service interval W203

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

snow leopard

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
39
Location
Winkleigh, Devon
Car
SLK200K, C200K evo sport, defender90
About a year ago, when I purchased the car, part of the deal was that the dealer gave the car a B service. This was done.

Every so often I have looked at the service info and have become quite used to seeing the display gently counting its way down to the next cashectomy, which should be an A serviice. My mileage is pretty low and I've seen it heading down through 8000, maybe just under. Suddenly, when I insert the key, I get a reminder that an A service is due in twenty something days.

Is this to be expected? It alsmost seems like it wants an annual service but I didn't think it worked like that.

Any comments?
 
Last edited:
I don't think anyone actually understands how it works - it can seem almost random.

Do you do a lot of short journeys? That can make a difference, but I've seen it suggested that it looks at all sorts of things, even average fuel consumption and full throttle acellerations so it can tell how hard the car is being used.

Supposedly it also can detect the oil quality, but mine runs to 2 years (I use it for the occasional 400 mile round trip) and I can't believe the oil in a diesel engine still looks good after that time.

Of course it's always possible that the car has been programmed for annual intervals. My dealer kindly offered me this facility a few years ago.

If the car is not covered by any kind of warranty then it doesn't really matter anyway - just reset and get it serviced as you feel appropriate.
 
Depends a bit on the age of the car. Ours do low mileage. The CLK (2003) will go 2 years between services. The SLK (2005) maximum of 15 months regardless of how little mileage covered. I think the schedule change occurred in mid 2004.
 
Thanks for replies.

I certainly never knew that there was the possibility of a setting for an annual option. Will investigate further and ask my local independant next time I'm passing. in the meantime will probably reset because I had a B service about 300 miles ago.​
 
Thanks for replies.

I certainly never knew that there was the possibility of a setting for an annual option. Will investigate further and ask my local independant next time I'm passing. in the meantime will probably reset because I had a B service about 300 miles ago.

Post-2007 MB cars are set to annual service.

~2007 cars and earlier are set to flexible servicing. As others said, if you do not reach the service mileage interval, the system will switch to time based servicing, which will see the next service flagged up between 12 and 24 months from the previous service, depending on your driving pattern (ie many engine starts vs few engine starts).

The service intervals are recorded in the ECU, so this can be checked with STAR and any inconsistency will be obvious, but on an old car this is unlikely to significantly affect resell value.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom