88 300e oil change

I am new to working on Mercedes.

I have an 88 300e. I am not farmiluar with this type of oil filtration system.

Where is the drain plug and what is the right part number for the oil filter I need?

On my car the oil filter is accessed form the top of the engine and it is housed in some kind of a canister.

Any help would be appreciated.

[David C Klasse]

Emilio,
If your car is like mine, then that canister houses the filter. It just snaps in (don't forget the rubber O ring). As for the drain plug, look at the bottom of the oil pan, this is kind of hard to do with the car on a flat surface. I just bought ramps last week for $30 from PepBoys and has made my life much easier! You can either get the filter here at Partsshop, good prices and fast delivery. Or you can go to your Mercedes dealership or to a PepBoys. HOpe this helps.

[Crowe]

On my 300E the oil filter is #102 184 01 01 and is a standard "canister type" of filter located on the top of the engine just behind the air breather. You mentioned the filter being inside a canister, you may be seeing the power steering filter canister. The drain plug is at the left front corner of the oil pan. You will have to lower the plastic skid plate that covers the engine compartment to reach the plug. It does help to have some ramps to get clear access to the oil plug. I have found that removing the filter will spill a fair amount of oil on the back of the engine, so be prepared to clean up the spill. BTW, this topic has had a lot of traffic, so you may want to do a search. Have fun!

[J.HIDALGO]

You can suck the oil, instead of draining it. It is a lot easier. Go to any page in this site except for this one. Look at the bottom of the page and look for the "liquidvac". Do a search on the subject and decide what is best for YOU.

[endeavor]

I had to buy a special oil filter wrench that fits on the cover of the oil filter housing. It is made by Hazet and will cost aboyt $20.00
Good Luck

[chowpit]

I have to ask. Does your 300E have the 6cyl or a 4cyl?

[MBenzNL]

Was there a W124 300 with only 4 cylinders available in the states ?
I thought that all W124 300's had 6 cylinders!

greetingz,

[Gilly]

That 88 300E, like all 300E's (with the 103 motor anyways, there may have been 1 year where a 300E badge was actually a 3.2 liter 104 motor) had a spin-on oil filter. I usually get the motor up to operating temp and begin draining the oil. Before putting the drain plug back on s-l-o-w-l-y loosen the filter. If you do this quickly, the oil will mostly end up on the ground. I like BMW's oil filter wrench better, I bought it to maintain my BMW K75S motorcycle. If there is a Beemer shop near you, they probably stock it. I like it better because it has a 3/8" drive hole on the end, so all I need is the filter wrench, extension and 3/8" ratchet. With the MB one, you also need a large socket to drive the filter wrench. In the shop I work at, we did get the oil sucker, we also got the from the BMW source, much cheaper than the MB tool. It really works well. I was testing it for quite a while. I would suck the oil out then raise the car up to pull the plug. In all cases the amount of oil was insignificant that ran out. On a few engines absolutely NO oil came out of the drain hole, most notable the modular V6 and V8 (112 and 113 motors). One problem motor for the oil sucker is the 111 motor, which would be the newest 4 cylinder (C220, C230, C230 Kompressor, SLK230 Kompressor). We are only supposed to suck (OH, excuse me EXTRACT) oil using the dipstick tube itself as the extraction tube. We are not supposed to use a suction tube or probe. On the 111 motor, the dipstick tube won't work worth squat as a suction tube, don't know why. We use a suction probe instead (DON'T tell the Germans, I'm warnin' ya). MBenz: Well, all W124 300's had 6 cylinders, as long as they were 300 "E"'s, 300 "D"'s of course were one less cylinder than that!.......Gilly

[Gilly]

Ah CRAP. I may as well post my own correction. The 124 300 D's were all 6 holer 60 series Diesels. I don't know why I always think they are 617 motor 5 holers. There was a 4 cylinder Diesel made, a 200D for other markets, that's the 601 motor, also a 5 cylinder 602 motor, which was the 250D, also of course for countries other than "US"....Gilly

Emilio

Well, before you get scared about "suction/extraction" this and "$20 dollar filter wrench" that, changing oil on these cars is much easier than what might have been portrayed. You really dont even need to raise the car, and if you raise only the front end, the car will not be level and some dirty oil will remain in the back of the pan. So just lay a towel down on the ground and "get down" under the car.

What you'll need

Oil Filter L24466 (Purolator) or M1-205 (Mobil One)
(Knecht,Wix,Napa,Fram, Etc will do aswell)

7.5 quarts of oil ( I use Mobil One 15w-50)
13mm Wrench (factory plug, yours may have been changed if lost by a quick-lube place)

(Possible)- Oil filter wrench, Should slip over the closed/round end of the filter like a cup and has a place to insert a 3/8 drive ratchet extension (you'll probably need a 10 inch long extension) (No more than $5.00 for the wrench itself)

1st: Open hood, and remove oil cap, then position oil drain container under car

2nd: Take box end of 13mm wrench and loosen the oil plug on the front drivers side of the car's oil pan.

3rd: Finish unscrewing the bolt with your fingers, making sure to hold onto the bolt( Dont drop it in a pan full of oil. ) The oil will begin draining into the pan. Set the plug somewhere clean where you wont get sand on it.

4th: Once oil drain slows to a dribble, remove the oil filter, using the wrench if necessary. You can let the oil filter drain into the pan of used oil.

5th: Replace plug (REMEMBER TO DO THIS BEFORE ADDING OIL ) BTW, make sure its good and tight

6th: Get a bit of clean oil on your finger and rub it around the new filter's gasket. Screw the new filter onto the car(Do not use the filter wrench to put a filter on).

7th: Carefully pour 7 quarts of oil into the engine, check dipstick level and ad the needed portion of the 8th quart.

8th: Put the oil cap on and you're done



Best of luck in all your D-I-Y adventures

Jason M.

[Gilly]

A 103 engine only takes 6 1/2 quarts of oil, 6.35 to be exact, do the math! 103 engines with 4MATIC take 1/2 a quart more, 7 is close enough, 6.85 is more exact. ON MB engines, they want to avoid overfilling the crankcase. When you put in the appropriate amount of oil, the dipstick should show about in the middle of the normal range. If you are taking out the oil by the drain plug, you should replace the copper sealing ring on the drain plug. Don't get the drain plug TOO tight, only about 15 nm or so, just for reference. NO I don't use a torque wrench for this. Nor do I expect someone who changes their own oil to buy an oil sucker, I just thought since the topic came up that a few folks would be interested in my observations. I was damn skeptical about using the oil sucker, being kind of an old fashioned guy about this, but the observations I made won me over to it. I still will pull the drainplug after using the oil sucker if it is an engine type I'm not sure I've tested yet!......Gilly

[dakota]

Gilly,

I think you mentioned that you use the BMW extraction tool. Is it similar to the MB tool as shown in the MB manual (P18-0109-13?)? Do you think either of these tools would be adaptable for use with the TopSider or do you think that the weight of the oil column in the dipstick would be too heavy for the TopSider to lift?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Gilly]

I'm not sure what amount of "inches" either tool will "pull". If you are referring to the MB tool SSEP catalog, no it's not really like that one. The BMW one is more of a "R2D2" looking thing, large glass cylinder on top that the oil being extracted goes into, then when you are done you unscrew a knob and a heavy wire bale is used to hold the knob down and the oil goes into the "main tank" where the waste oil is held. We modified ours so we can use our large suction pipe to then empty our waste oil into the company holding tank. I can state that we had some problems getting the proper dipstick tube adapter, but once we did, we noticed that the oil extraction process what speeded up alot, probably twice as fast when compared to using a plastic suction probe. The MB extraction machine is made by (pardon if I'm not perfect on the name) Tacelmite? I know that's not right, it's something like that, it's made in Germany. I can't remember the name on the one BMW sells, i believe it is made in Italy, it is green colored, no problems with it at all. It also has a large collection pan on top where we let the old filters drain out. The correct dipstick tube adapter we got from AGA in Iowa, I think it is in Dubuque, Iowa, not sure on the town, they are MB's distributor for this oil extractor they sell. I just remember, on the BMW extractor we have, I now believe the name of that company is Rassk, something like that. We like the glass cylinder on the top, it is graduated so we can actually see the amount of oil we remove, and also can see somewhat what the condition of the oil is, if it is coolant contaminated, for example. In response to the Topsider, I have only heard this mentioned, I believe it is a small extractor for home use, correct? If you can get it adapted to the top of the dipstick tube, I bet it would "pull" it!......Gilly

[dakota]

Thank you, Gilly, you cleared up a lot of questions I had. I was assuming that the extractor "tool" was just the little adapter portion that connected to the dipstick tube and that this then was connected to a shop pump source, not realizing that the extractors you were refering to, were the actual shop grade aparatuses for creating the vacuum, holding the oil, transfering to the holding tank, etc.

I think I'm just interested in the adapter itself and seeing if the TopSider (which is basically a fuel can with a bicycle pump attached for creating the vacuum, connected to a small plastic hose that is feed down the dipstip tube) could use it. Will look into that Iowa distributor.

Thanks very much!!

[Gilly]

Steve: The one we have, which I now believe is called Raask, not Rassk, is air powered, it uses shop air to create suction via venturi effect, I believe, it is a little noisy when it is in use. If you have access to the MB SSEP catalog, the business in Iowa (AGA) is listed in the catalog on the page where they show the MB (Tacelmite, or whatever) oil extractor. Just tell them you want the "standard" adapter, it took a couple times before I got the correct one. I finally told them it's the one that treads onto the shut-off valve, then i got it. Let me know if you need help contacting them, I may have a part number for the adapter as well....Gilly