My freind owns a 1999 Mercedes e320 wagon. When he bought it, he bragged about the german quality and that it came with Mobil 1. The owners manual states the first oil change is not due for 15000 miles.
Well, after 2 years and not yet the second oil change due, the car is at the dealer having a new engine installed.
The mechanic and the service manager both told him change the oil every 5000 miles, conventional or synthetic oil, it doesn't matter and the new engine will be fine. Seems they replace many engines under warranty because Mercedes refuses to lower miles on the change intervals.
When my buddy questioned why they would do that, the not so straight forward answer was that Mobil 1 pays megga bucks to Mercedes for the marketing and advertising they recieve by using it from the factory and that possibly Mobil 1 is picking up part of the tab on the engine failure warranty costs.

I've never lost an engine using conventional oil every 3-5000 miles.
This one (thread) should last a while.

 

Look out, here comes the flood.........

 

in my opinion, even if a manufacturer says their oil can last 100,000 miles, i will NEVER go past 4000 miles without changing my oil. its not worth risking something as important as your engine, especially when youre out of warranty (ford wont give me a new engine for my truck if i go and mess it up by not changing the oil). just my $.02

 

Even though this is based on hear say,

My 2 cents is this.

German engineering or freakin russian engineering i dont care.
15,000 miles is to much even for supermans **** and ASMOIL.
If the owner is that stupid it serves him right. I dont see why people seem to think that synthetic just means extended drain intervals it just makes me shake my head.

 

It always amazes me that a mechanic in a dealership in North America knows all about corporate deals made at the executive level in Germany between multi-national corporations. It's like the genius garbage man on Dilbert.

I agree 15k is too long but come on!

Ian

 

Mobile1 is not an extended drain synthetic.

Amsoil and there is one other brand are the only ones I know of. Mobile1, castrol, redline and others should be changed just like conventional oil as per the owners manual.

Read the amsoil site. Use their oil and filters and they will warranty the engine if it fails because of the oil. HOw is that for warranty after your factory is out?

 

I get a major BS alert on this one. Its based on hearsay...and I wouldnt believe it unless I heard it. The mechanic is right that it should be changed at no longer intervals than 5000. I run synthetic and change it every 3k. Synthetic gets dirty just as fast as conventional and it is only as good as your filtration. The only time you can get by with it is with Amsoil and a dual bypass filtration system.

My guess...is that his buddy came up with a story so he wouldnt sound so d-a-m-n stupid. Maybe he thought he didnt have to check the oil either and it went low on him.

 

File this one in the cabinet along with the idiots who drive for 100k miles before changing their spark plugs, because "the dealer said I don't have to".

What a waste of webspace.

Take care,
-Chris

 

It seems that this thread would be one pegged bad for synthetics.


I believe it should be pegged for Stupidity.

1. Automakers put in time constraints as well as mileage when recommending drain interval. I would imagine that his owners manual say's something like mine for my 2000 VW.

" change oil at 10,000 miles or 1 year which ever comes first"

2. As we know not all synthetics are created equal, some of the European oils are vastly different than their american counterparts.

This is mostly true for Castrol and Mobil. I would guess the Germans recommend the drain interval based on their oils over there which probably can stand up to longer drains.


3. If the car is used for a lot of stop and go, drain intervals should be reduced.

4. I personally went over 10,000 miles and 18 months on my last oil change, analysis indicates that the oil was still in serviceable condition. Though the viscosity had increased to up around a 40w.

As far as oil changes nothing is absolute, but I really wonder if it was actually an oil related failure or some other matter.
Was their an analysis done on the engine that had failed???? So how can we be certian that Mobil 1 was the cause??

From what I have heard the New BMW's are having problems with high oil usage, Did this rich yuppie forget to check his oil for 2 years??

How much oil do you think a car would use in that amount of time. I would say probably at least 2 quarts if not more.

As a matter of fact one of my customers went a year without checking his oil, yes it was down 2 quarts--How can operator error be blamed on the oil or component?? What is that answer to that.

The reason I am so much for synthetics is becuase I look at it from a scientific standpoint. I read oil analysis, I look at wear and what synthetics can do as far as lowered engine temps. cold weather protection and engine life,

But come on folks its just a lubricant, its not a miracle product!!! It is designed to do the same job as a conventional lubricant, which is to lubricat, cool, suspend contaminants for removal. And yes it is far superior at doing that to conventional oil, but it does have its limitations!!!!

 

Well, I guess I am now officially an idiot for not having my plugs done until I reached 112,000 miles. They came out fine for the mileage they had on them (though obviously not new). Absolutely no change in performance afterward and a noticeable decrease in fuel mileage to boot (about 0.5 mpgs). Unless there are performance issues, changing plugs earlier tha the suggested interval is a waste of money, IMHO.

As far as the oil change intervals go, Europeans regularly spec longer intervals than domestics. Oils over there can also be different that oils over here. Other than Amsoil, I don't know other oils (including Mobil 1), who recommend intervals longer than the manufacturer. As to what happened here, no idea and I don't care. I'll stick to the recommeded change intervals of 3000 miles for severe duty and be happy. I'll just go off and be stupid I guess...

 

Could it be possible that he read the manual wrong? Wouldn’t there be a metric conversion factor, like kilometers, not miles??????

 

Do you guys that believe Amsoil oil can go 15k miles between oil changes also believe you can put Prolong in your oil, drain it out and drive around town all day? Just wondering.

 

Well, to the author's credit.. a co-workers new M Class didn't have it's first oil change til 14000 miles. I couldn't believe that when she told me. A oil change light comes on when "it's time".

 

I don't believe, I know for a fact!!! I have numerous analysis to back this up. I don't have to believe or make anything up.

 

Dont wanna **** nobody off, but... those of you who say 10k, 15k and more miles is TOO MUCH are just making un-educated comments.

Regular dino oil is ok if you are changing every 3-5k miles. Mobil 1 every 5k.

Yes I am an AMSOIL dealer, but I did so after MUCH research about oils, synthetics and extended drain intervals. People have been going extended intervals for over two decades, this is NOT a new concept.