I'm a prospective diesel buyer and have a question. How much oil should a MB 5cyl diesel use as a norm? I have found one car for sale which declares
1 qt/1300 mi is 'normal' for this engine (about 150,000 mi). This seems high to me but all I've owned were gas engine cars. What say you?
In my limited survey of two ('79 300sd & '84 300d) that is much higher than I would be happy with. it may be a simple oil leak, but it is not a good sing
SIGN I meant sign.
It isn't a good sing either, but that is another thing entirely.
Bernard
Not normal, but within specifications. Generally, the harder an engine is driven the more oil it will use. I've owned a 300SD for many years and find it uses about 1 to 1.5 qts in 5K miles; its now at 108K. A well maintained diesel should go 250K to 300K miles, much less if poorly maintained.
The best diagnosis of any diesel's condition is a compression check. That WILL tell you whether that engine is in good condition (and has substantial miles remaining before an overhaul is needed) or will be a bad buy. Either way, YOU will know and then can buy or walk away with confidence in your decision.
In message , L A Davenport writes
I'm afraid I don't know how much an MB 5 cyl uses or is spec'd to use. I'm guessing that it's a fairly recent car. I also don't know what a quart is :-)
I took my '98 300TD back to the dealer when it was less than six months old because it was using about a litre every 10,000 miles. They said that was perfectly within tolerance.
I'm sure if you call a dealer, they'll give you the expected oil usage.
Hth Bill
I have an 83 300SD, engine is in perfect condition with 180,000 miles. I have had this car from 65,000 miles and it uses about a quart of oil every 2,000 miles in mixed driving. Highway speeds normally at 75-80 mph, city 35-45 mph. The engine actually runs betyter now than it did when I first bought it. A quart in 1,300 miles sounds a bit excessive, do a compression check. Take the oil cap off with the engine running, if you have lots of blowby it will show up there. IMHO, at a hot idle, the oil pressure gauge should read no lower than 1.5 bar. Good Luck, Doug.
On 2004-09-29 10:19:50 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (dkmcp) said: A quart in 1,300 miles sounds a bit excessive,
Don't forget, some of this oil could be leaking also... Which is usually a better deal since it's often easier to fix leaks that are external...
Take a good close look around the engine compartment/undercarriage and you might see somewhere that some of the oil is escaping...
Marty
That's too high. I've owned two W123 300*Ds that were purchased with over 150K miles on them and which both went over 200K. My oil change inteval was 4K miles, and neither of them ever needed any oil added between changes. The oil level in the first car never decreased visibly at all, and the oil level in the second car, which I still have and which now has 270K miles on it, just barely drops between oil changes.
Geoff
'91 300D 2.5 60K '82 300CD 279K '85 300D (RIP)
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