I have a 2006 CLK 350, which I leased last March ('06). I drive the car like a grandmother. My car only has 6000 miles on it, but for some reason it is telling me to get Schedule A maintenance (the oil change) already. The book says the first maintenace is at 13,000 miles so i'm not even half-way there. My two questions:

1) can I just ignore the message and wait until I get closer to the 13,000 (considering the price of their oil changes I do not want to go in unnecessarily).

2) does anyone know if I'm obligated to go in to do the maintenance (ie. it would subject me to contractual breach) for not getting it done (even though it is so ahead of schedule).

For some reason my brother's car had the same problem, and he only had 8,000 miles, and had the car for less than a year. What's the point of saying that oil changes need to be done at 13,000 miles when it doesn't seem to be the case?

Any help appreciated.

AB3

Short answer: Yes, follow the display and change your oil.

Long answer:
1 year and 13k miles interval is very difficult to achieve. I make the analogy of a driver that drives 13k miles per year under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions is the key word. I liken it to driving the car in warm, low humidity conditions, always driving at least 30 miles between starts, and a nice mix of highway and city driving. Realisitic - rarely, but the engine oil is always reaching operating temperature and burning off contaminants and moisture.

The service system minder takes many factors into account when calculating and informing the driver to perform scheduled maintenance. When you factor in time (you're are approaching one year), and other factors (choose which might apply to you)... long idle times, short drives, many start/stop cycles, primarily city driving, they all contribute to shortening the intervals.

I received a Service A message with less than 2000miles on the oil, merely because I had reached 1 year.

In addition to what kjb55 posted, the FSS defaults to 13Kmi when reset and the 229.5 spec oil is selected. From there, FSS calculates when the next oil change should occur. I drive almost 18Kmi/yr and FSS comes up at approx 15Kmi to change the oil. Most of my driving is highway in 45-55mph commuter traffic.

Regards,
paul...

Can a do it yourselfer change oil in an 07 E 550? And how would one reset the "oil needs change" light on the dash?

Go into the W211 forum and do a search on member "konigstiger" as he has posted the procedure to reset the FSS for 06 & 07 cars. I have an 03 E320 and the procedure was in my owner's manual, but I guess that MB has removed this info on later model W211's.

Regards,
paul...

I think you've gotten some bad advice here. The same thing happened with my C55 (also bought in March '06) and I noticed it was the one-year anniversary of the build date. Sure enough, the service indicator comes on one year from the build date if the dealer didn't reset it to the date that the car was placed in service. They are supposed to do that when they deliver the car. My dealer had me run the car by and they reset the start date so it'll come back on in March.

MB doesn't use FSS anymore; the indicator is simply 10,000 miles or one year.

Next question - if all I probably need is an oil change, can I spring for the $40 change they have at the dealership or do I really need to get the $200 schedule A?

AMG cars are 1 year / 10,000 miles. Non-AMG cars are 1 year / 13,000 miles. The in-service date gets the clock ticking, but also keep in mind that the oil has been in the car since it was built. From the time the car leaves the factory to the time it reaches a dealer, it can be started / stopped in excess of 50 times. Now throw in the dealer shlepping the car around the lot as those are severe conditions also. I would rather have the service minder NOT reset.

It's worth considering that time, in addition to the in service date, when considering an oil change.

Sorry for the 10K/13K confusion. Yes, the 10K applies to AMGs and V-12s only. But I believe the service life of synthetic oil is such that accelerating the change by a few months is just a waste of money. But of course, it won't hurt either.

The build date of my S65 was 18 months before I bought it "new," so the first thing I did was have an unscheduled oil/filter change. But four months extra on the C from build to first service didn't bother me at all. It kind of annoys me that the dealers have a new scam going in encouraging the clock to start with the build date even though the factory is clear that it should start with delivery.

Maybe I'm not comparing apples to apples, but when I used to rebuild Porsche engines, the first oil change was THE most important change of it's life. After 500 miles, we'd change the oil. It was common to change the oil in a brand new 911 at 1000 miles. The early miles set up the wear patterns for the rings (although I understand that Mercedes Benz doesn't hone cylinders and hasn't since the M113), lifters, and bearings. The wear material (bits of metal) ends up in the oil filter. It could be that the quality of synthetic oil in a MB is light years ahead of the dino juice we used in the 1970’s, but I'd change the oil. Especially if there's an MB dealer willing to do it for $40.

Not only has the oil improved, the fleece filters are way beyond anything we had then. And we used to use single-weight break-in oil for the first 1000 miles. All quite incompatible with modern technology. Of course, a change of Mobil 1 and filter costs about the same as a Mahle cylinder and piston set used to cost me.

My feeling is that the factory is plenty conservative. I maintain the car by the book and sleep fine at night. I'd worry about a $40 oil and filter change though. That's less than the cost of materials.

Sure is ...... he better get a quote before he does anything. The best price I ever got was $54 for 9 qts M1 (on sale, $5/qt) and a discounted price on the fleece filter ($15).

Regards,
paul...

I have ML320 1999.How I can check that how many miles left before I change engine oil?

With most new benzes, there is a delivery handoff reset. Most sales people don't know about them though.

press the button in the instrument cluster twice, quickly. a mileage will
appear with either one or two wrenches in front of it depending on if you
need an a or b service.