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#46
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My two pfennigs
THE FIRST THREE owners of our '96 E300D (OM606NA) used 15W-40 dino oil and drove the car a total of 248,000 miles. When we got it (4th owners) the engine was switched to Mobil-1 5W-40 Synthetic. In 30,000 miles (oil/filter changed once a year or about 7500 miles) the engine has neither leaked nor burned any oil. In November the car will have its 4th oil/filter change since we got it. When I pulled the valve cover to check for timing chain stretch and other forms of wear the moving bits looked almost new.
OTOH, I put Mobil-1 synthetic transmission fluid in the transmission and exacerbated an existing front pump seal leak. The leak went from an occasional drip that could be ignored (and had been by all of the owners since the 100,000 mile point) to a puddle under the car whenever it was driven. I ended up having to get the transmission rebuilt, making it my most expensive oil change. BOTTOM LINE is that synthetic is a better oil in many ways but its molecules are smaller and can get out of places where dino oil can't. That's why you need to use caution before switching an old anything to synthetic oil. Look before you leap! Jeremy
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"Buster" in the '95 Our all-Diesel family 1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car 2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022) Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762 "Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz." -- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970 |
#47
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My dad put synthetic once into his W115 and he said it ran terribly. Didn't complain of leaks, but he quickly switched it back out.
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Sixto 87 300D |
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It's the "looking like new" part that matters. Mobil 1 will clean the brown gunk off of everything, leaving shiny clean metal.
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just my $0.02
Conventional and synthetic oils are both fine to use. From my understanding, and talking to oil reps, the synthetic will last longer as the additives will not burn off as fast as conventional. The additives were explained to me by picturing them as beach balls, marbles, ping pong balls etc. The smaller additives protect the tightest fitting parts that the larger ones will not fit in to, however they are lost through looser fitting parts such as piston rings. As the oil is used, you loose more and more of your marbles (no pun intended). Synthetics are "better" oils because the size ranges of the additives are more precisely controlled.
My opinion is the price difference does not warrant the additional protection. The oil still gets dirty. Diesel oil has a high detergent level. It is designed to get dirty. As long as you change your conventional oil before the additives are depleated, you will get the same protection. You can tune in your oil change intervals by getting an oil analysis done. You may see that your engine pollutes the oil sooner than the oil additives are depleated. Large truck fleets have all experimented with extended drain intervals by using synthetics. My observation is that they all stay with conventional. The oil analysis done on the fleet showed no financial gain using synthetics. I just use a quality conventional and change it frequently. If you want better protection, use a quality filter. Install a centrifugal filter. It will probably do more for your engine by just keeping the oil cleaner. I would use synthetics on all other components though as they are not serviced as frequently and the cost difference over time is small.
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1982 300sd, new project car to restore It doesn't matter if you know what you're doing, as long as you look like you know what you're doing. |
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I was starting to think we had another "oil thread" developing. You summed up things perfectly !!! ALSO There is no reason to add snake oil to your oil either. The oil manufacture adds all that is needed for you.
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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort.... 1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket. 1980 300D now parts car 800k miles 1984 300D 500k miles 1987 250td 160k miles English import 2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles 1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo. 1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion. Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving |
#53
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My car went 18K miles on its last change of 5w40 AMSOIL. Testing by AMSOIL rep and filter changes every 4-7K miles. Running mostly B100 homebrew
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1995 E300 diesel |
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what is the analysis on the oil at that point? filters are not going to get much soot out, so 4 to 7K filter changes isn't helping much. how much oil are you adding in when the filter is removed? 1/2 quart? are you using a bypass filter on the car?
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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread "as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do! My drivers: 1987 190D 2.5Turbo 1987 190D 2.5Turbo 1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!! 1987 300TD 1987 300TD 1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere! |
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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort.... 1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket. 1980 300D now parts car 800k miles 1984 300D 500k miles 1987 250td 160k miles English import 2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles 1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo. 1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion. Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving |
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I'll try to find the last report and post it up
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1995 E300 diesel |
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I have heard before that there are quite a few people running well over 10k on Amsoil in the VW TDi community... but I understood that could only be done with secondary filtration setups installed.
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Mac 2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d “Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22 |
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Now, I am a big fan of synthetic oils. I do notice a few mpg gains with its use. I also think engines and other mechanicals last longer. I do think that conventionals have closed the gap though. I did have a '96 Contour. I had it from 20K to 214K. I ran on synthetics during almost all that time. It was still running, and didn't lose much if any oil in 7.5K oil changes. I think I went 10K to 12K a few times. As far as I know that car is still on the road. That was with Castrol Syntech. I changed to Pennsoil Platinum in the fast 5 years or so. I think 150K-180K with that car. Tom |
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Over 100k miles $1.50/qt, $10 filter and 3k miles= $683 $6.25/qt, $10 filter and 8k miles= $671 So even though the oil costs 4x as much at the point of sale, over time its cheaper. It also doesn't factor in the amount of time saved doing 13 oil changes instead of 34. If you pay to have your oil changed, you can bump the figures up to $1363 and $931, a much more drastic savings. Think of it like having a 16 gallon fuel tank on a car that gets 20mpg compared to a 21gallon tank on a car that gets 25mpg. You're paying less per fillup so to the casual driver it appears like they're spending less money, but over time they're still spending more. Quote:
FYI, after being exposed as non-synthetic Castrol was asked if they would lower their prices because they were using cheaper oil, they flat out said "No." Last edited by ForcedInduction; 08-11-2011 at 06:55 PM. Reason: oil change math |
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[/QUOTE]
Thats one of those "group III" fake synthetics. In fact its THE fake synthetic that made Mobil file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. BBB's poor understanding of the subject made them rule in favor of Castrol's false advertizing and opened the door for others like Shell to do the same. FYI, after being exposed as non-synthetic Castrol was asked if they would lower their prices because they were using cheaper oil, they flat out said "No." [/QUOTE] Just to make this a full blown, cut throat, no holds barred oil thread, are you saying that Rotella T6 is fake?
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'81 300SD |
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