Engine Oil Approval Compatibility.

[smart_guy]

Dear All:

As we all know, engine oil has approval numbers like 229.1 and 229.5.

I need to know if oils under different approvals are back word compatible.

Like; are oils under 229.5 compatible with engines that require oil approval 229.1?

Can we use an oil with 229.5 approval on a 1995 S500 without any concern?

I know this is so technical, but I thought I'd give it a try.

Thank you in advance.

[fanboy]

As far as I know, the oil specs are not supplantive/supersessive. They don't just keep getting better. Newer oils aren't necessarily recommended for older cars.

See "meta-specification" 223.2, attached, which lays it out in a table.

[Kajtek1]

Don't know about newer oils not recommended for older cars.
Even my lawnmower is running on synthetic. Mainly for the convenience of not keeping 6 different oils in my garage.
Oils play small role in engine life and even on cooking oil the engine will run for long time, but MB usually baby their cars and are religious about fluids.
Our 1998 ML320 was run on dino oil for first 5 years, getting usually 13k miles/18 months intervals in this period. By the time my whole family got tired of it, it logged 12 years/130,000 miles needed only $3 or 400 of mechanical parts that failed in those 12 years.
The most perfect vehicle I ever hear about and I still wonder if the dino oil helped in it.

[smart_guy]

Thank you guys for the replies.

The reason I put this topic up is my concern with the high mileage old engine in my car. Now it is +200k miles and I've been hammering it ever since I bought it 3 years ago. And I mean it. I don't hesitate going +120mph anytime.

229.1 oils are disappearing little by little from the market here.

Manufacturers surely prefer to change oil structure to meet newer engine physique (where did this word come from?!?!). May be the reason Mercedes is so religious with engine oil is to ensure quality and performance (or with the least loss) under extreme conditions. I've been following those religiousness the last 3 years and thankfully the car runs like new.

Plus, these engine love zddp which keeps going lower the newer the oils get.

Many say that a w124 lives forever if you take care of it. I guess that religiousness is part of this "take care of it".

Guess I'll have to keep using 229.1 for now.

[fanboy]

My suggestion would be to import (on your own) a big quantity of the oil you need. One time. That's what I do for my Mobil 1 supply. Synthetic oil doesn't degrade. You could even pool some friends/family together to buy a bigger quantity.

I'd love to hear your stories about driving 120 MPH+ in Saudi. What's the speed enforcement like? (Oh man, I went to high school with a lot of Saudis; I miss their stories about "one time back in Saudi...")

That W124 looks great. Now I kind of want one too.

[smart_guy]

Actually at the moment I got it covered as I found a good 10w40 semi-synthetic oil with approval 229.1 locally provided and in big quantities at the moment. Lucky me, it is an all year round oil too.

I was collecting information for worst case scenarios. The only available 15w40 with approval 229.1 got discontinued all the sudden (found some with approval 228.3 but that's too old) and I don't wanna use 20w50 in winter. Finding the 10w40 I'm talking about took too much of my time as service centers only deal with a little variety of oils and a very small number of them have it but with like double the price. Found only one local dealer next city. This is one source that I can buy big quantity from.

Unfortunately we do not have places like Walmart here.

Had to get ready for such a crisis, should it happen, so I put this topic up. I'm planning on keeping this w124 for the rest of my life . Well, maybe if the engine dies I would make it a project and put a 560 on it. I guess if I'm religious about it, that won't happen.

On the other hand, driving fast with these cars is fun specially if it is sedan or coupe with at least an I6 engine. I live in a city and work in another, connecting between them a 60km high way (120km two way trip). From time to time it is tempting to drive fast and reach 120mph but unfortunately can't maintain that high speed for long because of high way patrols and speed trap camera. Now we even have undercover high way patrols, mostly Crown Vics. They can be recognized by their antenna at close range. Usually it is easy to reach 100mph but more than that needs some extra guts mixed with cleverness and maneuverability to avoid getting caught. In normal cases I fix the speed at 80mph because the limit is 75mph and there is an allowed 10% over speed limit.

That w124 drives and feels almost exactly as your 300SEL does. Exceptions are it has narrower interior, less air insulation on higher speeds (but it's not that bad), drives easier in town due to shorter body, and is quicker due to weight difference. It has the same engine with the same power output if yours is a Euro. There is like 8-10hp difference between the US and Euro.

Now I myself would love to hear how was your experience with those Saudi students. To be honest with you, I'm not expecting much from them. For some reason, Saudis younger than 20 are real trouble makers here and older than that won't give you much impression simply because not may Saudis speak English ha ha.

[Kajtek1]

the younger than 20 years trouble makers are international. Trust me on this.
My father was few years on contract in SA, but that was like 30 years ago and sure everything changed since than.
My stepbrother meet his Dutch wife there and sure they still have horror stories to tell how they had to hide the relationship.
Can you legally have radar detector? My ValentineOne saved me few thousands dollars over the years, but lately CA police is getting hand-held radars with optical targeting that can pick you up from crowd on split second activation.
Did you study in English language schools?

[smart_guy]

So it is universal... now this is reassuring

30 years is a really long time. And yeah, the law is really protective here when it comes to relationships specially at work. I hope things are going fine with your stepbrother.

Not sure about the law against radar detectors here and I never thought of getting a radar detector. Guess I'll check it out.

In the past 5 years I had like 5 speeding tickets which means an average of 1 ticker a year. Total amount was like 500 Dollars.

I learned English the hard way. When I was little I loved video games and cartoons (still love them so much) and 90% was in English. The cartoons were subbed and I had to look up translations for video games. In school we had 4 English sessions a week but that wasn't really helpful as the teachers were not native English speakers. After graduation from high school I joined the English department of College of Social Sciences (yup, not the Arts). That was helpful in the basics of the language and reading and writing only. I had the opportunity to make a difference in my listening and speaking when I got my job 5 years ago as almost all of the staff did not speak Arabic so English was the only way to communicate. I also have some native English speaking friends on internet communities.

The story of my life

[fanboy]

Oils: I would not mess with semi-synthetic. What's the point? It has all the bad properties of dino oil (e.g., degrading with time), at a price not much cheaper than real synthetic. I guess it's a matter of personal preference, but if I were you, I'd just import a load of Mobil 1 from the US (or Dubai or whatever) and be done with it for a few years.

Off-topic ramblings below:

Saudi kids: Well, we were kids. They were not "troublemakers" any more than regular teenagers are troublemakers. I do remember how cartoonish it was that ALL of their fathers drove white Rolls Royces, true to the most cartoonish stereotypes of Saudis. Since then, I've had contact with some moneyed young Arabs, and, well, they're like rich young people everywhere. Sorry that I don't have any specific opinions about them being "bad kids," because they're no different from anyone else. I do have some funny stories about how some of them humorously dealt with / reacted to post-2001 anti-Arab sentiment in the US, but that's a story for another time.

The only interesting observation I have about young Saudi men IN SAUDI ARABIA (not those studying abroad) is that they are REALLY into their hobbies. I mean, really, obsessively into these very specific hobbies. Like, I can imagine (just making this up, but I think an accurate representation) a Saudi guy who spends all his free time, say, building completely realistic models of vintage Mercedes diesel engines. I guess because traditionally, free time (outside work and religious obligations) is spent only at home, and it's not like guys go to bars to hang out and pick up chicks.

My other observation is, the Saudi binge drinking I've observed in Dubai. Yikes. Understandable when their only exposure to alcohol is a "boys' night out in Dubai" once a month or so.

I'll send you a PM and we can talk more without cluttering the forum.

[smart_guy]

To be honest with you, I made a decision not to use anything but dino (mineral) oil simply because it is cheap and I prefer changing more often; in 4000km (2500miles) intervals even though the manual says every 5000km (3125miles) in extreme worst cases. The engine also is too old to benefit from blends or full synthetics. But then the crisis I talked about forced me use that blend (semi-synthetic), just because it was approved by Mercedes. In summer I'll most likely use the dino Mobil 20w50 (approved as well).

As for the debate on semi-synthetics, I always thought, and I might be wrong, that it gets a percentage of the synthetic qualities (my concerns are better protection and revving at cold starts) but dealt with as a dino when it comes to changing intervals. So I'll still change it every 4000km.

Someone, with my gratitude, is hopefully going to be so kind an add to this.

Off topic:

I wish I was one of those rich sons of Rolls Royce owners. The most fancy car my father ever owned is a 4x4 Ford Expedition and I a Crown Vic. I'm still grateful to what God gave me of great parents, health and means of life.