I own a 1999 E300 Turbodiesel and need to know if anyone has experienced this oil level phenomenon. If you fill the oil level to the full mark on the dipstick, in about 100mi the oil level will drop to the half way mark on the stick and stay there for 10 to 15k mi. If you top off the oil level to the upper band, it will drop to the half way mark again in about 100mi. What is up with this and is this normal for this engine.
Bob

From my experience this is normal. I always thought that I had high oil consumption, because I was always filling/topping off to the upper Max mark. Once I noticed, as you have, that it seems to stabilize at a certain point somewhere between the Min and Max marks, I started filling/topping off to that point, and my consumption seemed to decrease dramatically.

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Steve

1992 300CE Sportline Sophie
1990 300E Emma - in the family
1979 240D Josephine - sold, but not forgotten
2004 Pacifica AWD

http://web.mac.com/dakota/Mercedes/Home.html

Greetings All,

Yes, I am what you would call new to this forum as well as just getting back into owning another oil burner from 1980. I guess I thought it was just me imagining things. I know this beast burns some oil, but like the rest of you, I'd be checking the oil level every 2-3 days because my daily commute runs me about 80 miles. Sure enough it would drop after a couple of days to the lower part of the half way mark. I kept reading the posts that say keep it full of oil, and I keep filling it up. Just curious though where it's happy medium really is, and where consumption finally levels out. Doesn't it seem like if you fill it to the full mark that you actually are forcing the engine to burn it down to a certain level? I wish we could get a tech in on this one so we can see what input they have to offer from their experience with MB diesels on a daily basis. I sure wish I had the answer to your question as well, but think I will do a little testing on my own to see if the engine will just continue to burn oil at the same rate below this point or it will slow to a crawl. Can't say for sure what damage it may cause the engine, or if it was designed with this extra capacity in order for it to actually burn some off to ensure upper head lubrication.

Charles

I have a car from the 80's... and it rates my oil consumption at 0.15 - 0.25 ltr/100 km in the service manual. My owners manual also advises me to check the oil every 1000 miles and change it every 3000. I have not ran out of oil by using this rule of thumb yet, but have noticed higher consumption values when driving up a lot of hills.

First, what does your owners manual say about oil level and consumption? My manual states"..the oil level must be somewhere between the lower and the upper mark on the dipstick". It also says nothing about oil consumption.

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Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

Well,
My service manual stated the above remarks under the technical data section (much better than the between empty and full comment they put in there). But I will see if their are some written remarks about how oil consumption should be treated. I know the owners manual comments on this topic. I am at work now.... have to wait until I get home. :-) I'll give you guys the page number I looked at in the 123 Chassis Service Manual.

I too wonder if there is a happy medium point for the oil level... but my guess is that you are suppose to just keep topping it off every 1000 miles or so.

-SB

PS: It was refreshing when I saw these numbers because at first I thought most of oil was being spilled on the street... not in the air.

Let's see... in the "Engine and Chassis Manual" under section 010 their is something called "Technical Data". On page 5 there is a table titled, "Fuel/oil Consumption Data and Operating Conditions"... on the third row down there is a column titled "Engine oil consumption" and lists for the following engines: 115.954, 110.984, 616.912, 617.912 the oil consumption is what wrote above or in USCU..196-118 miles/US pint.

Hope this helps...

SB

Bob,
This is a well known phenomenon among watchful MB owners. When changing or adding oil aim for the midway point on the stick. Only add oil when the level is below the minimum mark. You will be happier and so will your fine car.

Bob D.

Mine stays at the upper mark and doesn't start to drop until about 2500 miles. I know on some of these cars the oil level tends to seek the mid-range. For some reason this one doesn't. I don't know why, maybe they react differently depending on the brand of oil ?

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Palangi

2004 C240 Wagon 203.261 Baby Benz
2008 ML320 CDI Highway Cruiser
2006 Toyota Prius, Saving the Planet @ 48 mpg
2000 F-150, Destroying the Planet @ 20 mpg



TRUMP .......... WHITEHOUSE
HILLARY .........JAILHOUSE
BERNIE .......... NUTHOUSE
0BAMA .......... OUTHOUSE

When I did the oil and filter change for the first time on a recently acquired 1995 E420, I put in exactly 8 1/2 quarts as the manual calls for. The oil level came up to midway between minimum and maximum. That is the same level it always was at whenever I checked it prior to the oil change. I originally was concerend that it had burned some oil since it wasn't at the max level. Now, for that engine, I think Mercedes intends for the middle point to be the proper oil level. Does anyone have proof of this from one of their tech manuals?

I also have the MB service manuals for my W116 and it states pretty much the same thing Silverbullet was saying about oil consumption. What I can not believe is that it's normal to go through a quart of oil every 400-500 miles. This can't be right. Just look at the numbers Silverbullet quoted from his manual "...196-118 miles/pint" Now there are 2 pints in a quart, so they are saying that normal consumtion is a whole quart of oil every 392-236 miles. Just as a side note, why are the miles written high to low?

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1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member

Hey Rick,
I have no idea why the oil mileage was read from high to low??? The mileage itself seems to be very conservative... 2548 - 1534 miles before you run out of oil. Could this be why they say you should check it every 1,000 miles? The higher end number seems to be a bit more realistic for everyday conditions and could the lower number be more accurate for when yuou are driving considerably hard (up hills, 75 - 80 mph, etc.)?

I know oil pressure is not a measure of oil level... but I am wondering if you guys have the phenomena where the oil pressure drops at idle but pings when you accelerate?


SB

As far as the dropping oil pressure. Yes that is normal. The oil pressure should shoot straight to 3 Bar just after getting back on the accelerator. With oil consumtion, I always heard that anything more than 1 quart of oil every 1,000 miles was considered excessive. Yet by MB specs. it's okay to use up 3 quarts of oil per every 1,000 miles. I know diesels are called oil burners, but that's crazy.

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1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member

Yes, I think that is sort of exaggerated. Maybe this is a result of them having a very wide range of oil consumption data?!?! I don't know. I know I can drive mine 1000 miles and usually will have to add a quart... but I have a small leak too.

SB

Reading all of these posts, another thought came to mind. Perhaps MB is playing mind games. They know that these engines burn some oil, so they put those elevated numbers in the Owner's Manual to keep owners from driving the dealers crazy about their oil consumption.

[Edited by Ted2222 on 03-05-2001 at 11:19 PM]

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Ted
1979 240D
165,000 miles