SL/R129: Oil Games ????
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Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 107
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From: On an island in Washington State
1999 Mercedes Benz SL500 & 2009 E350 4Matic Wagon
Oil Games ????
Boy am I confused about which oil is OK in my 1999 SL500? The dealer gave me a bottle of Mobil 1 0W-40 to carry as a spare. It has the words "European Car Formula" on the bottle. As my SL is now out of warrenty I want to change my own oil -- don't have the extra $200 plus to have the dealer chang the oil!!! Anyhow, I found Mobil 1 0W-40 at a local store, however, it does not have "European Car Formula" printed on it. It does have the same UPC codeof 71924 44962 though. Thought I would call Mobil and ask them the difference. They stated that they could not be bothered with printing different UPC numbers for oil of the same weight. However, the Mobil guy further stated that the one from the Mercedes dealer was a special secret formula made only for Mercedes and he was not allowed to tell me the difference. The bottle from the dealer has API Service SL/CF while the one from the local store has API SM/CF. The Mobile guy said the dealer had given me old stock and the new stock from my Mercedes dealer would also reflect the latest API Service of SM/CF to which I ask again if there was any difference between the Mercedes dealer 0W-40 and the one I got at the local store and he roudly told me that was still a secret he could not disclose to me. There is also a difference of $7 at the dealer from $5 a quart for the oil at the local store. Is some one playing games here, or is someone playing games here????? Is there anyplace to get a streight and truthful answer?
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,608
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From: West Coast, USA
2 SL with every Brabus mods available & Class A competition sound system
Mobil 1 suck......under high temp Mobil 1 start to broke down.......Brabus recommend Castrol or AMSOIL because it could stand higher temp then Mobil 1.........
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Joined: Oct 2006
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Who cares if it a secret formula. I guarantee you that there is nothing they changed that will make or break your engine. Just buy the over the shelf 0-40 European Car formula (as I do) from your auto parts store, and do your changes on time. That is all you need for your engine to last half of forever.
