Oil change intervals- diesel

[Chazchuzzlewitt]

just put some Mobil 1 0w-40 synthetic in my 124 E300D to try it out since I had a money-off coupon at halfords Engine seems to run very quiet on the stuff.

Before I was doing oil changes every 5000 miles when running on mineral/part-synthetic. Can I extend the service times now I'm running fully synthetic or should I stick to 5-6000? Car does a mixture of city and motorway miles.

 

[television]

That's are hard question Chaz, Though I too use fully synthetec I still change the oil every 6k on the grounds that it is the cheapest protection that I can get, And I too do it myself. OK take it up to 7k.

malcolm

 

[mr_s]

I change mine every 3k in my petrol engine and use semi-synth oil - mind you, that's only every 6 months with the mileage I do... I'd not leave it more than 5k personally, but then I am a bit paranoid when it comes to servicing (don't trust dealers to work on my car - I do *everything* myself!!).

Cheers, Martin

 

[PRS]

If you are going to change the oil every 5/6000 miles you may as well use a good quality mineral oil, synthetic at those intervals is just OTT but if you can afford it and feel more comfortable, it certainly will not do any harm

 

[230K]

Hi

In both our cars i aim for 10000miles between changes or every year, Mobil 1 is top quality stuff. My opinion only

230K

 

[davebox]

.There is a problem with using mineral oil in an engine that was designed to use synthetic. If your handbook states synthetic then use only synthetic. Oil's are not that expensive in comparison to an engine rebuild. I change at reg. intervals. and as an engine gets older those intervals get shorter. i.e. with my Vauxhall I now service at 6k not 20k or 12 mnths as the book says. It's done 55k now and runs great. IMHO this works as preventative medicine

 

[dogsbody]

Oil change intervals - diesel

When I bought a new E250 (diesel) in 1999, I ran in on mineral oil and changed to fully synthetic at 1500 miles.
The technical director of a well known oil company bought a similar car on the same day, and he told me that with modern oils, the ciritical things is Ph control. Diesel is more acid than petrol and produces more acid radicals when burnt. Fleet users regularily sample their fully synthetic oil which is then sent to a lab for testing, and they are then told when to change the oil.. if the car is running motorway miles then it may be 20K miles or more before the oil change is neccessary.
In essence the more short journeys, and the more stop start, the dirtier the burn so the quicker time interval for oil change.
My current diesel is supposed to have 15,000 mile oil changes - it is getting 7,500 mile changes whether it needs it or not.. The costs of oil is about 1/500th of the cost of a new engine .. its a no brainer!

 

[nford]

I use a Castrol GTD Magnetec 10-40 , no complaints so far and changing oil at 10000-12000 m, not the cheapest oil but can recommend. E300TD

 

[maldon]

The new ML has now 16000 on the clock, was serviced at 8600 and the Assyst is now telling me service in 7500 miles (gone back a bit already).

The engine does sound a bit quieter than the previous car which I took from 5000 upto 13000 miles.

Am seriously tempted to have an oil change now and run it until the next service.

Is there a standard oil put in these engines (270CDI) by the main dealers? Also should I stick to it or use an alternative?

 

[jberks]

I suspect they used fully synth and set up the assyst accordingly. (it will be noted down in the service book). We've been having a similar discussion on another thread. The dealers seem to use all sorts of stuff. Mine put Castrol semi synth in whereas the specialist has just changed that for Mobil1 0W40 fully synth. I only got 9.5k out of the semi stuff but for some reason he didn't change the assyst when he put the mobil in, so I'm looking at another 9.5 at the moment. Tempted to change the assyst though.

As I understand it, a good quality fully synth is specifically designed to work perfectly well for 15-18k so I can't see the point of changing early. Ok, having clean oil in there might make us feel better, but I'm not convinced it makes a blind bit of difference to the car.

 

[piestore]

oil change

HI

jberks your dealer has not confirmed the correct oil used in the service if they have used mobil 1 they must confirm 229.5 oil spec used, this will give 20000 km service interval if oil spec 229.3 or .1 is confirmed only 15000 km is allowed till next service. This is the responsability of the servicing agent get it back to them and get it corrected it can be corrected via oil quality in service assyst settings