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First oil change on the new to me S560. Everything went fine until it came time to check crank case oil level. The book says capacity is 9.5 quarts so that is what I poured in. Started the engine to check oil level and got a message saying oil level system not available at this time or words to that affect.
Waiting to the next day to check oil level again only to find the level is pinned above the MAX mark. Now I have a problem needing to put the car back up on the lift drain out some oil and check the level again. This could develop into a major PIA.
What am I doing wrong? What did I miss?
Measure the actual amount of oil you took out and don't put more than that in. There's always oil left in there. Then follow the steps in the owners manual for how to correctly check the engine oil level. As far as I remember, engine must be warm and running for the oil level to be reported correctly. Then top off as necessary. As long as the oil level is between min/max, you are good.
You’re not explicitly stating it, but I assume you drained out ALL the old oil prior to adding 9.5 quarts of new oil. If you didn’t measure what came out you can’t rule out that the oil sensor is measuring correctly.
If you need to drain just a small amount of oil out, I suggest just opening the center drain plug in the oil filter cartridge.
This may be enough to get you to normal. If not, remove the entire oil filter cartridge and replace. Much harder to control the volume of oil draining with removal of the main oil pan drain plug.
I typically find that it takes 9.0 quarts at most to fill my S560.
I just changed the oil on my 18 S63. I don't measure the amount of oil I drain but I do hold back the last litre. Then I drive the car until I get a readout on the oil level, and add accordingly. Ironically, after adding in all 9 litres it still says I'm .3l short of full. I'll go by the parts store and grab a litre of oil today. But I learned from an old school mechanic a long time back to hold back on the last quart of oil on every oil change, then measuring. A lot easier to add a little than to remove extra oil.
Got the car back up on the lift and pulled the oil filter. Did this twice draining out at least a quart of oil to get the level down to normal level.
Thing now is oil was leaking from somewhere when it went back up on the lift . Everything was completely dry before the oil change. I hope overfilling did not blow out a gasket somewhere.
Live and learn. Something as simple as an oil change turned out to be not so simple. Thanks for the pointers. Next time I am going to start with an 8 quart fill to start and then top off to reach normal oil level.
First oil change on the new to me S560. Everything went fine until it came time to check crank case oil level. The book says capacity is 9.5 quarts so that is what I poured in. Started the engine to check oil level and got a message saying oil level system not available at this time or words to that affect.
Waiting to the next day to check oil level again only to find the level is pinned above the MAX mark. Now I have a problem needing to put the car back up on the lift drain out some oil and check the level again. This could develop into a major PIA.
What am I doing wrong? What did I miss?
I bought an oil extractor off of Amazon. Works like a charm. No having to get under the car, remove belly pans and drain the crankcase.
Extracted 9.25 qts. Also, to back up Carlos, I always hold off on the last quart or two until having fun the car to get the filter charged.
Yes, annoying. I have my indy put in about a quart less that the stated capacity number, and then top off using the dash display. Because taking out excess oil much more troublesome than topping off ...
Do you fill it in the middle of min and max mark or do you fill it up to the max mark? Asking because depending on the roads and incline, it might throw an oil overfilled message which can get annoying if other forum members' post are to go by, that said, those posts are from different models.
I doubt a half quart more or less than max makes much difference, but more than half a quart too much can present a problem, windage causing escess oil vapors. But the upper oil pan kind of protects you from that. You're probaly fine with as much as 2-3 quarts low because the oil pickup is only a few inches above the bottom of the oil pan. With cars that only have 4-5 quart capacity, there's less room for error.
I doubt a half quart more or less than max makes much difference, but more than half a quart too much can present a problem, windage causing escess oil vapors. But the upper oil pan kind of protects you from that. You're probaly fine with as much as 2-3 quarts low because the oil pickup is only a few inches above the bottom of the oil pan. With cars that only have 4-5 quart capacity, there's less room for error.
With all the oil change instructions I have seen it starts off with having the engine at operating temp. Some have a time limit for removing the drain screw, then a minimum time to allow for draining. make sure oil filter is removed.
There are various procedures depending on the engine.
With all the oil change instructions I have seen it starts off with having the engine at operating temp. Some have a time limit for removing the drain screw, then a minimum time to allow for draining. make sure oil filter is removed.
There are various procedures depending on the engine.
The M17X engine family was designed by AMG for MB so this would also apply to the M176, just like the others. Thanks to @TimC300 for posting those detailed instructions.
One thing I'm curious about is left out of those instructions. Do you guys remove the oil filler cap prior to removing the drain plug and filter? I normally remove the filler cap first, but when I see oil change videos online, they normally leave the filler cap on until time add oil back in. I can tell you from doing it both ways that the rate of flow is much higher if you remove the filler cap first. The flow rate is so much higher that my catch pan has overflowed and oil has splattered on the garage floor the last 2 times I've done it that way. But if I leave the filler cap on it doesn't flow so fast and very little splatter. One of the reasons I change my oil myself is to give the crackcase enough time to fully drain, normally 15-20 minutes. I'm surprised they don't prescribe when to remove the oil filler cap in those detailed instructions.
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