cropping up from the 1998 and 99 engines from running 10 to 13K on
conventional oil?
I just bought a mint condition ML 430
but the engine does have the crud
buildup problem. It has 35k on it.
I just changed oil and it had 5,000 miles
on oil and filter, and the filter has a
fine layer buildup in the deep pockets
of the oil filter. I can take a small bladed
screwdriver and run it up the length of the filter and remove a small amount of
the fine crud the filter has caught.
I don't know what kind of hell this is
playing with the oil pump.
It's a shame all this damage occured in
the first 10 to 20 thousand miles of these
fine engines.
Any thoughts would be welcomed.

the mechanics at the local mb say the new motors have " oil control problems" i did not take it to mean blown gaskets or sludging. i change oil in all my cars at 3k and have always ignored the fss. ( you can thank our government for long oil change intervals starting in the early 70's. car manufacturers where required not to require service intervals more that anually )

i would use a detergent oil and change the oil every 2k for the next 10k to get rid of the sludge build up slowly. or see if gilly or any mb mechanic would recomend an mb approved flush before your next couple oil changes.

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g-wagen

That's kinda what I thought. Slowly clean
it up with 2 to 3 thousand mile oil changes. I went with 0W-40 Mobil 1.
I don't believe any kind of engine flush
would be smart because of the risk of
breaking too much loose at once.
My engine is warranted for 150,000
and 6 more years, but only if synthetic
is used.

Scott:
That's what I would do too. Is it consuming alot of oil?
I haven't heard much about this 150,000 oil change, not at work anyways. How bad does the consumption have to get before MB is supposed to replace the engine? Going by the info I have, it's about a quart every 600 miles (1 liter per 1000 Km), so if it has to get THAT bad, what advantage is the extended warranty?
I'd go with the Mobil1 also.

Gilly

ps, no we've only replaced a couple engines due to oil consumption, but guys from the big dealers say they've done lots of them.

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Gilly, I apologize for not making my previous post clearer. It is not a 150,000
mile oil change. It is the class action suit
that proposes a 10 year (total) or
150K mile engine warranty only if
sludge/crud damage has occured from the extended
oil change intervals from the 1998 and
1999 years when non-synthetic oil was
used.
I have not had it long enough to determine oil consumption. I was amazed and disappointed in how much crud was in the oil filter.
There could not have been any real time testing performed by Mercedes engineers
in 1997 for this to happen. The only way this could happen was to just let the
consumers be the test bed, this fact is
even more amazing.
My fingers are crossed.

Scott:
I understood what you meant, just didn't get my thought written down correctly.
"" is the key word. I don't know if this has been distributed to the dealers yet, in other words, is this case really won?
I think there was testing done, but from what I hear, the oil quality (as well as fuel quality, which impacts this condition) is far better in Europe. MB finally decided to have equal conditions in many other countries, such as the US, that synthetic oil has to be used. We are however are still servicing many 112/113 engines with dino oil with no problems.

My point about the class-action suit is that if MB doesn't have to replace the engine until it reaches what MB feels is an abnormal amount of oil usage (1qt per 600 mi), then was this really that successful of a suit? Is it stipulated in the suit how bad the engine has to consume oil? This is important.

Gilly

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don't use 0w mobile 1. it just slides off everything. giily?

__________________
g-wagen

Gillie, the suit is in just what you said,
a proposal stage. I called MBUSA and after giving my VIN for werification that
I owned a 98 or 99, the man told me
everything about it and the paperwork is
in the mail. It only covers the excessive
oil consumption of 500 to 600 miles
per quart OR damage caused EXCLUSIVELY by the "coking of the oil" ,his words.
Another thing, Mercedes is not and will not admit any wrong doing but he said the suit will go down as he just described. He explained that MB will
warranty the engine for 10 years from
original date of purchase or 150,000
miles which ever comes first.
Tryan; on Mobil 1 0W-40......Mercedes
factory fills EVERY SINGLE one of their
engines with this. It's got to be good
stuff. (i hope)
Another thing I just found out about is the oil sludging problems with Lexus.
Toyota fired off a letter to owners of
1997 thru 2002 Toyota and Lexus vehicles. And they were
only going to 7500 mile oil changes. But they never had 8.5 quart oil pans,
more like 5. I was really surprised to hear that about Lexus. Makes me wonder what
other Luxury car makers are reconsidering their oil change habits.

If you are burning 1 quart per 600 miles, what about the emissions profile? In CO, we are tested every 2 years and have to meet certains emissions levels: failure triggers repair. It seems to me MB has a 70k warranty on the emissions so they should fix the motor to at least address the emissions issue if 1 qt./600 mi. does anything.

i believe porsche quit using 0w because of cam wear problems.

in powerboat magazine, people had trouble with synthetics and roller cams. the rollers would slide instead of roll on the cam unless you had 250 # seat pressure at the valve. too slick.

i'll have to check my tickets. i'll look into it. i used dino oil for the first 9k with 3k changes.

the manual says 0w for - 25 degrees, i might see 10 or 20 f where i live.

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g-wagen

I took my '98 ML to my brother's shop to check out. Everything OK but this nastly oil sludge just described here. He did a complete oil change and added a quart of transmission fluid for detergents. Gotta go back next week to have this drained and he recommends oil chage every 2k for the next 10k.

Would like info on the class action warranty. Do I check on this at the dealer, or is it automatic?