I think you're probably going to find that a 22 year old luxury car is going to be quite expensive to maintain if you're paying someone else to do the work for you. On top of that, you already found that the previous owner deferred some maintenance. If you're curious, here are the repair stats for my 1984 300SD in just over a year of ownership:
http://24.14.137.240:8080/benz/benzmaint.htm

With regards to your original question, I used Mobil 1 synthetic when it was available but have since moved to Shell Rotella synthetic. Any diesel rated oil will be fine as long as you change it often. Personally, I am at 3k mile intervals. I find that I only need 6 quarts - there's a lot of oil in the cooler.

As far as mileage goes, it's my opinion that the car is very sensitive to how far down you push the right pedal and wether or not the AC is used. My mileage stats are in the link below - I am behind on updating. Please note the last column - it tells what brand of fuel I use or what percent of bio-diesel I use.
http://24.14.137.240:8080/benz/benzmileage.htm

Best of luck.

PEH and INN-
AND I live in the lovely overpriced Bay area so I doubt that price applies here. Thanks for the short lived fantasy though. At least I know I can find it and can look to buy in bulk, shave off 5-10% off?
Frankie

Thorsen,

What a waste of good oil, time and money and changing synthetic oil at 3000 miles.

P E H

PEH,

The oil is recycled in my garage heater, the time to do an oil change is less than 30 minutes, and the ~$30 I spend on an oil change is not going to break me, nor did the ~$50 oil changes will Mobil 1 break me.

If I were going to buy a used car, all thing being equal, I would pick the car with mor frequent OCI's. But that's just me.

Popped in to see what's up, how's everyones day. I just woke up, coffee in hand so Good morning all.
Thanks VS TECH but anyone who has an interest in SVO/WVO does know that WVO needs filtering. Relax, you're ahead of yourself. I don't plan to start SVO use until "phase 3" , the end of winter! Fact checking is part of my profession so I find it to be an interesting project and I got plenty of time. I'm determined not to screw up this fine engine.

THORSEN, not to ignore the others great contributions but you have useful links and thanks for the access to your mileage logs. It is esp helpful that you coincidentally have the same year & model as I.
The dork previous owner,didn't know the tank capacity! How could I accurately calcul the MPG before purchase? All he had to do is read the owners manual, duh! I even found the original dog tags, pretty cool, huh?
Have a great weekend. Off I go to look for some pool noodles! and heavy duty nitrile gloves! Did you gents read the other thread? Ouch! Pool noodles and blood loss!
Frankie

THORSEN
Forgot to ask is your 300 SD a turbo? Do you have to keep your gas pedal down almost all the way (one inch from the floor) to sustain 65-70 MPH?
Is this an old MB, an old car thing or characteristic of a diesel engine? Air in the fuel injection line? The back of my lower thigh gets sore from lack of seat firmness.

In regards to comments made on synthetic oil "waste" and oil change intervals, I'm staying out of it. Im short, I'm following the majority opinion.
Frankie

Yes, my 300SD is a turbo.

My car is a bit different from yours in that I changed the rear differential from 3.07 to 2.47. This drops the revs the engine turns at a given speed considerably. Where as before 65mph = 3000rpm, I now turn ~2200 rpm at the same speed. I am about 2/3 of pedal travel when I go 70-75mph.

The downside is that accelleration from a dead stop is slower, but I didn't buy this car to drag race.

You bet, Jathropa, MB is already investing huge amounts buying out fields of Jathropa plants, already successfully tested a C220 CDI with full tank of Jathropa derived fuel, the car did phenomenally well in high as well as regular altitudes and also summer and winter conditions. WVO is an expensive proposition here as veggie oil is imported and very expensive here.

__________________
99 Gurkha with OM616 IDI turbo

2015 Gurkha with OM616 DI turbo

2014 Rexton W with OM612 VGT

Gurkha-
Hey that's REALLY cool! But I hope that if MB is buying farmland, that it will help the local ecomony as well. The Jathropa plant resembles which crop grown in the States?
Must look for a pic of the C220.
Pool noodle search ( to replace my spongy front seat padding) was mediocre success, end of the summer, bad timing. Was lucky to find one at K-mart. Will look at West MArine and Target tomorrow.
Cheers,
Frances

Did you mean the E 320 CDI? I couldn't find the C220 on the US site.
Frankie

The C220 CDI isn't sold in the US. Currently the E320 CDI is the only diesel model here. Here's the C-class site in the UK.

__________________
Dale

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...MG_2277sig.jpg

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo -155k
2000 E430 - 103k
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel 4x4 - 11k
2014 VW Passat TDI SE - 7k Bro's Diesel
2006 E320 CDI - 128k Pop's Benz

Pre-glow - A moment of silence in honor of Rudolph Diesel

Frankie,

Jathropa is also know as Castor oil, quite common everywhere, the Indian farmers themselves are quite big on growing it so local economy is not affected by MB.

__________________
99 Gurkha with OM616 IDI turbo

2015 Gurkha with OM616 DI turbo

2014 Rexton W with OM612 VGT

Good for you guys, I hope a market starts up for it as a fuel. Sounds like a win, win.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

May I digress for a moment? I still want to "stick it to the man" and not depend on fossil fuels. I'm going biodiesel and eventually, maybe SVO/WVO. I did fail to realize that the oil tank takes 8 qts so I'm not sticking to the man afterall. BUT if I use SYNTHETIC diesel oil, then am I sticking to the man?
What is that stuff made of? Anybody know?? Did not buy my first bottle yet, can't find Delvac yet or wrong viscosity but have not looked at Auto Zone or Kragen yet.

Finally found those darn pool noodles! Been busy "noodling" with great success. The difference in the rear butt cushion is unbelievable! No more bouncing! So darn easy too MB designed the rear seat to come out by pulling on red tabs. The rest is logic and a little muscle to stuff the springs! Found out that seat is real leather too, not MB-Tex vinyl. Poor cow, oh and poor horse.
Wow.

I stick it to him in my own way...havn't figured that out yet...maybe trade the SD for an S600...yeah burn dino juice burn.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200