You can use car oil in the K75.. its a dry clutch!
Jeez, this i getting long winded! The problems I've seen in my years in the trade have been caused by lack of oil, too much oil,50,000 mile oil changes and occasionally the wrong grade, in certain engines.Never through poor quality oil.
These 20,000 mile oil service intervals suck. use oil half the price, use reputable filters and change twice as often. thats my advice anyway. I change my oil usually at 5000 miles, use Comma or unipart oil or equivalent. The only reason some oils are going on for 40-50 quid for 5 litres is that they are expected to cool,protect and lubricate for far far longer than is right.
I change my oil and filter for less than £20. most of my cars have and have had 150,000 miles plus on them,a few 250,000 plus. Never had a problem.
flango
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
A man after my own heart and exactly what I do and I too have never had a problem including some space ship milers I have owned. Depending on what I do in the CLK it gets dropped every 3000 - 5000 using Quantum Semi Syn and Mann Filter. Total cost £7.80 and 20 - 30 mins of my time
My Volvo has a service interval of 12,500 far too long, I do an intermediate every time at 6000 grand total £17.10
All this Long Life Oil is BS have some oil analysis done on some of the recommended 20,000 miles intervals when its drained look at the metal content and you would never let it go this long again
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MB229.1 is basic mineral oil. Fine for 10K mile oil changes.
The MB229.3 & .5 specs are synthetic oil for longer change intervals.
Apparently Tesco Extra shops are selling 229.5 Mobil1 for around £16 for 4L.
Personally, as I've mentioned before, I think this worryig about oil is very over-blown, particularly so if you're changing it pretty frequently.
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If you look at the oil analysis threads in on US forums, where they take this stuff very seriously, wear increases with new oil, settles down at 3-5K miles and then starts to increase again at 10-12K.
Bellow
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
How does the level of wear with new oil compare to the level of wear at 10-12k?
Do they have an explanation for the increase in wear that occurs with new oil?
Grahamcol
Active Member
Call me thick if you like but how can wear increase with new oil ?
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I don't know, and the oil analysis threads tend to deteriorate into massive slanging matches!
Amongst the suggestions are that it could be due to starting the engine with no oil pressure after the oil change, the new oil picking stuff up that the old oil left behind due to increased detergent action and (most unbelievably, but who knows?) that the additive package isn't fully activated.
One intersting thing is that when they (ie Americans) run their oil for extended periods they usually change the oil filter at the mid-point. MB say for extended drain a fleece oil filter should be used but they're never used in the UK.
flango
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
This all depends on the type of engine and type of oil used, If you use something like Castrol Magnatec (there are others) then starting up the engine for a fraction of a second before the oil circualtes does no harm at all because the molecules from the previous oil are already bonded to the surfaces you want to lubricate and are protecting it. With a cheap oil or mineral oil then yes I can believe this scenario to be true but not a synthetic or semi syn.
New Oil picking up old oil and better detergents liberating gunge yes that could happen but if you have sludgey oil then best to flush before refilling with new. On a new completely flushed engine wear definitely does not increase with new oil. The additive package does not need activating its active the minute its put into the production formula for the oil, sure there are oils with smart additives which only activate based on certain conditions such as elavated temperature, acidity and moisture but they are very rarely used in road cars.
Having spent many years in rallying and racing where oil analysis was the norm at a service stop I have never heard of or seen increased engine wear with new oil, in fact quite the reverse you change the oil as frequent as you can because the longer an oil is left in the performance of the car drops off, this is also true of road cars if you do a high mileage, check the mpg when you are getting close to a service you will find it is lower than when the car was serviced, this is why cars sometimes feel livelier just after they have been serviced.
Rovinghawk
Active Member
If I run the oil in my SLK for about 3K miles, do you think I could sell it for more than I paid for it in the first place?
RH
Bellow
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
There is no obvious answer to the question. So the next bit is pure speculation.
As an engine oil is expected to turn acidic in service due to contamination by the byproducts of combustion, the oil initially is supplied as slightly alkaline. Alkaline being corrosive (think caustic), I wonder if that accelerates wear.
As said earlier, pure speculation. But if increased wear with new oil is fact, there will be a reason.
Grahamcol
Active Member
Thanks for the various replies folks. So it would not be a good idea then to change the oil shortly before laying up the car for a long period (i.e. my 190 will be laid up for the winter so I shouldn't change the oil beforhand ?)
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Well, some people believe loudspeaker cables need to be run in, so there's bound to be someone (probably lurking on eBay) who will buy it.
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What I would suggest you don't want to do is to leave oil in that might have traces of condensation which can turn acidic. So if the car has been well run (ie not lots of short journeys) then I would leave it.
Otherwise change it shortly, but not immediately, before storing the car.
Bellow
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
That's kind of what I was thinking. Avoid the initial alkilinity, but not so far as its turned acidic.
TAN and TBN numbers indicate the alkilinity/acidity balance, so if you really wanted to be scrupulous, oil analysis would give the answer. Assuming of course that initial alkilinity is indeed a problem!
The suggestion from Rory I reckon covers it.
Incidentally, the old habit of using discarded 'bursting' oil as a corrosion preventative/underseal is pretty laughable. But still practiced by some!
Any other suggestions as to why an engine might wear more immediately after an oil change?
grober
MB Master
While this type of speculation is interesting it is ultimately futile unless anyone can suggest how you can avoid introducing "nasty" new engine oil into an engine while changing it's oil.
Taking the arguement further will then degenerate into a chicken and egg debate a question which evidently some protein biochemists have recently solved---- NOT! 
Chicken or the egg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaI believe that becoming a Buddhist helps with this sort of thing !
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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While this type of speculation is interesting it is ultimately futile unless anyone can suggest how you can avoid introducing "nasty" new engine oil into an engine while changing it's oil.
That's easy - you buy some already run-in oil from Rovinghawk.
Bellow
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
While this type of speculation is interesting it is ultimately futile unless anyone can suggest how you can avoid introducing "nasty" new engine oil into an engine while changing it's oil.
I believe that becoming a Buddhist helps with this sort of thing !
Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can decide how often you want to introduce new oil.
Hardly futile if it avoids an engine being left over a prolonged period with corrosives in its internals.
grober
MB Master
Fair enough but I just don't see the pH of any new oil being sufficiently off neutral to corrode anything much. But who knows Guess you could test it with a universal indicator paper if you wanted to prove/check your assertion- not sure if this would work in a predominanty HC matrix tho?
https://www.microessentiallab.com/ProductInfo/F01-WIDRG-000130-SRD.aspx
Welcome to Johnson Test Papers
I just finished a service on my newly accquired W124. Unipart silver, and unipart filter. This will do it for 5k miles, when I'll do it again. Blind me with science if you like, but this is what I've always done,and this is what I'll always do. I've got more to worry about than acidic and or alkaline corrosion etc. Never seen it,won't ever lose sleep over it!
