My mechanic now has an option for me to bring my own oil, so instead of him charging me $2.50/quart. I was thinking about bringing in Mobile 1 for my next oil change, prudent?? or should I just bring name brand oil ie. Pennzoil, Castrol, etc. Thanks in advance.

What model Benz are you speaking of?

Larry

Mobile 1 synthetic is the best! I can't remember the last time I used anything else. I own a '94 firebird w/84,000 on the ticker, a '96 Impala SS w/35,000 and an '99 SLK230 w/just over 20,000 on it and never had an oil related problem.

Pjosefliak,

For 84,000 miles you could use rerefined oil and have no problems as long as you're changing it regularly.

netdw,

My question is related to whether or not this engine is a diesel. I'm not sure that Mobil One has a C specification.

Good luck,

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Larry Bible
'84 Euro 240D, 523K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles

Well, not exactly Larry. My Firebird is set up with a Vortech blower (that scavenges oil from the crankcase for lubrication) and Lingenfelter heads. It gets "used" alot in the summer on the street as well as at the track, therefore your sugestion of rerefined oil would be unacceptable. I subject my cars to extreme use but also pamper them with a lot of tlc. I take pride in being able to endorse products I believe in, and many manufacturers recommend this product by name. Paul

Definitely a job for a synthetic, otherwise 84K is not much of a feat.

Larry

PS I was not suggesting rerefined oil, but rather saying that rerefined oil would have taken it that far. Without the additional information, I assumed run of the mill car in normal service. I would never SUGGEST low quality oil for anything. LB

[This message has been edited by LarryBible (edited 06-07-2000).]

I have an 87 300D with the 603.960 engine. This engine has hydraulic lash adjusters to take up slack in the valvetrain automatically. The downside is that, partially due to a design flaw, the lifters get plugged and don't fill up correctly, resulting in nasty ticking noises.

Per Marshall Booth's advice I finally switched to Mobil 1 15w-50 at 191k miles. I had previously switched to Delo 15-40 from cheap Pennzoil 20w-50 in an attempt to flush out whatever junk was causing the lifter noise, as shops were quoting me anything from $25 to $50 PER LIFTER to change all 12 lifters. Delo 15w-40, even with its advanced detergents, did NOTHING to alleviate the noise.

Mobil 1 flowed very quickly as soon as I started the engine with the new oil. Now my car starts more quickly on cool mornings and idles more smoothly under all conditions, and after only 1000 miles on Mobil 1 the valvetrain is remarkably quiet.

Does it leak? Yes, it does, from existing points of leakage. But it doesn't leak appreciably more than the mineral oil did. The engine has "consumed" (leaked or burned) maybe 1/2 a quart in the first 1000 miles, and I think that was my fault anyway; my 603 will leak ANY oil until it gets to a halfway point on the dipstick, then it stops leaking altogether.

I'm confident that I will make it 3000 miles without adding any Mobil 1. For the extra peace of mind it gives me, it is worth the $4.50 a quart. Even at that price, I plan on changing every 3k miles.

Good luck!

Justin Dobbs

[This message has been edited by jrd (edited 06-11-2000).]

You certainly can't go wrong with synthetic oil. As I have mentioned before, I use it in my BMW 745i Turbo for the same reasons the other gentleman uses it in his Firebird. Turbos and superchargers do need high grade oil (more often in gasoline engines than in diesels). I also use Mobil 1 in my 380SE, and in my 300E. The rest of my cars get Castrol GTX 10W-40 (including my everyday driver 300SD which just turned 181,000 miles today).



------------------
Rgds,
Aaron Greenberg
MB technician
Precision Motorcars, Cincinnati, Ohio
'67 250SE Cabriolet
'77 450SL
'80 300SD
'85 380SE
'89 420SEL
'93 300E 2.8
'74 Jensen Interceptor Mk.III
'81 DeLorean DMC12
'84 BMW 745i Turbo

I have used Synthetic oils (usually Mobil I) for the last 110,000 miles in my 300SD which has 225,000 miles now. I don't know what was used for the first 115,000 miles. I change oil every 10,000 miles and it still does not require adding any oil between changes. I also use a PTFE product. Nuff said?

P E H

------------------

Aaron, read your post on oil use in your various autos. Question for you: Why do you not use Mobil 1 in your older cars? I have a 1971 280sl that runs great but have been thinking of using Mobil 1. Pros and cons?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have. Here is your original post:

***...You certainly can't go wrong with synthetic oil. As I have mentioned before, I use it in my BMW 745i Turbo for the same reasons the other gentleman uses it in his Firebird. Turbos and superchargers do need high grade oil (more often in gasoline engines than in diesels). I also use Mobil 1 in my 380SE, and in my 300E. The rest of my cars get Castrol GTX 10W-40 (including my everyday driver 300SD which just turned 181,000 miles today).***

toms,

I expect that Aaron uses the Mobil One because of the danger of coking in a turbocharged engine. In a turbocharged engine, your choice is use synthetic, or allow the engine to idle a few minutes before shutdown after a hard run. Of course, using Mobil One AND idling a few minutes after a hard run doesn't hurt either.

Good luck,

------------------
Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
'84 Euro 240D, manual, 533K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles

Larry, thanks. Any reasons you can think of why I should not got to Mobil 1 in my 1971 280sl? I have searched all prior posts and can't seem to find a reason not to go to Mobil 1. Just seems like a no-brainer, but I am mechanically without a brain so I claim handicap status, which allows me to park these kind of questions conveniently in this forum! thanks

toms,

I have only seen mention of one thing that may make Mobil One in an older car work out. I have seen posts indicating that it will sometimes leak where dino oil will not leak.

I would think that the thing to do would be change it and see if it leaks. I doubt that it would be a gushing leak if it did. You could go to the next oil change and change back if it were a problem.

I'm sure that there are others with experience about this. Anyone?

Good luck,


------------------
Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
'84 Euro 240D, manual, 533K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles

I've heard of going conventional to synthetic causing problems with older cars (both on this board and from my dealer), but our cars were converted early in their life, so I don't have any personal experience there.

As one for the interesting stories file, for many years we ran 15W-50 Mobil 1 in our '87 300E, during which time it started consuming oil heavily. The first time, we had a valve job done, and it fixed the problem. It started happening again a few years later, to the point where it was about 1qt every 800 mi. Then, our dealer started using 5W-50 Castrol Syntec, and right at the same time our oil consumption went down to almost zero. It still drips a little bit of oil, but the change on the dipstick is barely noticeable. Very strange..

anthony

I run 100% synthetic(Redline oil) in my motorcycle, a 1992 Honda CBR600F2 with 56,000 miles. Went to synthetic after 5,000 miles. Motorcycles are much harder on oil as the engine oil is shared with the transmission. My bike redlines at 14,000 rpm, peak power is at 10,000 rpm, and I take it to redline almost everytime I accelerate - 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds. This bike is able to keep up with liter-class bikes only by shifting frequently to keep engine running in power band (8K-11K rpm). Warranty recommended changing oil every 8,000 miles, I changed it every 4,000 until it had 48,000 miles on it. Now, I'm going to change it every 8,000, let's see how it holds up. I know a guy who has 2 motorcycles (sportbikes), both with over 100K miles. He runs Mobil 1 only and changes oil, GET THIS, every 12,500 miles. He rides hard and his bikes run very well.

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Dave

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.