so, because i had some starmark issues, i took my 1997 c140 to a m-b dealer. were it not a starmarked car, i would never see a m-b dealer.

when i brought the car in, i asked them what lube oil would be used. i was told a castrol syn. i said NO. in the 24,000 miles of this car, only dino had been used and i did not want to change that. so, the m-b dealer said that they could use castrol gtx. i stipulated dino lube oil when i signed the ro.

i picked up the car today. paid the tariff. and then noticed that the lube oil change designated a castrol syn had been used. and i was charged for syn.

i got pretty pissed off. not about the higher price of the syn, but that my instructions had been ignored. whereupon, i was told that the invoice was in error, that dino had in fact been used.

i had to accept that. but tell me, what do you think about syn replacing dino without any advance warning?

more to the point, for 8.5 quarts of oil, i was charged $46.75. is that the price for syn? or the price for dino?

if syn was used, then what do i want to do? change it immediately?

this c140 has never had used syn and i have questions as to the substitution of syn for dino. especially when the substitution was made in defiance of my instructions.

all ears.

Been using synthetic (Mobil1) in my 951 exclusively and wouldn't go back to petrol-based if you paid me. Now, with the new 0-W40 and 0-W50 spec syns my coefficient of friction at cold start is near 0%, and my effective oil weight protection is either 40 or 50 at operating temp. At my next scheduled change I'm going to try Royal Purple syn in the 0-W50 variety.

Seems if the shop charged you $5.50 a quart for oil you got the Castrol Syntec -- unless the bastards are charging those prices for regular oil.

If that's the case -- Starmark or not -- I'd go elsewhere in a freakin' hurry.

- Fred

if they said they put the dino in then that's what they did. dont worry though, castrol syn is good stuff, wont hurt anything. but if you want to take it to an anylysis shop and have em ck it out!
p.s most dealers use a menu bill and your type of oil probably isnt generally used there and the cashier didnt understand.

I dont know what part of the country you are in, but I asked what an oil change in my 01-E (in between FSS schedule) and they quoted $90 with synthetic oil. On my 92-S it was $53.44 (9 quarts regular oil/ filter/ labor) the last time. I doubt they gave you synthetic, I asked about syn. on my S and it was over a hundred and they told me not to do it.

Dear Mr. albert champion:

I'm quite certain that the MB dealer used dino oil for your oil change. Even most quickie lube places already charge at least $30-50 for synthetic oil change (up to 5 qts no-name syn only + cheap filter + labor). Remember that many MB cars require 7-9 quarts of oil, which would cost roughly 5 * 8 = $40 just for the synthetic oil (no filter, no labor yet). Mercedes OEM oil filters also cost at least 2x or 3x the cheap aftermarket filters used by quickie lube places. A synthetic oil change + new filter + labor at a MB dealer usually cost around $90-110.

BTW, your car is still quite new, so it definitely loves synthetic oil. Only very old cars may have some leaking problem with synthetic oil, especially REAL synthetic oils based on Poly-Alpha-Olefin (PAO), because PAO tends to cause seals to shrink. However, modern PAO-based synthetic oils also use a small proportion of ester in addition to PAO due to the fact that ester would counterbalance PAO's shrinking effect by actually causing seals to swell.

So stay assured that they actually did use dino oil for your oil change. Moreover, if they used synthetic oil and charge you only $47, you should call to thank for their generosity.

Cheers.

Eric

here is how the dealer identified and priced the lube oil change on his ro...

E. CASTROL SYNTH OIL CHANGE

1 SYN CASTROL SYNTH OIL CHANGE
26 CPM 0.50 @ $32.00[i assume this to be the labor charge]

1 CASTROLS -8*5* CASTRON SYN @ $46.75

1 007603-014106 RING, GENERAL @ $0.66

1 119-180-00-09 FILTER ELEMENT @ $11.11

GRAND TOTAL FOR OIL AND FILTER CHANGE: $90.52

does that sound like dino or syn to you, folks?

all ears.

My 84 year old mother was recently in the hospital emergency room for chest pains. It turned out to be indegestion or some such. As always she was there for a long time and as always they hooked her to an IV. I can't remeber why they were checking her bloodsugar, maybe only because she is diabetic. Through the hours they kept checking it and it kept growing.

My mother knows her ***** and was paying attention and finally asked them what it was that they were casually putting in her arm. Golly, gee, its a glucose drip and there on her chart it clearly states she is diabetic. its probably a real good thing my mom was paying attention as she soon was asleep for the night. She probably would have been in shock by morning.

She got over it.

Some day I'll tell you of how little importance the color of your engine oil is.

__________________
Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

actually, not very funny....

my mom is 90. she was at a baptist memorial facility in houston. when she was checked in, she weighed 126 lbs.

i visited her almost daily over the year that she was there. i kept commenting upon her apparent weigh loss.

no weight loss, i was told.

i asked to see her charts. they were denied me.

so i went to her physician who was the titular head of this hospital. he told me that my concerns were paranoid.

hmmmm.

so, i had my sister fly in so that she could see my mom. she agreed with me...that it appeared as if our mom had lost a lot of weight.

after that, i began to pursue alternative care for my mom. long and the short of it is that this baptist memorial hospital fought me tooth and toenail. when i finally moved her, i had to do it with a court order and a constable.

as a result of the court order, i was able to see the memo that was written by the managing physician that i had met with. it went like this, "...mr champion is expressing excessive concerns for his mother's well being."

eventually, i was able to view my mom's medical records. consider, when she checked into this baptist memorial facility she weighed 126 lbs. when i checked her out, she weighed 96 lbs.

there were no comments in her record jacket where this weight loss was noted as being worthy of attention.

the other aspect of her care at the baptist memorial facility that was astonishing was the secret level of psychotropic meds that she was being given. after the fact, it became quite clear that she was being used as an unwitting research subject. xyprexa, paxil, aricept, and on and on.

as i said, with court orders and my attorney, and a constable deputy, we rescued my mom. i flew her to los angeles. placed her in the care of ucla physicians.

first part of her care, weaning her off all the psychoactive meds that had been imposed on her in houston at the baptist memorial facility.

the way i see it, had i not rescued her from the baptist gangsters in houston, they would have killed her in 1998.

it is now 2004, she is still alive. weighs 128 lbs.

let's get back to the lubricant issue, now. i told this m-b dealer that i wanted dino.

and apparently, they ignored my instructions.

and spent more of my money than i authorized.

that is my complaint.

in the overall scheme of things, probably not as important as the issues involving my mom. but, still, when a customer insists on a lubricant, the customer's request should be honored.

and when the m-b dealer ignores the customer's instructions, and fills with the high price spread, i think that the dealer is obligated to conduct a drain and refill with the customer's requirement for free. and credit out the syn lube oil charge.

if you don't feel that way, tell me why.

all ears.

Dear Mr. albert champion:

Based on your itemized list, it's 100% obvious that they used synthetic oil (Castrol Syntec) for your car's oil change.

I must say that using synthetic oil in your 1997 c140 is perfectly OK, and actually recommended. However, if you asked them to use dino oil and they used synthetic oil, they should not charge you at the synthetic oil price. Your total oil change cost would be $60 if they used dino oil (Castrol GTX: $2 x 8.5 qts= $17).

Eric

Albert, if you specifically instructed the service advisor to install dino oil then politely insist that they change out the synthetic oil and credit you the difference. I had the reverse happen at my local MB dealer a few years ago on our 1992 300CE when the head gasket was being replaced under a Starmark Warranty. The service advisor never bothered to ask what type of oil I use, but when we discussed it after the tech had already installed dino oil he apologized, bought 2 cases of Mobil 1 15W50, changed the oil and gave me the 4 1/2 extra quarts.

__________________
Fred Hoelzle

Simply take it back and have correct oil put in as instructed and get your money refunded/adjusted for the syn oil.

__________________
benzino

The point to my story was that mistakes get made. Some are important, others less so.

As a professional Mercedes technician with 30 years experience, I personally know that your car could care less what marketing and cultural info has done to your oil prejudice.

Your problem is social not technical. You could have received a technically superior product while asking for an inferior product. The only possible consequence is you paid too much. So get them to refund the difference and go on with your life.

From my experience in business and large scale auto repair, I would guess that what was forgotten was to tell the accounting folk of the change of normal proceedure. The technician doesn't write on the ticket what he used and it is pumped from an entirely different area than the accounting is done. Two things must take place with your special handling. One the tech must be informed and two accounting must be informed. The service writer might have forgotten both, flog him. But most likely is that he told the tech and forgot to tell accounting.

You will have to excuse me if I don't see this as much worse than getting my cheeseburger with mustard on it, I hate mustard on cheeseburgers!

__________________
Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

To err is human .....

__________________
joel

Prayers bring forth enlightenment.

Just my opinion from my dealer days:
Yes, sometimes billing mistakes happen. They may really be pushing the synthetic, but did accomodate your request for dino. Between what the tech wrote down (which may or may not have been correct) and what got processed on the repair order up in whatever constitutes the billing office (which may mave either reflected a mistake in the shop, or which may have been screwed up by the billing office), mistakes can and will on occasion happen, it's a fact of life, I guess. It may have even gotten synth put in it, sure. You're dealing with human beings here. I'm sure no one intentionally put oil in the car you didn't want. Hey, at least they DID put oil in it, look at some of the screwups you hear about (no oil put in, forgot the drainplug, forgot to tighten the filter, etc etc.
Not to belittle your concern, it's upsetting when you don't know who to believe. In my opinion, I'd just go along with the belief that everything is how you want it. If you don't want to believe it, it sets up really bad feelings towards the repair shop. If you now distrust the shop, then find another one to go to and get the oil change done there. Be sure to explain to them WHY you are there, that oughtta put them right at ease . Either that or TRUST that they did it the way you want and keep going back there. Maybe have the oil change done slightly before the normal interval if you are still uneasy about the "last oil change" thing. And you can always try doing something to help ensure you're getting the proper oil the next time, maybe write "dinosaur guts only" on the valve cover. BTW this whole distrust of synth oil is a little far out there for me. It all comes out of the ground you know. Nothing is truly "man made" except other little people, and I think a woman is involved in that, too. Manifesto over.

Gilly

__________________
Click here to see the items I have up for auction at EBay

Click here to see a photo album of my '62 Sprite Project Moneypit (Now Sold)

I still do not see what's the big deal with this oil change.
An error? quite possible. The car will not suffer a minute as a result of this misunderstanding.
jackD

Don't worry about tomorrow, it will doon be yesterday.