Motor oil quwstion
 

hey, guys i have a 1992 400e with original 40,000 miles i need an oil change but dealer has a month wait an di want to take the car to another state so can i go go t ojiffy lube for this one time but what oil should i use i mean 5-40 or 5-30 deealer always put synthetic 5-40 in my car but jiffy lube doesnt has a 5-40 they told me to get the 5-30 so are they right about that should i get
help ASAP please
thanking you in advance \
mani::rolleyes: :( :confused:

I agree, don't go near Jiffy Lube. Why not change the oil yourself? Go to Auto Zone and get 0W-40 Mobil 1 or almost any discount store and get 15W-50 Mobil 1. Don't fool with any of that 30 weight stuff. It wouldn't even be around if it wasn't for US and Japanese car companies pushing it to help them with their CAFE averages.

Make sure that whoever does the oil change uses the OEM filter kit and knows what they are doing.

Can't you simply wait on the oil change until you can get to someone that can do the job right?

Although I am also suspect of the Jiffy Lube type places, doing an oil change is not rocket science. The only concern I have about these places applies to ANY car. They are known to strip oil plug threads. Finding the oil fill hole on an MB is not difficult, even for the IQ of 70 type people in these places.

The IQ of 70, however, is not always adequate for replacing a drain plug without stripping the threads.

My BIGGEST CONCERN is their recommendation of Dino 5W30. UNLESS YOU LIVE IN ALASKA, DON'T USE 5W30. It is too light for non Arctic climate. BMW put out a notice recently that they were seeing accelerated engine wear with this oil. Synthetic 5W40 or 5W50 is okay, but lay off 5W30 Dino. 20W40 or so would be much better.

Good luck,

Why not Jiffy Lube?
 

The main reason not to take your car to Juffy Lube is that first they don't sell the proper oil, and second, the young greasemonkies frequently attempt to install your drain plug with an impact wrench set on "vaporize".

I suspect that they don't do a good job of instructing the kids how to change the oil. Any fool can buy a Jiffy Lube franchise: they don't require any training. I imagine that they give the owner a quickie course, perhaps on a videotape, which he may or may not show his young greasemonkies.

My car's drain plug was so badly boogered when I changed the oit the first time that I had to take it to a shop where they had the tools and savvy to get it off. I tried filing it and vise-grips, but it just would not come off, and previous attempts to remove it had resulted in an Olympic-class boogering.

A friend had this happen to his Nissan Sentra, which has 311,000 miles. They had cross-threaded the plug so badly the oil leaked out. He was lucky, and adding more oil saved it from destruction.

Changing oil is not rocket science, but the tales of Jiffy Lube murders of innocent engines are legion.

Many of the quickie lube places use the cheapest bulk oil and filters they can find. The filter on my car when I bought it was "Made in India". I have no way of determining if this is as good as a Hengst or Mann filter, but my guess is that it is no better and certainly was cheaper.

Luckily I have had no lubrication-related problems with my 300D, which now has 144K.

Unhappy Jffy Lube Customer
 

A tale of why Juffy Lube may not be your best option for coolant drain and flush can be found here:


http://www.tharmon.com/jlsux.htm

Forget the Jiffy Lube. They won't have the proper filter, oil, and will manage to screw up your car. I can't believe your MB dealer says they can't schedule an oil change any sooner than a month. If that's is the case, then find a good import garage or do it yourself. As for the type of oil, look it up in your owners manual. It will tell you what oil to use.

:D
hi, guys i found this place and he is great he only deals with MB,BMW;s and audis he made me wait 1 hour but i guess it was worth it u r very much right about jiffy lube i also have an honda accord 1998 adn it always went to jiffy lube because of their products engine sounds bad and also the transmission never again jissy lube well thanks a lot for all ur advises u all are very helpful adn ONE MORE THING I BOUNGHT AN OIL FILTER FROM A MERCEDES DEALER ray catena motors edison nj and its also made in INDIA so i think they are selling the good stuff and mercredes dealers are usinf VALVORINE oils
thanks once again
later

Just buy a topsider or liquivac and do the oil change at home. The money you save, you can use Mobil1 synthetic. The instructions for you car are posted on D.I.Y.. I have a great mechanic that instructed me to buy a topsider because he doesn't have time to do lowly oil changes. He instructed me to do it at home because those jiffy luble always overfills the oil and use cheap filters. He only fills my oil with plastic 1 qt bottles because he says that the huge cannisters of oil makes the oil go stale after awhile. I can do a m119 oil change in 1/2 hour with the topsider. Driving to the mechanic takes 45 min.

Ditto, just DIY. You do not even have to jack up the car or use a vacuum pump/Topsider. If you do it the old standard way. It would take less than a hour and most of it would be waiting for the oil to come out. Got a socket wrench, oil filter kit, and oil? You crack open the drain valve and open the top of the filter housing. Remove old filter. You are already halfway finished. What is hard about that? I only spend $15 for filter kit and oil. Still have 4 qts leftover for the next oil change.

oil drain valve

This is for people who want an alternative to draining oil . I have used this on my old BMW before 12yrs. back. Make sure you get the adapter for it or it won't be long enough to tighten the valve to the oil pan. Disclaimer:I am not associated with this company in any way. It was 1/3 the price ($7-$12) it is now ($30)Purolator
has something similar but, never tried it. I do not use it now because, you still have to use a socket wrench to take off the oil filter housing lid to get to the oil filter. On my old BMW, you did not.