Oil grade for W124 E220

[W124ali]

Hello

Can anyone tell me the correct grade of oil for a 1995 W124 E220 petrol? And any pointers of where the best price is to buy?
Thanks

 

[AMGeed]

Give MB Newcastle a call with your Vin# handy and they will send any quantity of the correct grade you need next day.
0191 2267430

For example, they will send 7ltrs next day for under £40
The Castrol oil application notes you need 5W-40 fully synthetic.

 

[clk320x]

If it’s 5w40 you need:

10L Genuine Mercedes Benz 5W40 Engine Oil MB 229.5 Full Synthetic - Petrol | eBay

10l for £38.40 shipped by MB Swansea

 

[optimusprime]

Fully synthetic is not the way to go on our old type engines,, it will find every crevice it can . and leak out .The oil companys recomend semi synthetic engine oil . Just for starters go to Castrol and put your reg number in .I think your looking at Magnatec 10 W40 semi synthetic . For most of the cars life its been running on convensional oil SAE must be a little wear in there by now and needs a good oil to do the job right .

 

[Gazwould]

I've got a 96 Nissan with synthetic oil , NO LEAKS !

 

[190]

Semi synthetic was the minimum recommendation by MB at the time, even my 89 190e was happy with "synthetic". Anyway for the nth time, MB's own oil isn't a true synthetic and very few oils are. If you didn't pay £40+ for 5L then it won't be synthetic in the sense of it being a group 4 or 5 oil base. It will be a highly processed group 3 or 3+ which is just fine because it meets the spec.

 

[Gazwould]

You're in the know , or Group 4 polyalphaolefins .

If you get a group 3 ( not really a synthetic ) , 4 and 5 LongLife oil ( can be hard to find out this) it's quite some complete oil as you get the slightly different qualities from each basestock group .

And that's why I use such an oil !

 

[W124ali]

Thanks everyone. Mines a 1995 E220 with around 70k on the clock. I was thinking of putting in semi synthetic but then thought fully synthetic would be a better for the engine. I'll give Mercedes a ring in the morning to confirm.

 

[grober]

A 10w40 semisynthetic * such as Shell Helix HX 7 changed at regular intervals will be fine
Shell Car Engine Oil | Shell Helix Car Engine Oil

*shell call it "synthetic technology"

 

[optimusprime]

Gazwould The W124 engines were not made for synthetic oils .Only coventional type of oils it was not thought of back in 1989 Your talking 1995 and 6 years newer car And oil went through a big change over 30 years. Just check with oil makers and you will find they wont recomend fully synthetic oil in the W124

 

[190]

I'm almost certain that the minimum spec for the OP's 1995 W124 would have been "semi synthetic". But in any case if he puts MB's own 229.5 in he won't be using a true synthetic oil so how could there be a problem. And that's regardless of how MB label it.

The marketing of motor oil and misuse of the term synthetic is such a mess it's got everyone confused. It's going to take decades before the myths subside.

The best advice is ignore what the oil is called and worry only about the MB spec. The M111 engine in the OP's W124 is no longer listed in the oil recommendations so I would go with 229.3 or 229.5.

 

[Gazwould]

I love it , it will go on for decades , the myth , the court fought legal description and marketing of oil !

Severely hydrocracked mineral oil