I made the mistake 4 years ago of purchasing a car for my wife that she wanted, but that I did not think was a good car.

(I drive a 38,000 dollar Ram Truck (and I love it))

She wanted a Merceds Benz.

this was the 1st time I purchase a car from MB (and the last time).

the car now has over 100,000 miles and it has been in and out of the dealership over 6 times with similar problems, all electrical.

I was fortunate to have purchased the extended warranty. SO we are still covered til 120,000 miles or the year 2022

which I believe, the EW will expire by mid 2019 because she drives so much.


In any event, I want to share with you all what I did!! LOL

every time I take the car to have the oil changed, it will cost about 1200 dollars!!

Yes, freaking 1200 dollars to change the oil, because, each time, they add on some other crazy charges.

I think an oil change is 800 or so, i do not know, but I have always paid over 1000



SO, the last 3 times, I have refused to do that,

I decided to take it upon myself to change the oil myself.

Now, to change the oil, I purchased these ramps, and drive the car over them, and the front end gets raised about 10 inches.

I can then get under the car, and I have to remove this noise reduction pan with 12 bolts, takes me about 15 minutes to do.

then I can remove the oil drain bolt/washer, and empty out the oil from the crank case.

Then, the filter is actually in the top of the crank case.

You have to purchase an actual filter that cost 5 to 15 dollars, with a rubber seal.

I unscrew the oil filter cap, remove the filter and seal, and then replace them.

Once I do this, I then go back under the car and install a brand new oil pan bolt with a brand new washer. Then re install the air reduction pan.

the washer, bolt, and filter and seal cost under 20 dollars.

I order them from a WS called Pelican Parts.



Ok, now, I then fill the oil using Mobil One 0 w 40 synthetic oil for 5 quarts. then I turn the motor on, pull the car out and place it level in the garage. then I will check the dipstick and add more oil, which is usually 3 more quarts, for a total of 8 quarts, making sure I do not over fill it.

After changing the oil, I then have to reset the Service Warning. Pretty easy to do if you follow a You Tube video that explains how to do this.



Now, just this weekend, I did something different.

I decided to not get under the car.


I have a 12 volt fuel station pump that i Used to use for smoke oil, like 6 years ago. It is a cheap pump I purchased from Graves RC. the pump has not been used in 5 years I bet.

SO, I cut off the metal nipples, which had a very small diameter, and once i did that, the openings to the inlet and outlet are almost 1/4" I want to say. Maybe 3/16"

I then got the extra large Tygon tubing I have in my shop, which I do not use either cause it is too big for all my fittings, I had purchased by accident from McMasterr Carr.


I then opened the front lid of the car, removed the dipstick, and inserted about 4 feet of the tubing into the dipstick opening. I then turned on the pump and low and behold, the pump was strong enough to empty out every drop of oil from the the bottom of the crank case. the outlet tubing conveniently was placed into an old empty 5 quart oil bottle. I then take the old oil in the used oil bottles back to Wal Mart, where I puchased the oil. 5 quarts of synthetic costs about 25 dollars.

I then changed out the oil filter, refilled the 9 quarts or so it took to get the oil level to where I wanted it without over filling it.

I believe doing it this way, I got more oil out than the other way.

ANd, best part, I saved over 1000 dollars!!!

Very cool Cam!! I have always heard that MB was a maintenance nightmare!!