trovan

i was told by my dealer that mobil one (5w40) is the oil they use. i looked everywhere this weekend without success. what would be accpetable alternative? thanks.

MB_Forever

Where are you located? Here in the U.S., most dealerships use use Mobile 1 0W40 for all 63 engines. They used to use 5W40, but made the switch somewhere in 2006 (I think).

OzE55

0w40 would be effectively the same as 5w40.

sack5000

Either, don't worry because you never know what the stealer actually puts in. 0w40 is sometimes in short supply, in those cases 5w40 is fine. The two could be mixed and that wouldn't matter either.

Here is an old thread talking about engine oils:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...light=oil+best

Here is another one:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=oil

Here is the best advice for an oil change DIY:

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=oil

Timeless

If you want an alternative with better specs, use AMSoil.

If you religiously change your oil every 3K miles, it should not matter what oil you use however.

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/afl.aspx

trovan

thank you for all the input.

i am not religous with oil change at all. my oil light came up after 3k miles. i just want to put some oil in it. the car has never had an oil change before. dealer here in socal told me 5w40 is preferred. but it would appear none of the stores have them.

i will try to find some 0w40 today. thanks.

LOVEMYBS

I've been told by several SA's and independent dealers that Mobil 1 is no longer considered one of the best synthetic oils. It seems that Pennzoil Platinum is now the best synthetic oil on the market. Mobil 1 has not changed their formula in over 10-years and it is outdated. I'm now using Pennzoil Platinum in my wife's 06 BMW X3 with good success and will soon be using it in my E55 and CLK55. Just my $.02 worth.

I Like Soup

I would wager the differences are negligible.

And what is up with SAs saying just change the oil when the computer says it is time? That would be around 10K miles?

Timeless

These cars are designed to go 10-12K miles before changing oil. Is very common in Europe...thus why the service program is designed for 10k intervals.

Countless threads confirm you do not need to change sooner with the quality of the synthetics today...unless you do much more than standard daily driving.

However, I change about every 5K miles as I find it to be cheap insurance and makes me sleep better at night.

And my SA is an AMSoil dealer which makes me feel better about it also.

CWW

Actually the problem is even worse than that. Mobil1 did change their formula, but for the worse. They used to have one of the best blends, but at some point down the line they started using cheap petroleum by-products as fillers whereas they didn't before. It is arguably no longer a synthetic oil, and non-arguably not a full-synthetic oil any longer.

Yet as with everything else, even as they have cheapened the product they have continued to increase the price.

I recently posted a response to someone's questions, where I said that synthetic oils are all the same, and all the marketing is hype. Since then, I have done a LOT of poking around on the subject, and have discovered that my opinion may have been valid 5-10 years ago, but not today.

Fact is, certain people are now trying to offer a cheapened product using vestigal brand recognition in order to increase profits...

Read up guys, I think this lab test just about says it all:

http://www.animegame.com/cars/Oil%20Tests.pdf

FWIW, the same results have been repeated all over the place. Mobil1 is absolute CRAP these days, and their relationship with Mercedes is just a left-over from many years ago. Once I get my 5000 miles' worth of use out of it, I will switch to either Amsoil or Penrite. I would go with Royal Purple, except I want to know what's in that "Synerlec" additive they include, and they won't tell me. But no way am I going with Mobil1 again.

Timeless

Nice find...wish they had AMSoil in that comparison.

I Like Soup

Very interesting indeed. I was going off some articles I had read a few years back where one of the car magazines took a bunch of New York cabs and did a before and after measurement on engine parts (at 0 miles, and at 100,000 miles) and the differences between the engine part measurements wasn't significant at all. Surely this test in the article translates to better engine component wear?

sack5000

Mobil 1 is the choice of many. MB recommends 0W-40. 5w40 is also an acceptable choice. If you want to read a lot about it just do a search for "oil".