[encoderer]

Illuminating.

A lot of the stories I've heard about Mercedes Qc issues in the first part of the last decade is oil related. That in some case, they had issues when they first changed to an annual oil change maintenance spec using conventional oil. Then, perhaps on different engines, they had issues when advising a 12k or 15k interval (can't remember which) on synthetic.

Seems they learned from the mistakes around 2006-7 and from that point forward their maintenance spec is strictly syn (mobile 1) on a 10k, 1yr change interval.

I had oil analysis done on my last change, a 5.5l v8, which I ran for about 11k miles, and the results were very good. The oil probably had another few thousand miles life in it. Not that I'd push it, it was just good to know I didn't have sludge after 11k miles.

[code_pockets]

The problem they had with the "oil" was not the oil, but the engine itself.

The engines had a coating applied to the cylinder walls that (theoretically) reduce frinction. Turns out the coating was a bad decision (it wasn't throughly tested (see a pattern?)), and they rolled back to their old way of building engines (which was pretty good).

I do think the 10k is not a problem with Mobil 1 synthetic. I've used that oil for about 15k on my own cars without complications.

If you want to learn more about the engine problems, you might want to ddg the words "mercedes benz nikasil".