlueTec requires very special oil but I'm talking about the regular gas version.