UOA: ELF FULL TECH 0W30 @10.5k miles
 

Subject car: 2002 MBz E320 (gasser ) wagon, total mileage is 78k, 10,440 miles on this analysis. Oil used was ELF FULL TECH 0W30 which is a newer product from ELF and on the thick end of the 0W30 spectrum. This oil complies with the following mfr specs:

Previous two UOAs were done on Mobil 1 0W40 which is the recommended product for this car. In fact, this car has been run on the M1 product its entire life. Car consumes no measurable oil between changes, no make-up oil was added. It took about 5 months to cover the nearly 10.5k miles. The car's predictive oil change system said the car could have traveled another 2,400 miles before oil needed to be changed. I've made a decision to change the oil between 10 - 11 k miles.


OA commentary:

http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/360/elduoaay9.jpg

Impressive. Do you know if it is VW 505.01 certified? Where did you buy it?

I purchase the oil from TDiparts.com...he's local to me. IIRC, it was $8/Litre..prices may have gone up.

No, as far as I know, it's not suitable for the VW PD cars.


data sheet:

Wow thats pretty impressive! Looks like it beat M1 but its expensive. At least in my area most autoparts stores stock 0w40 and its priced between $5-$6.50 a quart.

Yeah, a little bit higher than than the M1. OTOH, all Mobil (and other) lube products have seen significant price increases since a year ago.

I, too, am surprised to see the improvement in wear numbers. I certainly wasn't expecting it.

Thx.

Oil prices have risen across the board in the past 18 months. We buy Pennzoil by the pallet at the marina I work for, and the price increases have been scary!

Elf Oil Products
 

I run a Quick Oil Change franchise and we purchase and resell the entire line of Elf products.

We have found that we can purchase Elf cheaper then we can buy Mobil 1 at Wal-Mart which seems to have the best Mobil 1 pricing.

We have switched many of our synthetic customers to Elf with only positive feedback and many normal oil customers to Elf Synthetic.

I have all kinds of info on Elf if anyone is interested.

We have also agreed to be the Elf distributor at each of our stores as we build across the US.

Just my quick opinion on Elf and it can easily hit the 10.5+k changes. Some people will tell you that you should change your filter every 3k and the syn oil every 10k, but the Elf Technical Director sat in my office just two days ago and said that you do not have to change out the filter because the oil holds up much better then conventional and the filter does not work as hard.

Greg

Greg,

Any angle on setting up a Elf distribution process for MercedesShop folks either via direct shipment or via distro in metro areas or wherever you are located?

Thanks!

devil's advocate
 

I used to do UOAs for my TDIs before they both got destroyed in wrecks (not my fault)

I'm a little suspicious at the LOWER levels of metals present in the ELF. This would tell ME that the oil is not suspending as MUCH debris as the M1, in other words, leaving it to cling to the internals as opposed to absorbing it - which is what a good oil does.

I'd like to see this test vs. Delvac 1

That's an interesting theory. Delvac 1 doesn't meet the requirements for this application (229.5). The ELF oil does have to meet the cleanliness standards called out by 229.5.

My newly acquired E430 has been using Elf synthetic oil, I plan to continue using it for subsequent oil changes.

Would be fun to compare it against the latest Valvoline Synpower 5W-40, too... has the MB 229.51 and VW 505.01 certifications and is lower priced than the rest.