Engine Conditioners - OK for Mercedes?
 

Hi folks;

I was getting my other vehicle serviced (at dealer) and I noticed they were selling engine conditioners for crankcase, combustion chamber, throttle body, fuel lines, and also for other vehicle components.

My 1999 C230 was used for a lot of city driving (some corrosion on oil dipstick) and it seems to me that "conditioning" may be appropriate if they truly worked and there was no long term damage to seals, bearings, or other.

Your opinions? Are these conditioners useful? Or another form of snake oil? Any type to stay away from?? Any type and make especially recommended?

Appreciate your feedback.

Thanks,
Paul

I use Seafoam for valves,a injector cleaner,And Marvel Mystery Oil at evvery other fillup for mileage.
I use in all my gasoline engines,and Marvel also in my diesel.

is that seafoam any good for cleaning injectors?

Mercedes stipulates to not use any form of additive in the oil or gas. Other than what already comes packaged in the oil

Seafoam is good for valve and injectors.Mercedes and all Carmakers want repeat business.So if they said to use something that would make your car last and perform better.They would put themselves out of jobs.

I'm curious. Do you see any tangible results?

Snake oils don't waste your money. Use good gas and oil and the motor will stay clean.

Exxon Mobil is one of the wealthiest companies in the world, do you really think some mom and pop snake oil company can do something for the motor oil their teams of engineers can't? Same goes for MB.

Even if they did get lucky and come up with something that was a real improvement, Exxon Mobil would buy them out and use it themselves.

The reason dealers push this stuff is that its profitable, that's it. Throw some additive in the oil and charge the customer $30 or whatever they get.

Subaru Boxer engines have little tolerance for sludge caused by missed servicing changes or "supermarket grade oils". Every second service the Subaru equivalent of Seafoam is put through the engine.

If you don't service your car properly or skimp on premium grade components fuels or lubricants or run it infrequently, then there maybe a case for running some additives through.
If you buy a vehicle with unknown history and shows signs of sludge, carbonizing or gummed up fuel components then a case for putting cleansing additives through your vehicle maybe there.

M.B. advise Techron as a fuel additive. This is already added to Chevron or Caltex premium fuel.
Nothing wrong with the occasional "Italian tuneup" occasionally

At least one re-builder of early model fuel distributors states that the overuse of harsh fuel cleaning additives is detrimental to the F.D. internal gaskets and the cause of premature failure.

Conditioners
 

...and it is because of the corrosion on the dip stick and extensive known city use (before I bought the car) that I believe that a crankcase conditioner may be of some merit. If there is sludge that is built up internally I would like to try to get rid of it - but only if I can truly get rid of the sludge without damaging other parts or creating other problems.

I don't know how these conditioners actually work but I assume that there is some form of detergent to break down oil sludge and the sludge is then carried to the oil filter where (hopefully) the sludge is caught.

I agree that good operating conditions and regular oil changes should prevent any sludge buildup.

Just curious on what products would be helpful (or not).

Thanks again,
Paul

I see real results in mpgs with Marvel Oil.Again full bottle to diesel and gas tank every other fillup.
My diesel went from 32 mpg to 36 mpg.
My S went from 20 mpg to 23 mpg,city driving.
I tried other lubes like 2 stroke oil with diesel,but MMO is the best.
Now to much MMO in a gas engine will foul your plugs,and get you worse mileage.But 8 oz. to 26 gals. gasoline seems to be the magic number.
Now seafoam run thru a vacumm line in a gas engine,you can see black stuff in exhaust from valves.When its treated, then it fades after cleaning valves.I perfer Techron to clean injectors when on sale,or I use a generic.

If you suspect the motor may be neglected the only way of knowing for sure is pulling the valve cover to see what the top end looks like.

Either way a good synthetic oil, with reasonable changes say 5k will make the internals of just about any motor look like new after 20k-30k of use.

If the engine is horrible neglected and really sludged up your not going to want to try to clean it, to much of a risk of chunks breaking off and clogging an oil passage. In more extreme cases your better off just ignoring it, I have seen some horrible sludged up motors run just fine for a long time.

Pull the valve cover and see if their really is a problem, I'd also send a sample out to Blackstone to see if maybe their is coolant intrusion.

X2 on what Hatt said.

Most of these cleaners are solvents, and are detrimental to your engine's internals, thus the warning on the back of the Techron bottle to limit the use of it per oil change or to change oil after use.

I have NEVER found Techron to make any difference in the idle or running quality of any CIS car, never. It is a solvent which when dilluted in 15-20gallons of fuel doesn't seem to change much. RedLine has worked on my CIS cars, I've tried most everything, it has a detergent in it. Could just be dilluted ATF for all I know, but it cured idle problems and hesitation problems that are so typical of dirty CIS injectors.

For your oil, if it's really sludged, you should open the engine and clean it out or you risk blocking oil passages with sludge as it starts to break down. Other than that, a good quality oil like Mobil 1 synthetic has been pretty successful at cleaning engines internally as you drive, without harmful solvents.

Conditioners
 

Well, there is a bit of sludge on the dipstick and the dipstick has some corrosion on it.

However, looking at the service records, I would not say that the car was abused, although the engine may have had a tough operating environment. The car has been serviced at a Mercedes dealer all its life, the previous owner appears to have followed the FSS schedule, and synthetic oil was always used. This leads me to believe that the car was probably not warmed up enough and frequently enough to burn out any condensation inside the crankcase.

Wouldn't the FSS detect this style of driving and indicate something?

Pulling the valve cover makes sense and I'll do this in warmer weather. If I do find more sludge - what would be the most sensible and economical response?

Thanks,
Paul

The dealer doesn't sell snake oils, only serpentine lubricants :-)

I run diesel rated oil in a gas engine to clean it up.During winter I run Rotella 5w 40 sync diesel oil.So in fact during winter I'm cleaning my engine.OH yes rattlesnake sure does taste good.