Advice required re engine oil

[Bellow]

I know the OP has made his decision but in praise of oil analysis as a tool useful beyond merely establishing drain intervals. An analysis alerted me to a minute quantity of coolant in the oil from leaking inlet manifold gaskets. Left unattended that develops into serious water contamination or worse, a cylinder filling with coolant when idle and bending a conrod on next start-up. I've also on another engine seen 'dirt' (silicone) pointing to an air filtration problem.
One I saw on another thread recently was of a guy running a high mileage engine and having the oil sampled at every oil change. The results were always good showing little wear. One morning he started it up and got a 'low oil pressure' warning. On investigating he found swarf in the oil which was aluminium from the timing chain contacting castings. The cause of that was a broken tensioner part of which had reached the sump and partially blocked the oil pump inlet. The point he made though was that had he not known through the ongoing oil analysis that the engine was in good health he'd have assumed the low oil pressure was due to its high mileage and he'd not have investigated - just run it until it died. As it was, his early intervention saved the engine which is still running strong at some 250,000 miles. Oil analysis is an incredibly useful tool.

 

[ALFAitalia]

I'm at work so no results available - if i still have any!!!......but this is typical of an oil lab test sheet. Tell you so much more than just whether the oil is lasting.
This is what you get from the labs....this is a US one nicked from the web but you get the idea. I used to test my bike oils quite a bit....especially bikes I tracked.

 

[Petrol Pete]

OP , I just use MB of Newcastle shop on Ebay click 'Contact seller' tell them your Reg and VIN and what you want , they will then post it on their shop website and let you know when it's up on there .

If you choose not to click and buy now , the listing simply disappears.

Never had a problem with them.

 

[colinallcars]

The oil is 100% the correct oil for your Diesel engine:

I'd imagine that the quantity provided (7L) is correct as well, given that the seller is an MB dealer.

I’ve found it cheaper to buy two, five litre containers than one five and two ones. I appreciate the 20 litre option is cheaper still but storage can be an issue.

 

[Fastcar155]

Just an observation : I have my car's serviced annually regardless of mileage according to the manufacturer recommendations and that includes an oil and filter change.

Are we saying that that the oil / filter change are unnecessary and potentially can damage the car engine.

 

[Bellow]

Are we saying that that the oil / filter change are unnecessary and potentially can damage the car engine.

Yes, when changed before required. The potential for damage is just that - potential. That it is a wasteful exercise in terms of time, resources, and material is beyond dispute and the only justification is to maintain warranty. It's time the warranty providers took a different view on this.

 

[ALFAitalia]

I can see your point about changing oil at 2000 miles being wasteful.....but its more important how the car has been driven....2000 miles crawling around London in first and second for example will have probably aged the oil more than me doing 10,000 miles on the motorway. Apart from sump plug thread wear!.... Id like to see any real evidence that excessive oil changes have caused any measurable harm.....whereas finding evidence what too long an oil change can do is easily found. Many car makers push the OCI to attract the fleet managers to the brand with the promise of low running costs....stretched timing chains and worn turbos being the price paid long term....Cars have had OCI shortened (and cambelt changes intervals) shortened years after launch after realising mistakes like this had been made.

 

[rf065]

I've thought about that and always had the car serviced at 12 to 13 months max apart from last year at MB at 13.5 months
I am certainly going to have the oil/filter etc replaced within a few weeks all being well.

I thank everyone that has posted here but my mind re oil is made up.

My old CLK was bought from new, serviced it every two years, 15 to 18,000 miles between services, sold it with 150,000 miles on the clock and it still never burnt a drop of oil between services.
Not sure what you think you're achieving with your plan other than spending more money than you need to.

 

[MSG2004]

My old CLK was bought from new, serviced it every two years, 15 to 18,000 miles between services, sold it with 150,000 miles on the clock and it still never burnt a drop of oil between services.
Not sure what you think you're achieving with your plan other than spending more money than you need to.

Thanks. The main reason I intial had the car serviced on 12 months was that no one told me you could have it done at 13 months and then about 2/3 yrs ago I found out you could have it serviced at month 16 and 1k miles from alert and still retain their Mobilo breakdown cover.

I've had MB's from 2004 c classes then the brand new gle - the c classes were bought about a year old and warrny was one year so I had it serived after a year and then fron the 2nd or 3rd year oil only - they were petol cars as opposed to gled which is diesel.

 

[Bellow]

.....but its more important how the car has been driven....2000 miles crawling around London in first and second for example will have probably aged the oil more than me doing 10,000 miles on the motorway.

And that's the argument for basing drain intervals on 'hours' rather than miles right there. As it's done with just about every engine that isn't in a car.

Apart from sump plug thread wear!.... Id like to see any real evidence that excessive oil changes have caused any measurable harm.....whereas finding evidence what too long an oil change can do is easily found.

That info is scant and not entirely convincing (on account of continual topping up during the test - known as 'sweetening'). However, there is even less proof - read zero - of over-frequent changes doing any good whatsoever.

Many car makers push the OCI to attract the fleet managers to the brand with the promise of low running costs....stretched timing chains and worn turbos being the price paid long term....Cars have had OCI shortened (and cambelt changes intervals) shortened years after launch after realising mistakes like this had been made.

You have to remember the quality of the oil has a bearing here. If long drain intervals are required then an oil formulated for long drain intervals is required and that has a different start point from what is currently on offer.