I don't believe anyone said anything about 350,000 oil change. Only thing that was said is the carrier oil doesn't wear out, just the additive package. Understand the oil also gets dirty, also can be polluted by unburned fuel, and even water, requiring the oil to be changed.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

I did not mean for the oil change to last for 350,00 miles, so I quoted myself.

What I mean is that my car has 330,000 miles. If using synthetics, can I wait until 350,000?

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

You would need to send in oil samples to say for sure, I know I can do that with my wife's TDI Jetta. My MB would need to have a coulple of oil samples done to know for sure if it would be safe to take past 10,000 mile oil change. The thing is that would be about two years for the Benz, I would probably change it about once a year just for something to do. Gets kind of borring around here sometimes.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

How much does an oil analysis job cost?

Have a great day,

Larry,

From $13-24 depending on which lab one uses. Currently I am using www.avlube.com's oil analysis. They are running me about $21 shipped to my home and $1.52 for postage of the used oil back to the lab. From Tennessee it takes 2 days to reach the lab, and 2 days after that I get a PDF file with email discussing the results. George Morrison, a STLE CLS at AVLube also gets copied on the email and if anything is suspicious you will hear from him.

I have been running OA on my '87 300D because those engines are known to have problems with the head. On my latest sample traces of coolant were detected in the engine oil so I'm preparing for the head job.

You may recall on one of these motors, using 6000-10000 mile drains with synthetic I could not measure any chain "stretch" after 94,000 miles.

For my purposes, I believe synthetics work better and I did not factor in the OA into the cost of oil changes because of the known head problem with these engines. I would have done it anyway.

Regards,

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Brian Toscano

Excellent posting Brian, this is how large trucking company's have done it for years. Not to mention the US Navy.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

I recently measured my chain stretch on the 300D and there was none and that's a car which only used dino oil. It had over 223K miles at the time of the measurement.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I can't see a 123 enjoying a 10k+ oil change interval. I'm sure with a bypass filter it is doable but I haven't heard of many if any people who change their oil more than 10k miles. I wouldn't feel guilty going 5k, maybe a little at 7.5k, but I wouldn't go any higher than that without getting the oil tested.

I'm sure a pretty new TDI could pull 10k on the oil pretty easy but much over that I'd hope it would have a bypass filter. What is the factory oil change interval on those? 7.5k or 10k?

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

I can see a 240D easy doing 10k miles on an oil change as easily as a my Jetta TDI does. The engine oil is stressed much more in the TDI then it would be in a 240d engine with no turbo. A turbo 300D in good shape be no different from our TDI. At several of the TDI GTG here at my place there have been several TDI's with engines in 250k to 275k mile range and only given oil changes at 10k mile averages. There are quite a few on the TDI club forum doing the 15k to 20k miles between oil changes, but they are using oil testing to back their extended oil changes. One important thing to mention here is these people are doing 80%+ highway miles. My 240D will mostly be driven around town (80%+) so I will likely do 5k to 7k mile changes or once a year.

I sold a gasser Jeep Cherokee to a friend and neighbor that has had Mobile 1 from 700 mile mark. It had 177,000 miles on the car, with oil changes every 5k to 7k miles when sold. The car now has over 200k miles on the engine and still does not use any oil. He is doing 10k mile oil changes on the car now do to it being driven on 180 mile round trip evey weekend home.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

Walt,

The MB diesels are indirect injected and that will put a lot more soot into the oil. Particularly as they age and pass thru several owners - timing chains stretch, things can carbon up, people don't change the oil as often as they should have. Not to say that there are 123 diesels that will make 10Kmi changes, but just that its not a given.

To keep things in perspective, Jeep 4.0's aren't known to burn oil even with mediocre servicing. They're one of the most durable motors ever made.

BoostnBenz,

TDI's are 10Kmi drain intervals and the manual specifies synthetic only. No bypass filter. None needed. In their stock configuration they just don't put much soot into the oil. Direct injected diesels are generally less sooty.

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Brian Toscano

I would think the IDI MB, in proper condition, with high quality fuel (B100?) could do the 10k mile change easy. The key is using a proper synthetic diesel oil. However, I do agree most would not now days, due just like you said, to wear & tear and poor upkeep.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

If it was ran on synthetic since new it probably wouldn't be much of a problem, but I don't think many of those exist. Maybe you could pull off 10k with B100 but otherwise the soot content by 7.5k is more than I'd like in my own motor. It doesn't get worn out, just overloaded with soot.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

My tongue is really getting sore from biting it.

Have a great day,

Larry,

Bite your tongue all you want. But if you have something to add I'd like to hear it. I know you like to change it hot & often but its not the only way to achieve excellent results.

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Brian Toscano

Oh goody! Another oil thread! (cough)

To add to what Brian wrote, every engine will produce a different amount of soot, and your driving habits affect this also. The only way to know actual soot produciton rate on YOUR engine is to get an analysis. In general, the OM61x engines seem to make a lot more soot than the OM60x, and all indirect injection engines will make more than direct injection (i.e., Cummins, etc).

There are two main limits to consider. First, the amount of soot the oil can suspend (about 2% for most Mobil-1 varieties, and about 4% for Delvac-1 and M-1 5W-40 "SUV formula"). The other limit is that (allegedly) MB has stated engines with hydraulic lifters - meaning all OM60x - should not exceed 2% soot load, even if the oil can suspend more than that. You could end up needing to change at 5 or 7.5k, or on the flip side you could go out to 15k+, depending on YOUR engine and driving habits! I have tested all mine at each oil change and found that 10k works well for my OM60x, and about 7.5k on the OM61x - for MY engines, and MY driving habits.

I use Delvac AccuTrack OA kits from Snider. The "extended drain" kit is required to give the soot %, they are $12.50 each, plus S&H to you, plus S&H to mail in the sample... about $18-$20 total per sample:
http://www.sniderpetroleum.com/oilanalysis.html

Regards,

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Dave
Boise, ID
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