Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseldan44
... first thing i noticed is that the oil is low. i live in the northeast - is there a consensus pick for oil brand and type? in the diesel world will it matter that i have no idea what type of oil is in there now?
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Welcome. I'm not much less of a diesel noob myself, so here's some of the more important things I have gathered about doing the oil change...
As suggested, get some oil that is rated for diesel engines -- there's gasser oil and diesel oil. Diesel oil has extra additives to help handle the soot that gets into the oil. You'll need something like 8 quarts, so look for the gallon jugs, its usually diesel oil anyway. Check the owners manual and get the correct weight for the temperatures you expect before the next oil change.
Get an oil filter. MB diesels are different than gas cars -- no screw-on filters for these babies. The filter cartridge drops into a bolt-down pressure cannister. The canister lid sees around 100PSI of pressure at high RPM and with warm oil, so keep a close eye on it for leaks after the change for a while. Worst thing you can do to the engine is to loose your oil, and at 100PSI, that can happen very fast if you're loosing it from the oil filtration system. You'll need the filter cartridge and the large O-ring for the top of the filter housing. Might also want to look for new crush washers for the lid and new small O-rings for the stem.
When I did my oil change, I figured an oil filter is an oil filter is an oil filter and ended up at NAPA for mine. It isn't a bypass filter like it should be, but I plan to change oil again in under 1000 miles anyway (SOP for me with new used car). If I had that first oil change to do over again, I'd do something like give Phil from the buy-parts section of this site a call, explain what I'm up to and get the full set of parts I'll need and a good quality filter. If you want a brand name, the Hengst seems to be the only brand people haven't found bad examples of yet and will be what I order for the next oil change since it'll be in there for a while this time.
If you don't already have one, get a manual to help on how to do maintence like this. The Haynes is pretty good for simple stuff like this, but mine did forget about the stem O-rings and crush washers. I got by (this time) without changing either.
Tons to read here on oil and oil filters -- I think those two alone are the most popular thread subjects around here
. Getting the oil changed while you climb the learning curve is good advise.
I've droned on a bit. Hope it helps instead of insulting your intelligence