Ken, reading your original post I see that you are using synthetic 5W40 oil. Original fill for that vintage MB vehicle was 15W40. Not sure how cold it gets where you live, but I run Mobil 1 15W50 in our cars of that vintage. The newer engines have tighter tolerances and use 0W40 oil, but I think a higher viscosity oil is a more sensible choice for the 124 cars ... especially engines with some wear. That vintage engine with lower viscosity oil will be more likely to burn oil, in my opinion.

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Fred Hoelzle