I own a year 2000 Mercedes C280 that I rarely drive. The car uses synthetic oil, and the recommended oil change interval is every 10,000 miles. The last oil change was in April 2008 at 72,000 miles. As of today, Jan 7, 2010 I have put on 6,000 miles. I have asked mechanics and were told difference answers on whether to change oil or not. Do I need to change oil at this time? Please help.
Read your owners manual. It’ll probably not only have a mileage interval but also a time interval.
It does not indicate time interval…
How do you do your driving? A mile here and there, or 30 miles at a time? Frequent short drives may result in few miles, but are extremely hard on the oil.
The interval on those longer intervals is typically 10k miles OR every year whichever first. Change it.
Did a google out of curiosity:
Drive to work, which is about 17 miles one way. Sometimes a few days, sometimes one week or a couple of weeks at a time then I park it in garage.
Thanks for helping.
Thanks for the link, I got the same search result myself, just confused about the information provided there. It started with the car is equipped with Flexible Service System that can monitor a whole bunch of stuff for me and tell me when to change, then it goes change it anyway. Which is it?? It costs $150 or more at the dealership…
Their bottom line was change every year to be safe, which is probably good advice, unless the oil monitor tells you sooner (which it probably won’t). I have an older truck that is very low annual mileage, and I can tell you that it is working fine with fourteen to eighteen month oil changes, without the sophisticated oil monitor.
What level of risk are you willing to take? With my older truck, I have voted on fourteen to eighteen month oil changes; not so sure if I owned a Mercedes. Your call.
Thank everyone who contributed to assist me. I guess I will take the car in for an oil change, just to be on the safe side.
Oh, come on. Be a sport and argue with us that you don’t need to change the oil. Be more like a couple of other recent posts. Seriously, it is refreshing to see someone thank those who write in for your problem. I think you are doing the right thing to change the oil.
You should find an independent MB mechanic for this type of thing, should be way less than $150.
You are ready for a change…
“…should be way less than $150.”
I agree. An independent mechanic should do it for $50-$75.