Got the tires already, bridgestones, now just need em mounted and balanced. My first thought was the MB dealer as I'm really nervous about the wheels getting damaged as I know low profile tires like on these cars are tough to work with. They wanted to get me a hertz rental car and leave the car off with them? Strange. I mean for something that should only take a couple hours tops makes me wonder how much extra they were planning on getting me for while the car was there. Not crazy about the car being test driven either. So made an appointment with Firestone for Monday which is gonna end up being about 1/2 the price and I've dealt with these guys before and they do seem to do good work. I may have them do an oil change too if I feel comfortable having the Benz there. Anybody know if the Service reminder can be reset without the Star computer gadget? I believe it will be reminding me of service B at around 25K as the car right now only has close to 21K miles, would be nice to know how to reset it myself when it comes on next time. I'm kinda trying to keep my car out of the hands of the dealer as I really wonder how many cans of worms they are gonna open up with this vehicle. I just changed the Air filters myself and the diff oil around 2k miles ago. I can't remember if these car's use a spin on oil filter or a canister? if a spin on I might just do the oil change myself too, sounds like a little more work than the average car with removing the skid plate and all, but not too hard I guess?

 

You own it and you don't know oil filter specs. You're going to let a store that does tires (great for mounting, make sure new Hunter machine that doesn't touch rim, let them know wheels are 1900/ea) root around, drain oil out, possibly have correct Mann or factory filter cartridge in stock, and torque it all up and not over-fill.
Spend the $. Employee of mine had her Corolla pump all its oil onto street after tire center oil change left filler off. Took months to get cap replaced, but car ran ok.
Willing to risk 32 valves and a couple turbos on saving $150? BYO Oil if you wish, but it's like the gas station sushi commercial.

 

Ya, I agree about the oil change probably a unnecessary risk. I know as I use to own a chain of ten minute oil change places, we serviced just about every car but Mercedes and yes back then they used cartridge filters so I kinda figured that was still the case. I do have a really good place up north who specializes in Mercedes and they did the last oil change so I think maybe I'll play it safe and wait until next spring and have it done there when I drive the car back up north, I've got 4000 miles to go before the 10000 mile interval so that gives me around 2600 miles of driving around here in Fla until next May, the trip back is 1400 miles, gives me a little incentive to keep the mileage down and drive my two other cars more. As far as tires go, this is a tough decision. The price difference at the dealer is only $70 more which is not of concern and they claim they will get me a rental from Hertz car rental to drive while the car is being worked on putting the tires on. It just makes me kind of suspicious call me paranoid, why not just do the job within a couple hours while I wait?


At Firestone they use this coats tire machine http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/coa70...tm_content=pla looks pretty good to me and fairly foolproof I'd think.

 

Tell them you'll wait. Other option is to do oil change only along with it. I think BMW and MB intervals are too long, especially with Turbos. Synthetics help, but normally aspirated I do 7500, Turbos I do 4-5k, usually 5k. Old days I did 3500 on turbos, never had issue. Cheap insurance. If you're keeping it, I'd do 5k changes. Can discount road trips so 1400 +- not big deal. Also, try to let turbos spool down a bit before shutdown. Saves coking. Just closed throttle idle for a minute or 2 p running, longer if recent big throttle/boost blast. Cold starts too should stay out of boost uuntil oil temp alive.

 

They did a great job today with the tire install, I've had pretty good luck with firestone out of all those tire places, they seem to hire older more experienced people rather than kids. The guy took his time and did it right, no vibrations or anything or nicks on the rims.


I think I'll wait on the oil change till the car is back up north in May, right now the oil has 6300 miles on it, I think I should be around 10K miles by the time the car is up north as long as I don't drive the car too much. I have a friend who owns a Mercedes shop up north and he does the oil changes for 40 bucks for me if I pick up the oil at walmart, I use mobil 1 European formula. Oil has come such a long ways in recent years it allows for these extended intervals. I checked the oil today and it's right on full and does not look too dirty. I just make sure to put all my receipts in the book incase of warranty questions should something go wrong. I'm going to stick to the 10K oil change intervals, I think the new synthetic oils of today can handle it. I know quite a bit about this subject as I use to own Quick Lube businesses before I retired.


I'm really happy with the Bridgestone Pole Positions I bought on Tire Rack, all four tires including shipping and install only set me back around 1000 bucks, not bad. The car seems to handle fine and on the way home I got on a back road and did a couple wide open throttle starts, I think they hook up even better in the rear than the Conti's did. There was something wrong with the Conti's the car was wondering a lot, something with the belts I think. There was a plug in one of the rear tires near the sidewall that the previous owner of my car must have had done, no wonder the tire was leaking around 4 lbs of pressure a week. Good thing I replaced the tires.

 

Glad things went well with the tire install!

X

 

Unless my info is outdated or the newer cars have changed oil specs, the Mobil 1 that was required for the NA 6.3 had a higher ash content which the box stores didn't carry.

 

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Attached is the current MB spec for approved oils. See highlighted areas for M156 and M157 engines. The 0W-40 European Formula is readily available at Walmart.

Regards,

Joe