My vehicle now has 42000 miles and is approaching the end of warrenty.

I have been following the flexible service schedule. On a trip (near the 14000 miles for a recommended change) I had to add oil due to sensor light indicating the need to do so.

I put in non-synthetic oil.

I brought the car in for service and was advised that the mineral oil usage was being discontinued and that synthetic oil was now being used and I received a mailing on this in the following week.

1200 miles later the sensor went on and I put in proper synthetic oil. About 1200 miles later, the sensor indicated that I need more. I called MB dealer and was told that it is not unusual for an ML to require a quart of oil every 1000 miles.

Is this true? Is my oil usage normal or is a ring job indicated?

Thanks,
donb

The engine shouldn't consume a quart of oil every 5000 miles let alone every 1000 miles. IF your engine is using this much oil then the rings are stuck to the pistons from the oil change frequency that you were running with reqular(dino) engine oil. MB knows this & THAT is the reason that you received the letter about synthetic oils. DON'T let them off(the hook) as you will have a $$$ repair bill after the truck is out of warranty. IF your dealer won't address this problem, then ask for a meeting with factory service rep.

Most of us would agree that a 99 ML with under 50K (or even 100K) miles should not burn oil at this rate. However, I believe MB policy states that this is an "acceptable" rate. I would go for the district manager meeting myself, they have had some problems with the modular vee engines burning oil, maybe they are "used" to giving in to oil burner owners already. They may ask for a oil consumption test to be completed before agreeing to the repairs.
Gilly

I KNEW IT!
 

I had a suspicion something must have been up with the new 112/113 engines. Earlier engines ran for hundreds of thousands of miles on regular oil. Seems here that Mercedes Benz has fallen victim to their own (over?)engineering. Is it that the tolerances are so tight that particles caught between the oil ring and channel aren't releasing? Wow...

Kuan

Boy what a load of CR@P Mercedes is spouting these days! I drove modified rotary engines that did not burn a quart in a 1000 miles.

Harriet, I only wish I could meet the service advisor that tried to brush you off. You go back and fight for that repair, everyone here is on your side!

MB published the oil consumption rate of 1 liter per 1000km about 40 years ago & they still stand by that! That is absurd is todays' real world but as *gilly* said, they(MB) still consider that "acceptable". IT'S NOT! THE reason these cars are using oil isn't due to engine design but due to 10,000 to 15,000 miles between oil changes!!! Regular oil can run 6000mi between changes & still protect your engine. NOT even fully synthetic oils will perform at 15,000 mile changes except under IDEAL conditions & engines aren't operated that way! BOTTOM line is CHANGE your oil! As the Fram man said 20 years age "pay me now or pay me later", of course we know later costs 10 to 100 times as much!!

Sooooooooooo, maybe MBUSA needs to listen to Larry Bible :) Why are they still recommending that oil change interval then? Now that they know 12-15k miles is actually detrimental to the engine, why don't they just switch the interval 5k miles? :confused:

Kuan

It seems to me that Mercedes has let an Environmentalist program the code for the FSS. If Mercedes would have taken the code for the FSS and divide by 2.5 then the synthetic oil issue would have never occurred.

A cheaper solution would be to install a hour meter to the engine and after a predetermined time (in hours) a reminder to change the oil would appear. I saw one at Sears for $20 that was intended to install on a lawn tractor. Every 25 hours of operation a reminder to change the oil would occur. The unit was even powered from the spark plug voltage (no batteries required).

Sometimes simpler can be better.

This is not an environmental issue. It is a marketing issue.

The enlightened consumer will read the consumer's Digest for cost of yearly maintenance and decide which product to choose.

Besides, MB knows that their customers (those that buy new cars) will never see the results of any degree of maintenance. I wouldn't be surprized to see a MB make it out of warrantee without even changing the oil. My wife's ML probably hasn't used a quart of oil in the 21,000 miles its driven. It has had 4 oil changes and it was never down at any of them noticably.

Those that buy new are usually never out of warrantee. Of those that do go out of warrantee most will be in a new car by 100k. These people buy the marketing and get the product. Whats left isn't causing enough problem to reputation to worry MB. After all they weren't the ones that abused the car!

Its kind of interesting to see a 3-400k auto made into a 200k vehicle by the cost of servicing. A 200k car with a parcel of used-up systems that repair costs total the vehicle. I could write a book.

The reason for the sticking rings and other worn parts is simple.

PEOPLE ARE NOT CHANGING THEIR OIL!

Mercedes had to get the cost of service down so they invested millions in a system that does not work (FSS). Now that they have messed up, they are asking the consumer to run synthetic oil so they can just get the cars out of warranty.

This will be a big deal in the future.

Sorry to say...

Repeat after me: “That’s normal, they all do it!” This is the lesson brought to MB by Chrysler. As long as they do, in fact, all do that, there’s little the consumer can do to refute the issue. I predict that at some point the folks at MB sat down to discuss how to A) have a marketing coup and B) to insure that at least a few years worth of MB vehicles have an number of unusual problems (for a MB), to be “fixed” in later production releases, so that the next marketing coup will be the new and “improved” MB. The means: the FSS system. I bet they’ll put in a larger oil filter as a solution. I tell ya’ MB is really starting to suck. Hopefully we’ll see a class action suit from this.

I’m glad that I changed the oil & filter in my ML after 400 miles (to Mobil 1) and have changed both every 4,000 miles since.

…Tracy

Oh, this is just great!!!

So now that I have at least one MB that has not been giving me problems, that I have to worry about a ring job in the future?

Any steps that I can take right now to eliminate this problem? I don't drive my ML a lot, so I wouldn't notice any abnormal oil consumption.

I do take it in for 5000 mi. oil changes (whether the wrench comes on or not), and that is usually before going on a extended trip...

Change the oil. There's not much more you can do but keep the oil clean. 5k is a good interval. Does PartsShop sell oil analysis kits? Perhaps like those found here?

http://www.globaltechnovations.com/products_kit.html

Kuan

This ougt to be interesting...
 

BMW, Mercedes and other auto manufacturers have these "extended oil change" systems. I am really curious how they will fare in the future. Now that Benzmac brought that up, I think that BMW and other autos should have many of the same problems because they all have these systems in one form or another.

BMW & Porsche have always recommended synthetic oil for their extended 10000+ oil changes. BMW has had problems with their factory oil(synthetic) & have changed to 5W-30 Castrol from Valvoline.