What is the best oil for Mercedes?

is it elf or Wurth or Shell or what??

Please advice, because I think this is very important for all MB Onwers.

Aaaaah, this topic never dies. The best oil for your Mercedes is none of the above, and all of the above. The best oil for your Mercedes is clean oil! Fresh squeezed out of the bottle is best! My car prefers Mobil 1 but others might like something else.

Kuan

Where ever I ask a mechanic they reply, "always buy german oils", nothing else. what can you say?

mrsilico,

Kuan has just offered a GREAT piece of wisdom. CLEAN oil is best!

The German oil suggestion is a new one on me.

There is one question that I would ask before recommending oil; is your engine gas or diesel? If gas, you have more choices, but Mobil One is certainly at the top of the list. If it is diesel, you should use a Universal grade oil that is formulated specifically for diesels. It has more cleaning agents, particularly for the purpose of soot dispersal.

The original engine in my 240D went 380,000 miles on Chevron Delo 15W40, a universal grade oil for diesels. I doubt that a German oil would have taken it any further. Maybe more importantly is the fact that the oil never went over 3,000 miles without being changed. As Kuan said, "clean".

Good luck,
Change oil hot and change oil often,

If you go to the main shop forum page there is a poll about what brand oil members of this forum use. Castrol and Mobil 1 are tops with the people here. NO matter what oil you use make sure it is changed often. If your car is a diesel get diesel rated oil. If you do a search of this forum for "oil" you will find more threads than you will be able to read in a day and enough good adivce and opinions to help you make a good decision.

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Jason Priest
1999 E430
1995 E420 - retired
1986 420SEL - retired

I run Mobil 1 15W50 in my 300TE and 500E gas cars; the head was just off the TE (165k mi. on the original valve guides) and the inside of the motor was spotless.

I run Mobil Delvac 1 in my 300D. I've only owned it for 3 days, so I can't back up my preference with any facts other than I know Mobil 1/Mobil Delvac 1 to be high grade oil.

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"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

The best oil is clean oil ! I couldn't agree more. As for types or brands, synthetic oil will allow you engine to run cooler. IMHO, RED LINE lubricants are the best-just ask any endurance racing team. Never mind all that stuff about 7-10,000 miles between oil changes. If you wait that long with any kind of oil, sludge will build up in you crank case. Change the oil and filter every 3,000 miles.
just my $.02
Gary

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00 Silver/Black AMG E55
96 DCM Impala SS
94 Admiral Blue ZR-1
81 Candy Apple Corvette Cpe

Clean Mobil 1 is very good. The key is clean. Do a search on this and I am sure it is the most dicussed topic on the board.

I would prefer Vasoline 5W50 as it seems the best I've tried. I have tried Shell 5W40, Mobile 5W50 on my BMW 318iS and S320L. The difference Vasoline gives me is most impressive - smoother, less friction. But the fact is that you have to change the oil more frequently (probably 5000 miles at most as it "fades out" or becomes more sticky a bit earlier.)
By the way, it is the least viscous one and viscousity is not relative to the degree of protection. Just my opinion...

We're going a little fast here, Rallenti, per favore. :p Please, no flaming folder this time, ok?

All of the answers are good, and correct, but not for this member's question. Kuan is the closest, with local favorite Larry Bible right behind. But re-read the question, ..."is it elf or Wurth or Shell or what?".

Aside from Shell, does anyone recognize the other oils? Of course not, because the poster, "mrsilico", is located in the Middle East, and not here in the US!

So, if it's available to him, Mobil 1 would be great, but Shell and Agip are the ONLY two motor oils used by Ferrari, and are widely available in both Europe and the Middle East...

Oh, and Davis Lo, don't you mean Valvoline? You only really need Vasoline if you take your car to be serviced at the MB dealer! I would recommend a liberal coating prior to speaking to a service advisor...

And viscosity IS quite relative to the degree of protection. Especially at the two temperature extremes that a multi weight oil is designed to operate in.

There are 0W40 oils for use in colder climates that people I know right here in California are using. Remember, the most damage from lack of lubrication occurs to your engine at start-up when the parts in contact with each other under friction are less likely to be getting lubricated! The 0 viscosity allows for rapid flow of the oil to quickly lubricate those surfaces...

Try Mobil 1, It doesn't have any wax or paraffin in it to build up sludge in your engine...http://www.mobil.com.

[Edited by longston on 02-07-2001 at 12:09 PM]

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Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

I say Mobil 1 too. All of the main MB dealers that I have seen use Mobil 1. They all have signs up reccomending Mobil 1. Also, all of the MBs me and my dad have owned have always been serviced with Mobil 1.

Mobil 1 is cool!!!

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Oliver

I am sorry for the statement but my meaning was that "High viscousity dosen't mean high protection but the other way around" is it clear enough??
What really convinces me is a lab test conducted in Polytec University HK last year about a reserach to compare the premium engine oils which available in the markets with some engine protection stuff like Slick 50...etc.(I knew it because the PHD researcher is my old friend and they didn't disclose it because it involves many 'marketing aspects' and it is for internal use only).What they did was that a aluminium alloy pan was contacted with a ball of the same material motivated in circles by a motor with temp.change range between 0-300 c to see which one is the most protective.
The result was that the pan with Slick 50 (Please note: JUST SLICK 50 ONLY) was worn out the least, then followed by Vasoline (4 times worn more than one with Slick 50 ,Mobile one (6 times ....etc).....
With this test, which way should I go??

Davis, you're still calling it Vasoline. Do you mean Valvoline? http://www.valvoline.com Or is there a motor oil company there in HK that makes Vasoline? Here in the states, Vasoline is Petroleum Jelly!

For more than you ever wanted to know about motor oil go to: http://www.gsresources.com/oil.html.

For more than you ever wanted to know about motor oil additives like Slick 50, go to: http://www.gsresources.com/additives.oil.html

And thoroughly research the link I provided to Mobil. Mercedes' now come from the factory with Mobil 1 in their engines!

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Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

The sites mentioned by Scott are definitely worth reading! Many thanks to him.
I live in Northern California and have always used a Universal oil, 15-40 in my diesels (3 of them) and have always changed the oil/filter every 3500 miles and experienced no engine problems whatsoever. Pep Boys sells Proline, supposedly made by Valvoline, for about $1.19/Qt. They also sell a house brand filter that is inexpensive and well made.
On the subject of additives, I have noted, numerous times on my 240D, a 10% increase in fuel mileage when I added a can of plain old STP to the crankcase.

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'76 240D-Sold
'78 240D-Sold
'85 300 SD, 165K-Sold
'88 300 TE, 165K-Sold
'64 Porsche 356C Cabriolet- under restoration
'86 560SL 124K Miles-Sold
'94 320E Wagon, 74K Miles-128K Miles JUNKED
'06 E350 Wagon, 84K Miles
07 SL550, 14K Miles

As I recall, my 2001 C came with a booklet of "factory approved" oil brands. It also came with a bunch of other stuff urging us to use Mobil 1.
I glanced at the list of "other" oils approved by MB, it seemed to be many, but not certainly not all, of the major brands. For example, I don't think Pennzoil was on there.
Anyways, I didn't pay much attention, since as I understand it, Mobil 1 is the factory fill, and it is certainly what they encourage you to use. So, I just took their word for it and gave only a passing glance to the "other" oils.