Mercedes GL350 - 7000 miles on tested oil, 85,000 miles on engine.

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Apr 25, 2022
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Vancouver, Canada
This is the first time that I have had an oil analysis done. Some things look good but both the Aluminum and Iron are quite high. See enclosed report. Should I be alarmed? I know that a fair amount of the use of the vehicle during the period that the oil was sampled from was towing a fairly heavy boat in the heat of summer - in one case it was almost a one hour grueling mountain climb in 95 degree heat. Not sure if this might have been partially responsible for numbers - I'm certainly no expert. Comments anyone?

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Unless you're trying to protect state secrets then it's useful to publish what oil you're using, the environment that the vehicle is used in, the maintenance history, etc. Just posting some numbers from a one-off sampling doesn't give much information.

With that being said, your engine is shedding metal and you should figure out why.
 
7,000 mil OCI - Check
Oil Brand and weight - Missing

Oil Brand and weight in the sump now?

It's perhaps a one-off based on your usage.

Give Blackstone the information the need and you'll get a better idea of how far off. Obviously Iron is high but it's probably a one off due to the heavy towing.
 
Unless you're trying to protect state secrets then it's useful to publish what oil you're using, the environment that the vehicle is used in, the maintenance history, etc. Just posting some numbers from a one-off sampling doesn't give much information.

With that being said, your engine is shedding metal and you should figure out why.
Ha ha. No state secrets here. Using Motul X-clean 5W40 - Mercedes spec 229.51. I change the oil about every 6,000-7,000 miles. We tow our boat with the vehicle a few times a year. We had just changed the oil before we went on a trip where we towed our boat about 1500 miles. That trip has a few very long hills - mountains really, that we are climbing, the longest climb being close to an hour. On the last trip the temperature was very hot - about 95F. I was worried about over heating but the engine oil stayed in an acceptable range - about 250 F at it's hottest - I monitor engine and transmission fluid temperatures while towing. Aside from that trip our usage is light duty driving around town. I try not to do too many short trips around town with this vehicle - we use another car for most of those short grocery-getting trips.

As to figuring out why it is shedding metal, yes good question. I took that oil sample back in February when I changed the oil. I will do another test when I change it again which will likely be in June. None of that usage has been towing so it will be interesting to see what the numbers look like then.
 
7,000 mil OCI - Check
Oil Brand and weight - Missing

Oil Brand and weight in the sump now?

It's perhaps a one-off based on your usage.

Give Blackstone the information the need and you'll get a better idea of how far off. Obviously Iron is high but it's probably a one off due to the heavy towing.
Yes, I am not sure what happened to the information slip that I sent with the sample but I did send the information to Blackstone by e-mail yesterday. Will see what they say. Currently in the sump is the same oil (Motul-X clean 229.51 Metc spec.) only 5W30 instead of the 5W40 that was in it last summer. I'm hoping that the high metal content is a one-off. Will see. I will have another sample taken when I change the oil again in June.
 
So it is a diesel? That's why you are using a low SAPs oil in it, correct?
I didn't see Motul -X clean on the MB BEVO list of approved oils though. Not for 229.51 anyway.

Maybe the X-clean cleaned something.
 
Good to hear, some of these had start up rattle which was attributed to timing chains from what I have read, but no first hand experience. A family member drove an ML350 without incident except for engine oil leaks and failing electrical sensors.
 
I had that engine and the iron was always high especially if I went 7k miles or higher on oci. I think the oil in that engine should be changed every 5k miles because of that. That's what I did.
 
I had that engine and the iron was always high especially if I went 7k miles or higher on oci. I think the oil in that engine should be changed every 5k miles because of that. That's what I did.
Hmm that's interesting. Did you have any oil tests done after you switched to 5 K oil changes and if so were the results on the test better?
 
Hmm that's interesting. Did you have any oil tests done after you switched to 5 K oil changes and if so were the results on the test better?
Hi.
My Jeep has the OM642 engine, albeit without DPF. My lab test at 5,000 miles showed Fe at 28ppm and Al at 7ppm. This was using Petronas Syntium 5w-30.
 
Hmm that's interesting. Did you have any oil tests done after you switched to 5 K oil changes and if so were the results on the test better?
Yes and the iron went down. I used a lot of Mobil 1 and when I switched to Valvoline iron went down even more. I’ll try to post a report.
 
What year OM642? I think they went from dual row to singel row timing chain in 2012, a little unsure about exactly the year tho. Could it be the chain that is increasing your Fe? I know the dual rows stretch significantly when passing 300k km, but the singel row much earlier.
 
What year OM642? I think they went from dual row to singel row timing chain in 2012, a little unsure about exactly the year tho. Could it be the chain that is increasing your Fe? I know the dual rows stretch significantly when passing 300k km, but the singel row much earlier.
It was an 08 642. I took it to 130k miles. It was going to need brakes, egr valve and had never had the oil cooler seal problem. I had really good luck with it so decided to not put all that money into it. Traded to a 15 ML 350 gas and really miss the mileage. It had a double chain.
 
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