Mercedes moving on from Mobil 1?

Pennzoil motor oil
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deven

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My dad's 2010 MB E350 was eligible for the most recent recall about the power steering fluid and I got to talking with my service advisor. We were talking about the whole MB 229.5 approved oil and how some dealerships use Mobil 1 5w40 formula M and how most dealerships now are using Mobil 1 0w40 including this dealership as well. Well, what surprised me was what he said next! He told me that now the new MB's coming from Germany will be factory filled with Shell rather than Mobil 1 and that soon they will discontinue using Mobil 1 and go to Shell. I asked him if he knew the specifics of what Shell oil they will be using and he did not have a clue.

I thought I'd share this tidbit with BITOG'ers! I have no idea how reliable this information is but I am sharing it with you folks.
 
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Originally Posted By: deven
So we were talking about the whole MB 229.5 approved oil and how some dealership use Mobil 1 5w40 formula M and how most dealerships now are using Mobil 1 0w40 including this dealership as well.

Quick side note, just FYI in case you didn't know: Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 5w40 is for 229.51, not 229.5. If anyone is using it for cars that spec 229.5 on the US market, they're doing it wrong...


Originally Posted By: deven
Well, what surprised me was what he said next! He told me that the now the new MB's coming from Germany will be factory filled with Shell rather than Mobil 1 and that soon they will discontinue using Mobil 1 and go to Shell. I asked him if he knew the specifics of what Shell oil they will be using and he did not have a clue.

I thought I'd share this tidbit with BITOG'ers! I have no idea how reliable this information is but I am sharing it with you folks.

Possible, but dubious.

Was he talking about factory AND service fill, or just factory fill?
 
Originally Posted By: deven
they will discontinue using M1 and go to Shell. I asked him if he knew the specifics of what Shell oil they will be using and he did not have a clue.

If it's Shell, then it'll probably be Helix Ultra 5w-40, which meets the 229.5 spec. Same thing as Pennzoil Ultra Euro 5w-40.

FYI, one of the MB dealers near me uses Valvoline Synpower instead of Mobil 1. I think MB dealers have some leeway in terms of what oil to stock and use. They're not necessarily tied to Mobil.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d

Quick side note, just FYI in case you didn't know: Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 5w40 is for 229.51, not 229.5. If anyone is using it for cars that spec 229.5 on the US market, they're doing it wrong...

Actually, there are supposedly two different oils out there... 5w-40 Formula M which meets 229.5 and 5w-40 Formula M ESP which meets 229.51. The former is only available at MB dealerships. There was some discussion about it recently on BITOG... search for a user named ayrton.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: deven
So we were talking about the whole MB 229.5 approved oil and how some dealership use Mobil 1 5w40 formula M and how most dealerships now are using Mobil 1 0w40 including this dealership as well.

Quick side note, just FYI in case you didn't know: Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 5w40 is for 229.51, not 229.5. If anyone is using it for cars that spec 229.5 on the US market, they're doing it wrong...


Originally Posted By: deven
Well, what surprised me was what he said next! He told me that the now the new MB's coming from Germany will be factory filled with Shell rather than Mobil 1 and that soon they will discontinue using Mobil 1 and go to Shell. I asked him if he knew the specifics of what Shell oil they will be using and he did not have a clue.

I thought I'd share this tidbit with BITOG'ers! I have no idea how reliable this information is but I am sharing it with you folks.

Possible, but dubious.

Was he talking about factory AND service fill, or just factory fill?


He said that the MB's from factory were now filled with Shell and that MB as a company would be recommending Shell. Like I said I don't know how reliable he is as this is my first visit to a Benz dealership period.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: deven
they will discontinue using M1 and go to Shell. I asked him if he knew the specifics of what Shell oil they will be using and he did not have a clue.

If it's Shell, then it'll probably be Helix Ultra 5w-40, which meets the 229.5 spec. Same thing as Pennzoil Ultra Euro 5w-40.

FYI, one of the MB dealers near me uses Valvoline Synpower instead of Mobil 1. I think MB dealers have some leeway in terms of what oil to stock and use. They're not necessarily tied to Mobil.


I asked him if it was the Helix or Ultra Euro 5w40 and he had no clue but he said he would know which exactly in about a month or so.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: d00df00d

Quick side note, just FYI in case you didn't know: Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 5w40 is for 229.51, not 229.5. If anyone is using it for cars that spec 229.5 on the US market, they're doing it wrong...

Actually, there are supposedly two different oils out there... 5w-40 Formula M which meets 229.5 and 5w-40 Formula M ESP which meets 229.51. The former is only available at MB dealerships. There was some discussion about it recently on BITOG... search for a user named ayrton.





The SA told me that this is the exact reason why most dealerships use Mobil 1 0w40 because it was confusing as to use the ESP Formula M that is only good for diesel engines(229.51) or use the Mobil 1 Formula M which is (229.5). The reason he said they started using the Mobil 1 0w40 was because it was available in bulk but both the Formula M and ESP Formula M were not available in bulk.
 
exactly, the dealerships will use whatever is cheaper, I know most car dealers here use Pennzoil bulk....got a friend who is a car detailer, and he's contracted/on call for a couple of the dealerships and he said they all use pennzoil of some sort (generally 5w30 and 10W30) - dealerships included Kia, Hyundai, Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Eagle, Toyota, and a VW dealer.


Big deal about factory fill, most people only keep the factory fill in there for what, max 5k?
 
Originally Posted By: ahoier

Big deal about factory fill, most people only keep the factory fill in there for what, max 5k?

Well, the situation with Mercedes is a bit different from Kia, Hyundai, Dodge, and some of the others you mentioned. MB specified oil must meet the 229.5 spec - very few oils meet it. Bulk Pennzoil certainly does not. This oil is also expected to last up to 13K miles in service, including the factory fill. While a typical BITOG'er may not wait this long to dump the factory oil, I bet most MB owners will have no problem waiting until an announcement on the dashboard tells them to take it in for service.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: d00df00d

Quick side note, just FYI in case you didn't know: Mobil 1 ESP Formula M 5w40 is for 229.51, not 229.5. If anyone is using it for cars that spec 229.5 on the US market, they're doing it wrong...

Actually, there are supposedly two different oils out there... 5w-40 Formula M which meets 229.5 and 5w-40 Formula M ESP which meets 229.51. The former is only available at MB dealerships. There was some discussion about it recently on BITOG... search for a user named ayrton.



Thanks. I stand corrected.
 
Hi,
deven - MB has many suppliers of lubricants as FF. On a recent trip to Unterturkheim they were changing engine lines (M271) but the first startup fill was an unbranded 5w30. On run topups were done from 5 litres containers unbranded except for viscosity

Like many organisations they have a number of suppliers. Deliveries are VOA tested and some are rejected as outside the required FF specification

M1 has been a specific FF in some engine families

XoM and Shell are divesting themselves of retail activities WW and Russian Oil Companies (such as Gazprom) are becoming aggressive in Europe. Mobil here in OZ has sold their 300 Service Staions to 7-Eleven. Gazprom will release their "G-Energy" range of synthetics from a plant in Bari (Italy). They will seek a FF contract or two! The major Korean lubricant supplier (incl synthetics) SK has signed an arrangement with Repsol in Spain for a slice of the Euro Market

BP-Castrol has resigned development-supply Contracts with VW. This will become interesting as Porsche is now an operating part of the VW-Audi Group

Shell is the worlds largest finished lubricants manufacturer
for the fifth year in a row at 13.4%, XoM is second with 11% and BP-Castrol third at 7%

Mobil has been a lubricant supplier to both Mercedes & Benz (then MB)now Daimler AG since around 1922. They are still their prime lubricant development partner. As they are with Aston-Martin and CAT, DD etc etc too

The Euro lubricant marketplace is about to become a little more de-regulated
 
Maybe MB didn't like the answers XOM posted in the Q&A lol

Originally Posted By: deven
My dad's 2010 MB E350 was eligible for the most recent recall about the power steering fluid and I got to talking with my service advisor. We were talking about the whole MB 229.5 approved oil and how some dealerships use Mobil 1 5w40 formula M and how most dealerships now are using Mobil 1 0w40 including this dealership as well. Well, what surprised me was what he said next! He told me that now the new MB's coming from Germany will be factory filled with Shell rather than Mobil 1 and that soon they will discontinue using Mobil 1 and go to Shell. I asked him if he knew the specifics of what Shell oil they will be using and he did not have a clue.

I thought I'd share this tidbit with BITOG'ers! I have no idea how reliable this information is but I am sharing it with you folks.
 
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.....or maybe Mobil is just losing their technological edge? I've never seen an brand of oil stir up so much debate.
 
The person on top has the longest way to fall.

But they could have said SOMETHING about the Iron in the oil. Maybe MB knows something about it that XOM won't admit.

Yes, this is total speculation and hornet next stirring.
 
This isn't big news. As far as I can remember, SHELL has been factory fill on regular Mercedes.

Only AMGs had Mobil 1 Factory Fill.

Shell & Daimler have a big contract to supply products for the factories.

In F1, Mercedes is parters with another oil, Petronas (not saying they use Petronas products, but they sponsor them)

And then AMG uses Mobil.

You see, Mercedes isn't loyal to any one oil company.
 
Hi,
it may be best to stay "On Topic" in this Thread and not engage in more Mobil or XoM knocking. The flavour of BITOG is being slowly destroyed in this process

There is no evidence at all the Shell is anything but another lubricant supplier to Daimler AG. That is of course along with FUCHs, Liqui-Moly, Mobil, Pentosin and others including some small German organisations

I can assure you that at the highest levels of engine development, Mobil is still there and used in their race cars too!
 
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