New ( to me ) 1996 E300D
 

Hi guys ..

Just took delivery of a 1996 E300D
with 90,000 miles

Going to the local dealership early next
week for a service and overall check

Other than changing fluids and filters

are there any 'must dos' on this vehicle ??

Also, any recs for a good diesel mechanic
in Fairfield Cty, CT ??

TIA

Jim in CT

1996 E300D
1997 S320 ( off-lease )
1986 300E ( sold )
1987 300E ( sold )
2000 VW Jetta TDI ( sold )

Congratulations Jim:

Wish I could help with a recommendation or two but I only know 123's.

Don

Hi Don ..

I checked my year and model number with
the "Edmunds Maintenance Guide" and discovered
1 recall notice relating to the drive belt pulley's
potential failure .. so I'll make sure it's either been
replaced or inspected .. also various TSBs on minor items

In researching fully synthetic engine oils and related
filters etc .. i keep running across AMSOIL products
anyone using them with satisfactory results ??

Jim in CT ..

one thing you MUST do that the dealer's hardly ever know to do, is get a proper diesel specific synthetic oil in there, with an API rating of CH-4 or even better, CI-4, the new rating for synthetic diesel oils made for engines with EGR systems, which the 606 engine has.

I've run Amsoil's Series 3000 Heavy duty diesel oil 5w-30 and currently run Mobil Delvac1 5w-40, both with excellent results. These would be considered the two top of the line diesel oils. I switched to Delvac because I moved to florida, and like the extra protection of the 40 weight oil, and because my TDI requires 5w-40 as well, and wanted to just buy one kind of oil. Delvac can be purchased online at www.avlube.com if you can't find it locally. Its usually hard to find, do not mistake it for the crappy dino oil, delvac 1300.

Don't forget to change the prefilter and o-ring when you change the fuel filter.

Listen to hear if your engine is knocking excessively at idle. Mine was, it had bad injectors, all replaced at 31k. Scary how quiet it is now.

Run additives in each tank, preferably stanadyne peformance formula, or powerservice in a pinch(white bottle winter, silver, summer).

Good luck!

LightMan ..

Thanks for the thoughts ..
Took the car to the dealer on Tuesday ..
Got it back early afternoon today Friday ..
Did two things not originally planned ..
New in dash radio/CD to replace the radio/cassette
that was in the car and had the "ding doctor" work
his magic on the body <g> .. Now I'm afraid to drive it !!

Neeedless to say I had a "walletectomy" preformed on me ..
Ouch .. parts were $1730.00 so you can imagine the bill for
labor .. but she's darn near perfect ..

You were right about the oil .. they put in
Kendall 15/40 dino rather than a high quality synthetic ..
Their reasoning .. specs don't call for synthetic on
the 1996 E300D and the car would leak oil if they used it .. hmmm ..

I'm still thinking AMSOIL 10/40 or 15/40 synthetic for the
next oil change and I like what I read about the oil impregnated
foam air filters .. Has anyone tried one on a 1996-1999 E300D
with good results ???

Wallets' tired .. I'm gonna have to become a DIYer ..

Jim in Ct ..

Congrats on the purchase. If you can't find Delvac 1 (which I use in my TDI), or Amsoil, you might consider Shell Rotella-T 5w-40 synthetic, a CH-I oil sold at WallyWorld for just under $13 a gal.

Triffin,

The story about synthetic oils causing leaks in older cars if you change "later in the car's life" is a story I cannot verify, and I use only Mobil Delvac 1 in all my cars now, including the 1982 240D. While that car leaks at the rear crank seal, it is not an item that started when I bought the car and switched to synthetic oil.

Since using Mobil Delvac 1, my cars actually have lost some of their appetite for oil. I now go 6,000 miles between oil changes, and only the 240D with over 285,000 miles needs to be topped off in that interval. Using Mobil 1 0W-40 my 190E 2.3-16 needed a quart every 1500 or so miles, even after the head work was done.

If you are going to have work done at the dealer, I recommend you join the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. I get 15-20% off on parts, and labor, at my dealership in New London. So, the parts end up competitive with mail order stuff, and the labor is better than full price. They also do good work, and they have always been very honest and straight forward. I had an issue with my 1991 350SD, but the dealership ended up making me whole again by making the 1998 E300 Turbodiesel affordable. I also buy my Delvac from them as I get it at a wholesale price using my MBCA membership.

Good luck, sounds like a great car, Jim

What price are you able to get gallons of Delvac 1 for with your MBCA membership?

I'd like to again reiterate this is just about THE best oil you can put in your diesel.:D

Lightman,

I get it as a bulk buy (I buy 4 cases at a time) and coordinate my order with the dealership's Mobil order every week or two. The best I got it for was $17.60/gal and the worst I have paid is $20.40/gal. The local distributors sell it to me at that volume for about $22.70 or more per gallon (which is no special consideration at all). Jim

My probably useless 2 cents about oil. A few years ago I bought a pristine 89 Mazda 929, less than 40 K and perfect, owned by the dealership's owner's wife. And it really looked it and ran like it, perfect. (All this is before my MB diesel conversion). Anyway, I thought I'd go synthetic since I wanted the thing to last forever (still have it, 117000 and counting, actually and selling but....). Put in Mobile1 somethingw something, not 0W and it started to leak and leak big time. Before switching to synth I ran dino for 10,000 (changed every 3K) and never had a speck of oil, even underneath the car you had to work pretty hard to get dirty. BIGGEST mistake I ever made. Switching back didn't fix it. I've since been told by Mazda the rear seal is leaking. Now for historical purposes, I have had three of these cars, one went to 275,000 the other is at 205,000 and neither leak oil to speak of, both were always dino oil. I'd use synthetic if the car came with it and the warranty required it but I'll never switch again. The dino's are just as good when changed at 3K intervals, or even 5K in the diesels that hold more oil if they are regularly driven at hiway speeds to heat everything up. Don't switch.

no offense rmm, but oil analysis results prove that your comment that 'dino oil is just as good as synthetic when changed at lower intervals' is just nonsense. The protective additive packages are better in chemistry, better soot suspension(cg-4,ch-4,ci-4), among other benefits. Your one car/case experiment is hardly conclusive evidence that synthetic causes leaks. You may have had this happen coincidentally, or not. However there are several members with 200K plus on older MB diesels, and have switched to synthetic with no extra leaking. Rmm, the thread was regarding a diesel E300. Dino is NOT recommended, a CG-4 synthetic is required, as a minimum.

In addition to this, I have two friends who currently each bought '97 E300's with around 100-120k on them, and have since switched to delvac 1, with no problems. I run delvac 1 in my E300, and its amazing how much better it runs than on the garbage syntec or mobil 1 the uneducated mb dealer put in the car. My iron and other wear metal levels in my oil analyses dropped significantly after two runs of delvac. The first run was amazing at how much the TBN was depleted, as it was working hard to clean out the crap the syntec left over.
Delvac 1 or amsoil series 3000 are true group 4 synthetics, the lower priced formulations of amsoil, as well as rotella t synthetic, valvoline premium blue, and other popular diesel oils, are group 3 quality basestocks, and are not considered quite as premium. Txbill will have comments to argue, but my point is that delvac1 and amsoil are the utmost top quality. Good/average results can be had with lower quality group 3's. Why put anything in but the best? You can go 10k on delvac with better protection than 5 k on rmm's dino.

New ( to me ) 1996 E300D
 

Ooops .. didn't mean to start the "oil wars"
But for the late model MB 300 series diesels
( 1996 - 1999 ) It seems that a high quality
synthetic is the way to go .. so that's going
to be my plan with the next oil change ..

While doing a search for "synthetic" I came
across this link ..

http://www.petrotruckstops.com/

Looks to be a good source for our "popular"
oils mentioned on this forum .. Might be worth
a stop if they happen to have a service center
near you .. I'll be checking one out next week
and will report back as to prices and availability
etc .. might even let them change the oil <gg>

On a related topic .. has anyone switched/tried
these oil impregrated foam air filters I've been
reading about .. supposedly effective in the
sub 5 micron particle size range ??

Jim in Ct ..

Flying J
 

hi all,

When on the road take a peek at a flying j truck stop u will like the prices n service.

www.flyingj.com

website gives fuel prices + sales

Oil again - now you did it!
 

OK, I might as well chime in here. I'll second LightMan's recommendation of a full synthetic from Amsoil or Mobil Delvac-1. I use the Amsoil 15W40 heavy duty marine and diesel oil because I can get it easier and at a better price than the Delvac-1. That said, I'll check at the Petro on I75 next time I go up and see if they have the Delvac-1. I've said this before, but just to reiterate, regular Mobil-1 is not rated for your modern turbo diesel in any weight. Do not use it.

I see that you're in Connecticut. I hope that your glow plugs have been changed recently. At 78,000 miles, I'm already on my third set. And I'm in Florida.

The petro truck stop in Reddick, FL (listed as ocala), does carry Delvac 1. Not in the store though, back in the truck lube shop, which is about 100 yard behind the main truck stop restaurant/store. They are expensive there though, it was like $24/gal. Most all of the time I just order online at www.avlube.com and it's shipped to my door in 2 or 3 days. They charge $81 per case.

Tiffin, FYI, the E300 holds 7.5 quarts, and I've found that by adding 7.3 quarts after draining, I get to the perfect mark on the dipstick every time. Just can't get every bit out, and you DON'T want to overfill. The dealer almost always overfills e300's because they're so used to doing all the other e-class, which hold 8 quarts. Don't forget to ask the mb shop for a new drain plug washer

I tried a K&N filter on my E300, and within 2 weeks my MAF sensor failed. Others on the TDICLUB forum have noted that the oil from these filters has caused their MAF's to fail as well. This is a hotly debated topic however. Most tend to say that the amsoil tack oil won't 'blow' into the maf and ruin it, as it's stickier/tackier than the k&n.

There was a controlled experiment done with a stock paper filter, amsoil dual stage foam filter and a K&N. The amsoil was the best at filtering by a good margin, and had similar airflow to stock. The stock filter was the poorest at filtration and airflow. The K&N had the most airflow and middle of the road filtration. They've been called K&N dirtsuckers too many times, and ruined my maf for sure. I'd avoid them. I did however just purchase a dual stage amsoil foam filter for my tdi. It looks really oily, as they are preoiled from the factory. I plan on setting it in the sun to dry for a while before I install it, and waiting for my current paper filter to be used up, it has about 8k left in it.(20k air filter changes).

Tiffin and others interested in making the switch to a premium diesel synthetic, I'd highly recommend running one or two changes of the delvac1 and dumping them in a short time, maybe 3000 miles. The additives package will really get depleted as it cleans out the crap from the past inferior oils, so its good to do one or to short changes to flush. Engine flushes are reputed be harsh on seals etc, and I think should be avoided, although I have no particular experience with them.
I know this is long, but here's a link to some delvac info.
http://dallnd6.dal.mobil.com/Apps/DS/_39gj50ko_/MobilPDS.nsf/26b7c4b33367a4a086256665004e4266/60d8a76e857b7e71852567b60072913a?OpenDocument

Here's another.
http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/Product_Information/Diesel_Engine_Oil_Collection.asp

Enjoy! Also i can't stress enough testing your local fuel source for quality/contaminants. Avlube offers diesel fuel test kits. I dont work for them and am not affiliated in any way, but those test kits are the only way you can truly know what you're pumping, and if your expensive injection system is getting worn out by high particulate fuel or not...