My 240d (210,000 miles) was smoking for several years and I recently put Delo oil in it a few months ago. The smoking decreased drastically and now it smokes very little.

Is there something about Delo that caused this? Also, I was wondering if changing to synthetic would be good at this mileage.

When I put it into my Suburban at 60,000 miles, it sprung several leaks. After having them fixed, it is OK and I still use synthetic in it. I was afraid that the 240d might also start leaking if I made the change.

Thanks

You did not say what oil you were using before the change to Delo. If you were not using a universal grade oil, then maybe this did have some effect.

I personally feel that due to some of the special needs for oil in a diesel, you would be better served going to a synthetic universal grade such as Mobil Delvac 1, OR stay with Delo and change it at 3,000 mile intervals. The latter worked for me, it took my original 240D engine to 380,000 miles.

Good luck,

I'm with Larry. Most likely the previous oil you were using was not diesel-specific oil, and now your car is much happier with the proper lube in the sump!

I would definitely recommend synthetic oil - preferably Delvac-1 or Delo Synthetic, which are hard to locate. An easily found substitute is Mobil-1 15W-50 (with the red cap), and this is approved by MB for use in all their engines. Amsoil and Red Line synthetics are also excellent.

Don't worry about the mileage on your car, I changed all my cars at over 200kmi and had zero problems. Mobil-1 actually has some seal-swelling properties and can reduce small leaks. It will not create new leaks. It may make existing leaks more noticeable but if you have bad seals, they should be replaced, not ignored by using different oil (IMO). Anyway your Suburban experience is not that common... usually switching at such a low mileage results in zero problems.

DO NOT use any xW-30 weight Mobil-1 (silver, blue, or green caps) - they are not approved by MB and are too thin for your diesel. Also avoid Castrol SynTec and Rotella Synthetic, both are hydrocracked dino oils that don't stand up as well as the "good" oils mentioned before. If you stick with dino, use Delvac 1300 or Delo 400 and change by 5kmi or so.


FYI - I use Delvac-1 in all my cars and change at 10-15kmi with oil analysis at each change to confirm that the interval is OK. So far, so good! My last change at 10k showed 0.9% soot, which is extremely low... could have gone 20k!


Regards,

__________________
Dave
Boise, ID
Check out my website photos, documents, and movies!

Thanks for the replies. I had been using Castrol and Quaker State dino oils. Might try some synthetic now to see what happens.

I am glad you mentioned the cap color on the synthetics. I would have assumed that all that mattered was that the oil was synthetic so now, I will be very careful when buying some.

Thanks again