Quick! Change that Oil !

[a2jack]

The first oil change/service is called for at 10,000 miles by MB/Smart. This is weird...

I have been visually inspecting our oil for dirt all through the break in and up through 8,500 miles. Suddenly it turned black.

My guess is the oil filter reached it's max capacity and started to leach.

Why would corp not encourage more frequent oil changes as our dealers could sure use the business. ? Why not a larger filter?

IMO the oil change frequency is directly tied into their over all service schedule revenue, and not at all with the health of the engine. (It only has to go 24k and they are off the hook.)

I suspect, as in other areas of this car's design such as the Air Con, and shifter, they designed themselves into a box and can not escape without spending big bucks.

Biased on this experience, I will change oil at 6-7k and take all MB/Smart manual information with a very large grain of salt. A2Jack.

[Okie Boy]

Originally Posted by a2jack

The first oil change/service is called for at 10,000 miles by MB/Smart. This is weird...

I have been visually inspecting our oil for dirt all through the break in and up through 8,500 miles. Suddenly it turned black.

My guess is the oil filter reached it's max capacity and started to leach.

Why would corp not encourage more frequent oil changes as our dealers could sure use the business. ? Why not a larger filter?

IMO the oil change frequency is directly tied into their over all service schedule revenue, and not at all with the health of the engine. (It only has to go 24k and they are off the hook.)

I suspect, as in other areas of this car's design such as the Air Con, they designed themselves into a box and can not escape without spending big bucks.

Biased on this experience, I will change oil at 6-7k and take all MB/Smart manual information with a very large grain of salt. A2Jack.

The black in engine oil is particulate-carbon which particles are to small to be captured by the oil filter. You are correct to assume if the oil filter were to clog the by-pass would open and allow the oil to circulate un-filtered.

Engine oil turning black is not a bad thing. It is possible to filter the carbon from the oil with a by-pass oil filter but I doubt you woul find enough room to install one in our smarts.

I am changing my oil every 5000 miles just because I am from the old school.

[Karl Roth]

Here I was thinking that the car was about the conservation of increasingly precious resources.
karl

[Old smart]

Originally Posted by Karl Roth

Here I was thinking that the car was about the conservation of increasingly precious resources.
karl

Valid, but if done right, the used oil is re-cycled. Every place around here that sells oil retail that I know of accepts the used stuff back. Batteries too. AutoZone even accepts the empty plastic bottles. It may be the law here as you have to fill out a line on a form and sign it (name, town, product, amount).

N.B. Used filters are problematic though. But so far, Al Gore hasn't sent me a nastygram about my changing filters every 6 months.

[Karl Roth]

Originally Posted by Old smart

Valid, but if done right, the used oil is re-cycled. Every place around here that sells oil retail that I know of accepts the used stuff back. Batteries too. AutoZone even accepts the empty plastic bottles. It may be the law as you have to fill out a line on a form and sign it (name, town, product, amount).

most of us are changing the stuff way too early (myself included) the amount of energy required to recycle the oil is not any less than the stuff coming out of the ground. At sea you can see water as far as you can see. How much of that can you drink? We need to think about what and why we do things.
karl

[Old smart]

Originally Posted by a2jack

... I have been visually inspecting our oil for dirt all through the break in and up through 8,500 miles. Suddenly it turned black.

My guess is the oil filter reached it's max capacity and started to leach. ...

Because the filter is mounted at a fairly steep angle I don't think it is an anti-drain back valve problem. But if the filter is blocked and the by-pass valve in the bottom opens, it ceases filtering anything.

I have seen the insides of the small, OEM Tokyo Roki filter and know it to be well built. But I know nothing of the filtering caracteristics of its semi-fleece element: what micron size does it trap?; how long does it take to block and open the by-pass?

For myself, I would/will go for the best fully synthetic fleece filter I can lay my hands on. They cost no more than the OEMs and are easier to obtain.