Life of M1 0w40

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Over on the Mercedes forums there are some folks either working for Mercedes or with really good connections.

They said that M1 0w40 was found by Mercedes to start showing it needed to be changes at the 13000 mile mark.

This is of course a generalization but I presume it must be a conservative limit to account for varying conditions.

It is interesting that Mercedes stopped FSS and fix maintenance at 1 year / 10k now. The FSS systems were apparently quite sophisticated with oil condition sensors.
 
Originally Posted By: FoxS
They said that M1 0w40 was found by Mercedes to start showing it needed to be changes at the 13000 mile mark.

So, is this good or bad? I can't figure out where you're going with this.

Besides, most dealers don't use M1 0w-40.
 
This is apparently Mercedes findings not the dealers.

I would say its good in that there is some validation of and a buffer against the 10000 interval they suggest we follow.
 
At 9,000 miles, the M1 0W40 in my MB still had 3.2 TBN. I'll follow the maintenance minder, but 12K or 13K seems a reasonable life projection based on my one data point. That said, given the potential cost of damage to the V-12, I would rather change the oil too early than too late...
 
In Canada, Mercedes-Benz still uses the full 13,000 mile interval for oil changes (probably because it's nice and easy as it equals 20,000 km).

My car has only had 3 oil changes in its life (all at 20,000 km or 1 year intervals) and currently has almost 80,000 km. It does not burn a drop of oil over the full 20,000 km interval. The level looks exactly the same on the dipstick as when I put it in.

I can say that I trust the MB intervals so far. But I qualify that with the fact that most of my driving is highway mileage. If I did very short trips all the time, I probably would not go 20,000 km with any oil, M1 0W40 or not.
 
Originally Posted By: FoxS
It is interesting that Mercedes stopped FSS and fix maintenance at 1 year / 10k now. The FSS systems were apparently quite sophisticated with oil condition sensors.



I think they stopped that FSS program for many reasons, probably none of which amount to anything technical. It's probably mostly for marketing or reasons of perception. Mercedes had a lot of "engine" problems back in the early FSS days due to owners not using approved lubricants but still running full intervals as stated by the FSS, and MB probably wanted to just get rid of it over concern of bad publicity. I'm sure cost was a factor as well (with no special sensors required with the fixed intervals now).

I suppose the same problems could still result with owners using non-approved lubricants and trying to run 13,000 mile intervals
wink.gif
 
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