Hi guys! New member here.
My current daily driver is a 2018 Mercedes Benz S63 Cabriolet. I’ve had it since 2019, bought off a 2-year lease (huge initial depreciation hit on these cars!), currently with just under 30000 miles on it. I really love it. So comfortable and powerful. The engine is an M177 twin scroll turbocharged 4.0 liter direct injection V8 putting out just over 600hp. So pretty power dense. It’s a heavy car but hustles!
The dealership was doing regular service interval oil changes every year for the first two years that I owned it. Now that it’s off warranty, it’s seen a mix of dealer and local indy shop services. I recently swapped the brakes on it to the carbon ceramics myself, so not afraid to wrench, and decided that I will service it myself now. Even the indy shop cost would be more than me doing it myself.
In my other cars I’ve used Mobil 1 or Motul synthetics. I’ve decided to go ahead and do the regular service myself now and was looking for a great oil. I would typically stick to Mobil 1 0w40 or Motul 8100 Xmax 0w40. That is, until I found this forum and learned just enough to be dangerous
. Don’t misunderstand, I get that Mobil 1 and Motul are actually great oils. Then I’ve seen posts about Amsoil, Redline, Driven, Ravenol, and HPL and thought I should read some more.
I would like stick to the regular OCI of once per year or 10000 miles. I never put more than around 5000-7000 miles on it though in a year, an equal mix of local streets and highway driving in south Texas. We see freezing temps sometimes, but only a handful of days per year (2021 Texas power crisis excluded).
I thought HPL would be a solid choice and initially purchased a case of their regular PCMO 5w40. Reading the specs though, I second guessed that initial recommendation from HPL and went ahead and ordered a case of Super Car 5w40 because it is advertised as meeting or exceeding the MB295.5 spec that is recommended by Mercedes. A case cost about the same as a case of their Euro version of that oil, which is also advertised as meeting the same spec.
So, while I wait for the oil filters to arrive from FCP Euro, I thought I'd ask the oil geeks here. Should I go ahead and stick with the Super Car for the next service interval, or perhaps switch to the Euro version. I've read here somewhere that the Euro version has a more "modern" additive pack, whatever that means! Inspecting the oil filter should be easy because it's cartridge style. Any benefits to a UOA and/or VOA? I'd probably use Amsoil's service for that because I understand that they may be using one of the recommended labs (Polaris?) on this forum.
View attachment 178796I was wondering where you could drive such a "power dense" car. Then I saw you live in TX. Back in1969, I rode through TX on a Grayhound headed for Chicago. IIRC,it was 1000miles and 24 hrs of a 3 1/2 day trip from LA to Boston. I would much rather had been riding in car like yours equipped with a radar detctor