Proper Synthetic Oil Weight for 5.0 SL500
 

I live in North Carolina and the dealer changed my oil the last time and I do not know what weight synthetic oil they put in.

What would you recommend for a 96 where the avg temp here runs from +30F at it's coldest to +95 at the hottest.

My independent MB service place wants to use Amsoil-5-30.

Thanks

May want to look at this:
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/oil.html

Go to the Amsoil website www.amsoil.com and there find a list of recommendations for your vehicle. I prefer the 10W-40 High Performance synthetic in my '90 300E but your engine is newer and may have less than the 143K on mine. When I bought the car it was using a quart every 800 miles or so, part of which could be attributed to a small leak in the head gasket area. Now after running the Amsoil for a year, the consumption is around a quart every 5000 miles and the leak has virtually stopped. Not typical and this is not an Amsoil ad, merely one man's experience with one oil in one car. And no, I'm not an attorney.

How Often to Change Synthetic?
 

Thanks for the information on Amsiol web site. Based on what was posted for me to look at, it looks like MB changed the minimum oil quality requirements from the 96 manual. Looks like the oil needs to meet a MB 229.3 or 229.5 standard.

I have been changing synthetic every six months regardless of mileage. What is the morn?

jdonnee, I recommend using Mobil 1 15W50. Factory fill on the newer engines is Mobil 1 0W40 so you want the viscosity at 100C to be at least 40. Change oil and filter every 7,500 miles, or once a year if the car is driven less than 7,500 miles per year.

I use Mobil 1 0w-40 at all temps. It has an ultra low pour point and still maintains about 15 centistokes of kinematic viscosity at 100C.

C240
 

I have a 2002 C240, 85000 miles. The manual screams synthetic, but the API requirement is SJ.

I have been putting API grade SL 10-40w petroleum based oil since 30 K miles with no problems.

California 30-120 Degrees F ambient.