Quote:
Originally Posted by Volvo Diesel
Rob,
You might want to read through this thread from "that other site." https://www.benzworld.org/threads/2004-e320-oil-consumption.1694417/#post-5620892
If you read through to the end, you'll see that OP had eventual success with the "procedure" discussed in the thread and switching to a 5W-40 oil (often the independent shops fill with 0W-40). I'll note that the OP in the thread had the M112 V-6 as opposed to the M272 V-6 in yours, but there have been other posts over the years on that site discussing using the same procedure and switch to 5W-40 for the M272. I was too lazy to search in more detail, honestly.
Also, I'm sure you know this already, but these motors can lose a lot of oil due to leaking cam plugs and a leaking crankcase breather/oil separator.
Anyway, I'm not saying the procedure discussed in the thread will work for you, and I've no experience trying it, but it seems to have helped some folks. I haven't had the oil consumption issue with my E350 wagon with the M272; it has about 150,000 miles on it now. I've never followed the FSS notifications since I bought it in 2008; 12,000 miles/1-year seems like an awful long time to me. I just do the oil and filter every 6 months, regardless of mileage. Yes, I'm probably wasting money doing so, but it's an easy schedule to stick with.
I hope you're able to solve the issue without having to spend a lot or replace the car. Best of luck.
-Chris |
Thanks for your thorough response, Chris; I'm sorry I've been incommunicado for so long and wanted to get back to you.
I read through that thread to which you linked and I'm just not a believer in the "Italian tune-up" method, and while there is a significant amount of smoke due to oil burning, I would say that most of the loss is due to leakage, with the leak being so egregious at this point that I doubt there'd be anything left in the crankcase by the time I'm finished with the procedure.
I checked our service receipts and found that our indy shop has been putting in 5W-40 since at least June of 2020, along with an oil treatment additive from BG called RF-7 (
https://www.bgprod.com/catalog/engine/bg-rf-7-oil-treatment/), which doesn't look like it should cause any harm and might actually do something helpful by increasing viscosity.
We've replaced the centrifuge (Mercedes-speak for the separator) at least twice, as it seems to be a regular point of failure, and checked the cam plugs, but the oil is all over the front of the engine and those bits are at the rear. I will replace the oil filler cap, despite it not looking terrible, and see what effect that might have.
Best Regards,
Rob