[drcharlesatlas]

Should I begin to use synthetic oil in my 1989 190e 2.6 baby benz? The engine has 70,000 miles of use with mineral oil, but I am thinking that since I had such good results with Valvoline Max Life 5w-30 in my 1989 Honda Prelude that I should give it a try in the Benz. Any opinions, advice based on experience is appreciated. Thanks

 

[Yal]

I'm not even going to try and tell you what oil to use but I just found out that Mobil1 now makes a high mileage Synthetic oil. If you decide to go with synthetic maybe you should give that a try. Valvoline Max Life is a very good oil by the way.

 

[strd27]

You can use any oil that you like. I will only tell you my story. I bought a new car off the lot did the brake in then changed to 100 percent syn I used Val. I lost the motor at 96000 miles I lost the conn rod bearing. I did oil changes with 100 percent syn at 4 months or 4000 miles NEVER went over but still lost the motor e-mailed Val to see if they wanted to help on the motor. It took over 2 months and I could not wait any longer I put a crate motor in all at my cost. Funny thing Val sent me the e-mail conf. so I know they got it but still haven't heard a word. I still use val but I will never use any syn oil. I like the real thing

 

[Ignatz]

One of the strong points of all of our 190's is that the engine is happy with regular motor oil. There are no weak points in our engines that need synthetic oil to help band-aid design problems. Go on the Saab sites and read about sludging. They need synthetic to band-aid a poor PVC system. Some BMW M-3's need special 60wt type oil to band-aid undersize conecting rod dimentions. We drive small "tanks" that were over designed and slightly underpowered. If I would run synthetic, I still would choose a heavier oil like Mobil 1, 15-50. I would only run 5-30 in my car if the temperature never got above freezing. I ran straight 30 wt. Shell ($0.59) a qt. and sent an oil anylasis out for testing and the lab said the oil was so good after 3,000 miles that I could sell the oil to my neighbors! So, put in whatever you want and use a quality filter. The timing chain likes clean oil so just following the recomended oil change interval in the owners manual is fine. Just my opinion.....The owners book has a great chart in it for viscosity.

 

[hamada128]

I would suggest you to read this PAGE first

 

[Samoila Stefan]

 

[drcharlesatlas]

Thanks for your good advice. I think I'll just go with yhe mineral oil

 

[drcharlesatlas]

Sorry to hear of your experience. Was the car you bought off the lot a Mercedes? Thanks for your reply.

 

[cyberdyne]

Would 15W40 Rotella be suitable for use in my 190E 2.3 Euro?

I know it is great in my 560SEC Euro!

- Steve

 

[Ignatz]

!5-40 "fleet" oil is probably the best all around oil for our generation of MB.