Merc owners getting ripped off for oil?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
J

joecash

Active Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
644
Location
East Midlands
Car
S320 CDI
I have a facelift 2003 S320 cdi s class
5 Litre Engine oil to Merc specs only costs £20 from ASDA
5 litre Engine Oil, Triple QX, presumably to Merc Specs on line is £17.99
so why does merc recoommended Mobil 1 cost £42 on amazon and it comes with a rrp of over £80
dread to think what the main dealers want
Can any oily engineers tell me if there is anything wrong with Asdas?
or is it all just a mind game to get us to throw hard earned away?
15,000 kilometres hardly challenges a fully synthetic after all especially on twice daily 50 mile trips, which i use it for.
Thanks in anticipation or should it be brickbats for being a cheapskate?
confused
 
My S500 only gets Mobil 1 oil. £30 + VAT from Costco

It's on 136k miles and purrs like a kitten.

Well worth the extra 30p a week in my book.
 
That's a tough one to answer without sending each oil off to a tribology lab for analyse.

Personally, if it meets the spec then it's good enough for me. If I'm concerned about the engine's use, like short journeys or extended periods of high rpm then I reduce the time between changes.
 
As above Mobil 1 is cheap enough from Costco and the dealer my car goes to is happy for me to supply it.
 
IMHO opinion oil costs are the least of your worries owning an S class. Personally I would suggest using decent oil. Asda for oil?
Maybe if its from the extra special range
 
Does Asda make it's own oil or even fuel? I suspect like many supermarkets it buys it from a specialist supplier. Let's put aside any brand snobbery regarding Asda. Does anyone know the technical difference between say, Mobil, Valvoline, Triple QX, Carlube etc
 
Read this today about MOBIL 1 it may still hold up today
and performance additives to keep the oil cleaner longer with better mileage/horsepower.

How do I know what motor oil is a Group IV (4) based PAO synthetic motor oil?
As more and more large oil companies switched their "synthetic" motor oils to the less expensive/more profitable Group III (3) base stocks it has become much easier to identify which are PAO based true synthetic. Of the large oil companies, only Mobil 1, as of this writing (12-15-2007), is still a PAO based true synthetic. The rest, including Castrol Syntec, have switched to the cheaper/more profitable Group III (3) petroleum based "synthetic" motor oil. AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oils are PAO based true synthetic motor oils with the exception of the short oil drain XL-7500 synthetic motor oils sold at some Auto Parts Stores and Quick Oil Change Centers. This leaves more than 20 PAO based true synthetic motor oils manufactured and marketed by AMSOIL with only 4 Group III (3) based synthetic motor oils identified by the "XL-7500" product name.
 
LTD said:
My S500 only gets Mobil 1 oil. £30 + VAT from Costco

It's on 136k miles and purrs like a kitten.

Well worth the extra 30p a week in my book.
Click to expand...


I was in Costco on Saturday, Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel is £30 including vat, not plus vat. Mobil 1 New Life is only £25 including vat, both 5 litres.

Russ
 
There are plenty of very good oils out there. You do not need to buy Mobil 1.
There seems to be a brainwashing thing with Mobil 1 oil.
We use shell helix ultra which is also a very good oil
 
Check the spec sheets to make sure the specs are mercedes specs,
But becarefull as some oil companies will put the spec numbers on there cans but have not actually had the oil approved by the manufacturers.
All the big companies pay the manufacturers to test & approve that there oil is good enough.
It's not worth scrimping on oil as a few ££ saved could cost you a lot more in the long run!!!
 
Did ecp ever come back with the spec sheet for tripple qx?

Dont recall that they did.
 
I'm quite happy for Mobil 1.

Recently had a big service on the 55, bear in mind shes 13 years old and now done 102k. From day one only had Mobil 1.

I had the rocker gaskets replaced due to standard weeping but as you can see from this pic just how clean it is inside.

eng.jpg
 
alf230 said:
There are plenty of very good oils out there. You do not need to buy Mobil 1.
There seems to be a brainwashing thing with Mobil 1 oil.
We use shell helix ultra which is also a very good oil
Click to expand...

I use Mobil 1 because I believe it is better than Shell Helix and all the others, the fact that it is cheaper than all the rest from Costco is a bonus. There was a trial years ago where a BMW was filled with Mobil 1 and the engine was ran for a million miles and showed virtually no wear at the end of the test. If that's brainwashing, I'm all for it.

Russ
 
joecash said:
I have a facelift 2003 S320 cdi s class
5 Litre Engine oil to Merc specs only costs £20 from ASDA
5 litre Engine Oil, Triple QX, presumably to Merc Specs on line is £17.99
so why does merc recoommended Mobil 1 cost £42 on amazon and it comes with a rrp of over £80
dread to think what the main dealers want
Can any oily engineers tell me if there is anything wrong with Asdas?
or is it all just a mind game to get us to throw hard earned away?
15,000 kilometres hardly challenges a fully synthetic after all especially on twice daily 50 mile trips, which i use it for.
Thanks in anticipation or should it be brickbats for being a cheapskate?
confused
Click to expand...

I doubt there's anything wrong with ASDA oil, and if you say it meets MB spec then so much the better.

Ultimately you can choose to use oil which doesn't meet any motor manufacturer specifications if you wish, and I bet there are plenty of Mercedes out there which have any old in them, to save money, because the owner/mechanic believes it's all the same, or being blissfully unaware.

Many people on this site choose to use Mobil1 because it's what many main dealers use, is recommended by MB, and costs about £10 more than a generic or mineral oil. As pointed out already that's a tiny proportion of the cost of running the car, so it's not difficult for many people to justify.

If the service interval is even just 10,000 miles then the extra cost of using Mobil1 oil from Costco is 0.2p per mile' assuming you need two containers.
 
I think MB are only specifically ''recommending'' Mobil 1 for their AMG cars and that is almost certainly a commercially driven marketing exercise. It is ridiculous to imagine that other manufacturers cannot and do not produce an equally well specified oil.

All MB cars have an oil specification offered in the hand book which will be perfectly adequate for normal road usage......as of course will Mobil 1

Mic
 
rf065 said:
I use Mobil 1 because I believe it is better than Shell Helix and all the others, the fact that it is cheaper than all the rest from Costco is a bonus. There was a trial years ago where a BMW was filled with Mobil 1 and the engine was ran for a million miles and showed virtually no wear at the end of the test. If that's brainwashing, I'm all for it.

Russ
Click to expand...

Do you also believe (American) Budweiser is the King of Beers, that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth or that Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world?
 
It is very likely that some brands are indeed better than others.

However, most cars do not get to do a million miles, and any differences in protection against wear between different brands of oil (to the same spec) is unlikely to ever be noticed by the car's owner.
 
joecash said:
so why does merc recoommended Mobil 1 cost £42 on amazon and it comes with a rrp of over £80
Click to expand...

Mobil 1 is about $25 from Walmart in the US.

Read the US websites of people wailing about dealers charging $75 for an oil change! Apparently some dealers will do an intermediate oil change (Americans like to change their oil often) free as owners don't trust the extended "European" service intervals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top Bottom