My dash advises when a servicing is required. I leave the details up to Mercedes while I drive a "loaner" for a day.
Thoughts On Oil Changes
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No fancy oil required. Any good oil and change every 3k miles and your engine will be fine. 
The 10k-ish recommendation from the manufacturers is not your friend.
I’ve always done 3k. My last Toyota went 30 years and 300k of city driving and wasn’t using oil. The 5L Mustang before it went 175k of hard driving.
Oil changes are cheap insurance.
If you want a great education on oil check out The Motor Oil Geek’s YouTube. Real info and testing from an actual tribologist.
I’ve always done 3k. My last Toyota went 30 years and 300k of city driving and wasn’t using oil. The 5L Mustang before it went 175k of hard driving.
Oil changes are cheap insurance.
If you want a great education on oil check out The Motor Oil Geek’s YouTube. Real info and testing from an actual tribologist.
Today my wife drove our 2015 Suburban 380 miles in 90 + degree heat to St Louis and back. Most of it was a bit over 80mph and some over 90mph and she kept in the traffic flow.
We burned not quite 19 gallons of $2.80 gas and the meter says we can run over 220 more miles.
The replacement cost for our like new 2015 Suburban with a brand new 2025 (which would have the same engine) would be over $85,000 counting sales tax.
Changing the oil and filter every six months or 5,000 miles (plus a quart of MMO for good luck) is nothing compared with an engine replacement.
In a few years Detroit will make an electric SUV that will have no transmission, will cost three times less to run, the electric motors will outlast the vehicle and the rig will use 40% less man hours to make.
Until then, follow a good service plan.
We burned not quite 19 gallons of $2.80 gas and the meter says we can run over 220 more miles.
The replacement cost for our like new 2015 Suburban with a brand new 2025 (which would have the same engine) would be over $85,000 counting sales tax.
Changing the oil and filter every six months or 5,000 miles (plus a quart of MMO for good luck) is nothing compared with an engine replacement.
In a few years Detroit will make an electric SUV that will have no transmission, will cost three times less to run, the electric motors will outlast the vehicle and the rig will use 40% less man hours to make.
Until then, follow a good service plan.
My Merc basically changes her own oil since I add a quart or two per month.
LOL!! I am not sure about other countries but when you buy a new Chevrolet in Texas you get $10 oil changes for life of vehicle, or at least I did. It’s not actually $10 because they charge you for filter and tax so it’s about $17. The kicker is the oil is conventional oil. They want to do this to keep you close for other maintenance or for next vehicle purchase.
For 100% synthetic for $30 is because I can buy Supertech at Walmart for $24 (6 quarts) and a filter for $5 ($30 total). I have been doing my own oil changes now for 10 years because I wanted synthetic instead of conventional.
So I can get $15 conventional oil change where the dealership does it, or I can do synthetic myself for $30.
It appears that the industry and federal government are realizing that we are not ready as a society and infrastructure to go full EV. Me thinks hybrid will win out. But what do I know….just a suspicion.
God I love our latest Suburban!
I’d love it a lot more if I never had to buy a gallon of gas for it, it cost a third less, and it had three times more horsepower, and you never had any oil to change.
We will miss oil changes as much as we miss grease jobs and carburetor rebuilds and exhaust systems that rusted out.
The trouble with a hybrid, is you need a gasoline motor and a transmission and fuel tank for it, AND an electric motor and a big battery, BOTH.
Where diesel electrics will make their last stand is ships and huge earthmoving equipment and trains.
But the owners of Buc-ee’s will become the wealthiest people that ever lived.
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This reminds me of my grandpa, every once in a while he'd tip some random oil he'd find on discount in the engine of his ancient Fiat 128, car was unkillable.
Back in the olden days, I used to change the oil in whatever I was driving every 5K miles and I always changed the filter each time. That was back when I could just do it myself.
I bought a Subaru Forester in 2021 and it came with two years free oil changes, tire rotations, etc. I just had to take it to the dealership every 6K miles. I now have a 2025 Subaru Outback and will be taking it to the dealer for its routine maintenance.
I bought a Subaru Forester in 2021 and it came with two years free oil changes, tire rotations, etc. I just had to take it to the dealership every 6K miles. I now have a 2025 Subaru Outback and will be taking it to the dealer for its routine maintenance.
Most of the old cars I find have been sitting for decades. I refuse to change the oil unless its going to be a runner.
Jet black oil that has been sitting for decades, and who knows when it was last changed, still has great viscosity.
Ive popped off valve covers and found brand new looking parts. And I've popped many that look like the LaBrea tar pits.
You can tell the guys who changed oil regularly, and the ones that didn't.
But again, this mostly has to do with the filter. I cannot stress enough how important a quality oil filter is.
I can tell the lifelong Fram users....they are the tar pits.
Jet black oil that has been sitting for decades, and who knows when it was last changed, still has great viscosity.
Ive popped off valve covers and found brand new looking parts. And I've popped many that look like the LaBrea tar pits.
You can tell the guys who changed oil regularly, and the ones that didn't.
But again, this mostly has to do with the filter. I cannot stress enough how important a quality oil filter is.
I can tell the lifelong Fram users....they are the tar pits.
Fair enough! I’ll be looking into the Supertech for my commuter and wife’s vehicle for sure.
My older truck and Harleys get heavier weight dinosaur oil still.
Oil type and oil change interval debates are completely absurd. The fact that the site Bobistheoilguy.com exists purely for this very thing blows my mind. The amount of angst over oil must come from some sort of collective trauma. Maybe it's that unless one is wasting money on used oil analyses, there is no way to ever prove anything either way. I suppose it's the perfect debate material because everyone's wrong.
War Story Time!!!
About 35 years ago a man died suddenly here and he had no relatives the undertaker could find except some distant cousins who lived far away, in the South Side of Chicago.
During the funeral one cousin got stuck in the back yard with a Shop Smith Mark V he claimed was his in the trunk of his Cadillac ElDorado , and they pulled out guns, but our Sheriff came and arranged a truce and the judge appointed yours truly as the estate attorney and the public representative.
Then three grieving widows showed up, each with a valid marriage certificate, but the Illinois records were silent he’d divorced any of them.
In any event, the man had a very good job with the State and enjoyed a multitude of toys (including a Dixon Zero Turn none of us hillbillies had ever seen) including a four year old Ford Bronco and nearly new Lincoln (which had an early day OBD system).
I took both cars to the local Ford dealer, and the dealer said the oil and filter in each had never been changed.
The man I have as my mechanic now, was a gear head kid then, and he saved the Lincoln by a tune up and engine flush, but the Bronco would occasionally have oil pressure drop to zero, no matter how much he’d clean the oil pump screen and whatever potions he’d try to clean out the gunk.
We had a big well attended auction and the Chicago cousins were happy, and even the three grieving widows turned out happy, because each one had been “married” to him over ten years so each one got his survivors benefits from Social Security.
The only person that shed one tear, was his Missouri girlfriend, that would have got the entire estate, if she’d been a widow who actually lived with him until he died.
——
In Missouri, a spouse who abandons the other for one continuous year prior to the decedent's death can be barred from inheriting, as well as from other statutory allowances, under RSMo Section 474.140,unless a voluntary reconciliation and resumption of cohabitation occurred. This statute specifically addresses situations where a spouse either voluntarily leaves for an adulterer, or abandons the other spouse without reasonable cause and lives separate and apart for a full year before the decedent's death.
——
The Chicago cousins said they thought he had a big wad of cash stashed someplace, but the girlfriend claimed he was such a tightwad he never changed his oil.
I did make double sure, he got a nice tombstone.
It was the least I could do for him, you know?
But if you decide to never change your oil, it’s risky to start at 50,000 miles.
Sing one Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys!
Will You Miss Me
About 35 years ago a man died suddenly here and he had no relatives the undertaker could find except some distant cousins who lived far away, in the South Side of Chicago.
During the funeral one cousin got stuck in the back yard with a Shop Smith Mark V he claimed was his in the trunk of his Cadillac ElDorado , and they pulled out guns, but our Sheriff came and arranged a truce and the judge appointed yours truly as the estate attorney and the public representative.
Then three grieving widows showed up, each with a valid marriage certificate, but the Illinois records were silent he’d divorced any of them.
In any event, the man had a very good job with the State and enjoyed a multitude of toys (including a Dixon Zero Turn none of us hillbillies had ever seen) including a four year old Ford Bronco and nearly new Lincoln (which had an early day OBD system).
I took both cars to the local Ford dealer, and the dealer said the oil and filter in each had never been changed.
The man I have as my mechanic now, was a gear head kid then, and he saved the Lincoln by a tune up and engine flush, but the Bronco would occasionally have oil pressure drop to zero, no matter how much he’d clean the oil pump screen and whatever potions he’d try to clean out the gunk.
We had a big well attended auction and the Chicago cousins were happy, and even the three grieving widows turned out happy, because each one had been “married” to him over ten years so each one got his survivors benefits from Social Security.
The only person that shed one tear, was his Missouri girlfriend, that would have got the entire estate, if she’d been a widow who actually lived with him until he died.
——
In Missouri, a spouse who abandons the other for one continuous year prior to the decedent's death can be barred from inheriting, as well as from other statutory allowances, under RSMo Section 474.140,unless a voluntary reconciliation and resumption of cohabitation occurred. This statute specifically addresses situations where a spouse either voluntarily leaves for an adulterer, or abandons the other spouse without reasonable cause and lives separate and apart for a full year before the decedent's death.
——
The Chicago cousins said they thought he had a big wad of cash stashed someplace, but the girlfriend claimed he was such a tightwad he never changed his oil.
I did make double sure, he got a nice tombstone.
It was the least I could do for him, you know?
But if you decide to never change your oil, it’s risky to start at 50,000 miles.
Sing one Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys!
Will You Miss Me
Synthetic of course. I change the oil every 8 or 10 thousand kilometers, also sometimes, before filling the fuel tank, I put a liter of two-stroke motorcycle oil, then I fill the fuel tank to the top. It does a good job of lubricating and cleaning up the avoid white smoke. It is a fiat punto diesel. with 200,000 kilometers on it. It's from 2000 I think, the Fiat, it belongs to my wife. I sold my toyota that I bought in 99.
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That's it! Maybe we should change the focus of this forum from pipes to auto service.
I still have that car, and those pants.That's it! Maybe we should change the focus of this forum from pipes to auto service.
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