I believe you can't go wrong with Mobil 1, or any other high quality motor oil. I'm not positive on this, but I believe that the differences are slight. The engineer's have been playing with the stuff for many decades with few major advances, except synthetic which is 30 years old!

Possibly some articles are in order: *Must read http://www.mobil1-motorsport.com/products/mobil1//million.htm , Good History http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/synthetic_oil_article/index.html (*note, this is from the Supra Enthusiat's site, www.mkiv.com), From Ferrari Club http://www.ferrariclubofamerica.org/techtips.html , *Oil Filter Test w/Mobil 1 filter http://members.nbci.com/minimopar/oilfilterstudy.html (from a Mopar site), And if you still need more! *Excellent http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/oil/oil.htm (Again form the Supra site, Thank You)

netdw, Mobil 1 has a excellent performance history and should give you some peace of mind, go with it. As it has been said countless times on this Wonderful Site, "Its cheap insurance!".

BTW, Has anybody seen any comparitive research on the differences betweem Synthetic versus Dino in relation to moisture content internally? I'm curious if there is an advantage since I frequently drive short distances which don't allow moisture burnoff internally. This may be a nonissue otherwise, but in this high moisture state, high humidity can last almost half the year.

P.S. Italian tuneup is not an option. :)

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Ross Newcomb
96 C280, Greenish Black

I think all UK Mercedes main dealers use Mobil 1 only. They definatly recomend it in all main dealers.

Oliver

Mobil 1 is not your best synthetic for MB diesels. I would suggest using Mobil's Delvac One which is a great synthetic oil formulated for diesels. Also, if you do change from dino to synthetic you probably will notice some leakage in the process, as some other members have denoted.

One other suggestion for those with 100K plus miles on their MB diesels who plan on making the change over to synthetic. . The synthetic will remove a large amount old dino deposits when you go to the synthetic. Run the first synthetic 1500 miles then change the oil. It probably would be advisable to change the second early as well to help flush out the old build-up. Once you have done this then go to the recommended change interval for your synthetic.

If you don't want to use Mobil's Delvac One, then some other good synthetics are as follows:
Delo 400
Amsoil Series 3000

I am sure there are other good one's, but these are formulated for diesels. Good luck. Johnny

On my 1977 240D I used conventional oil since new. I changed to Mobil 1(15W50 at 100k miles. Now has 170k miles. Runs very well. Looks good when the valve cover is off. Change oil and filter every 3k miles. When I removed the oil sump pan awhile ago to bang out a dent, very little sludge or detritus found. I cannot tell how I would have fared had I not changed to synthetic, but I can certainly note that things look good now.