mobil 0W-40 SLK230 Supercharged over 3 years

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Stevie

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This may be of interest because of the length of time the oil was used. 3 years 3 months. Car has an oil countdown gauge that starts a 10,00 miles. it still said I had about 6k miles left before change at 5k miles on the oil. then at approximately 3 years it read zero all of a sudden. which means it's time to change. I changed it about 400 miles later which said I was 400 miles overdue. Anyway, it looks to me that the recommeded oil change is 10k or 3 years.

I was very pleased with the report since I purchased the car used and had no idea what what oil was used so I changed all fluids and filters, trans oil, brake oil, and coolant.

1999 Mercedes SLK 230 Supercharged

http://www.gonkgonk.com/uoa_convert/images/oilreports slk230.pdf.jpg
 
Be prepared for some saying you are being cheap with your MLK......

You are more brave then I.
I know if I had no idea what oil was in it I would not have been able to refrain from changing the oil. Who knows it could have had cheap dino oil put in.

Glad it worked out.
 
Originally Posted By: oilboy123
You are more brave then I.
I know if I had no idea what oil was in it I would not have been able to refrain from changing the oil. Who knows it could have had cheap dino oil put in.

I think he was saying he changed out that original oil and put in new Mobil 0w40 and then ran that run.
 
With a few caveats (which have been expounded ad nauseum before), oil doesn't rapidly mark the passage of time in your crankcase. There is a 3 year interval from one of my tractors, showing 8300 hours and stored in an unheated barn, with conventional oil no less, in the diesel UOA section. I regularly do 18 month to two year intervals on various vehicles and equipment and they produced great results so, Stevie, your test is no great surprise to me. It's just further evidence that my change in attitude over time intervals was justified.
 
Originally Posted By: shpankey
Originally Posted By: oilboy123
You are more brave then I.
I know if I had no idea what oil was in it I would not have been able to refrain from changing the oil. Who knows it could have had cheap dino oil put in.

I think he was saying he changed out that original oil and put in new Mobil 0w40 and then ran that run.
Your right my bad it was late sleepy night time for me. I guess I was getting tired.
 
Wow three years with the same oil!!! Most extended drain oils recommend xxxxx miles or 1 year, which ever comes first. Mobil 0W-40 isn't even sold as an extended drain oil though most here know that it is a super premium synthetic. Very impressive!
 
I'm not impressed. Typical sumps of certain euro cars are huge for the size of the engine. If this engine took 8-9 quarts of oil, and is only 2.3L(?), and is only taken out occasionally for extended drives, and is garaged, and immune to the seasons......

5600 miles and those numbers look ok. Time was irrelevant for the UOA.

0w40 is an extended drain oil, and an excellent euro oil.
 
Undumny, you are assuming best case scenario. The SLK doesn't take 8 or 9 quarts as you assume but closer to 6. It might be garaged and it might see extended drives but we don't know. It might also see short drives. By marketed as extended drain I was referring to oils like Mobil EP, Edge, and certain Amsoil. Again these extended drain oils state xxxxx miles or 1 year or whichever comes first. The mileage on the oil isn't as impressive as the +3 year run which is more than any oil bottle that I have seen recommends.
 
Originally Posted By: unDummy
Sump size? driving style?


Holds 6 qts.
Car was usually driven on nice sunny days with the top down. 35% to work stop and go traffic 10 miles, 30% long trips, and 35% just short pleasure drives and running errands.

Driving style. Mostly normal, but I do love to kick in that supercharger quite a bit.

I was pleased by the report with what I feel are low metal wear, I am no expert on this, and I may be wrong but it seems good. I would welcome more input on this. It seems good compared to my other car and Ducati motorcycle analysis which I will post shortly. And the analysis showed me that used car I bought seems to have a sound engine. So this report made me feel even better about this car that I really enjoy.

As for the +3 year run without an oil change I am happy that this didn't hurt anything. In that respect I would always give it an Italian tune every couple of weeks to get the oil up to a good temp to evaporate any condensation.
 
Originally Posted By: Capa
Stevie the report is really good. How much make-up oil did you add?


No makeup oil at all. Level on dipstick never changed. I was also happy that the iron was so low especially since Mobil one is said to not be good about iron. Thanks for the input.
 
Hi,
Stevie - I am about to change the oil (M1 0W-40) on my CLK. It will be two years and around 17kkms - currently the OLM tells me I have 19 days left!

It will be interesting to compare the UOA results
 
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Originally Posted By: Pablo
Given reasonable storage, oil can last just fine in the sump.

Note the viscosity - some of this is from the fuel. How did you sample?


So do you think that the recommended time change interval by the oil makers is to sell more oil?

The sample was taken midstream from the oil drain bolt from under the car. Normally these mercedes are changed with a pump from the dipstick. You have to take a large areodynamic panel off to get to the drain bolt. I prefer this way because I like to get under there and look around and make sure everything is ok. For example, I changed the oil on my Nissan last week and while I was under there noticed a slight seep from the auto transmission. I re-torqued the loose pan bolts and checked the cv boots while down there.

One other interesting thing. Looked at the records and the only entry is the first oil change by the Mercedes Dealer used Castrol GTX 20w/50 . Weird that a dealer would do that when Mercedes is very specific on this car to only use Mobil 1 0w/40wt.
 
Originally Posted By: Stevie


So do you think that the recommended time change interval by the oil makers is to sell more oil?




Yes and no. Probably hope they will sell more oil - but also more likely butt coverage given the variables in just how often people will do short trips - never actually getting the oil warm....I can easily imagine someone doing this 200+ times per year and yet only having 2000 miles on the oil.
 
Hi,
Pablo - The last time I checked the avearge OCI for MB vehicles here was around 17kkms. The time parameter is two years. Personally I think this is reasonable!

We have come a long way from the 1k miles OCIs and 5k miles average annual use factors of 50 years ago!
 
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Nice UOA. It's amazing that your iron was so low, considering that Iron often tracks with time. Did you use some sort of oil magnet?

It would have been nice to see a UOA on this oil. You could have determined how far you actually pushed this OCI.
 
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