Badly maintained 312D - year 1999.

Hello.
New to the forum, hope to have a pleasant stay.

I just bought a Sprinter 312D 1999 with a Disel 2874 engine (122hp) with 320.000km (198.838 miles) on it.

But it seems that its last owner was very reckless, I found the oil service list and it seems the oil change went 12.000km (7456 miles) over when it should have bean changed!

I hear a rattling of short from the engine when at over 2000 rpm. Do you think the engine is permanently damaged?
Or will it be ok after I have the oil changed?

I was thinking of putting Militec in the oil before I drive the 35km (21 mile) to have the oil changed on monday.
Good idea or not?

Grateful for any advice or thoughts.

Teitur.
Welcome to the forum. The noise you are hearing is not related to the delayed oil change. If you have problem it is more likely to be from the type of oil not the delayed change. The rattle is most likely a leaky injector or something external to the motor. Bearing and piston rattles are more noticeable at idle. Eric

Thank you for the help.

The engine sounds very good at idle and low RPM <1500.
But looses its charm at higher RPM.

What oil do you recommend for an old bird like this?
I was thinking of using some type of very thin oil so the old remains will be burned away and changing the oil again in 2000 km or so.

Are you in OZ or UK?

The oil spec sheet to use 229.1 although it looks like bevo has started asking for a password.
I have been using Mobil Super 2000 X1 10W40 because it's one of the easier ones from the spec sheet to get hold of and cheaper than the others I've found. I'm not really sure what is the best oil to use, I started using 10W40 figuring that at 16 years old with 200k miles the engine would be a bit loose, but when I had it apart last summer it was actually surprisingly good on all tolerances so maybe I should have gone with a 5 or 10W30? The first number depends on your operating temp, the UK is rarely cold enough to really warrant using 0 or 5 oil, certainly not year round although I notice that for the next generation engines Mercedes recommend them when you use fuel with high biofuel content......

I guess if you are wanting to purge your oil with a lighter grade first, you probably don't want to go lighter than 0W30 to ensure you have adequate lubrication, but to be honest I never saw any buildups or crud anywhere in my oil system. I don't think mine has always been maintained well either, it was clearly run with just water in the radiator for a while, I believe the rust in the water pump, and pipework caused the cracked head and piston, although all my injectors needed new nozzles so one of them may have cause hot running (except the wired injector, after having it changed twice I was told by a different specialist they can't be changed, the sensor never works afterwards so you need a whole new injector).

Rattles I find hard to find, there is plenty of external stuff it could be but around the exhaust is usually the first place I start hunting.

Teitur.
Just change the oil in the normal way, Use the oil recommended by your local supplier. I use fuchs titan cargo 20/50 but there are others. Eric

I wouldn't stress about the extended interval.

My previous one was serviced according to ASSYST intervals of around 21/3,000 miles and lasted phenomenally well. It too developed a curious light rattle at certain load RPMs, I thought it sounded "top endy" but it could just as easily have been a loose bracket or who knows what? The key thing is that to find it would have likely consumed hours and cash with only a small probability of success. I decided to live with it.

Thank you all for the tips.

I can live with the rattle, but I need the car to run for not less than 4 years (preferably 5).
So I want to be good to it from the very beginning.

I thought the thinner the oil the better the lubrication you get (better penetration through the bearings), do I have that one wrong???
Im in Iceland, not sure what OZ stands for

Teitur,
With the modern multi-viscosity oils, when your engine is up to temperature, and needs the full 40 weight viscosity index, the 0w-40....5W-40....10W-40 oils are all the same when your engine gets up in the 180 deg. F normal temp range.
How these modern multi-viscosity oil differ is that they provide superior lubrication at cold start up. Current thinking/wisdom on this is that much of the bearing/ring/ and internal engine wear occurs during the cold start and warm up periods. So, as the engine warms, the oil gets thicker....ultimately resulting in all of the above multi-viscosity oils having the same "thickness or weight" when the engine is at operating temperature.
It will be the same in Iceland as it is in the Sahara Desert. The engine temp is controlled by the thermostat and all Sprinters should come up to ~ 180 deg. F (82 deg. C) the NCV3's run about 10 deg warmer for emissions reasons and they normally run about ~ 190 deg. F (87 deg. C)
Roger

Good information!

Did you mean to say:
"as the engine warms, the oil gets thicker"
Dont you mean as the oil gets hotter it gets thinner??

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

So......
In Iceland where it can get very cold you would want the 0-30 or 40
The O means there is less viscosity at cold temps.
Less viscosity means easier to start when cold.
30 viscosity is as thick as it will get
40 viscosity is as thick as it will get
0 is thin
40 is thicker
A multi vis oil (0-40) operates at multiple viscosities.

Video from a drive that I took.
If anyone has a good ear for abnormal sounds please tune in.
To me its most noticeable after 2 minutes when above 3000 RPM, but can be heard when above 2500 RPM.

http://youtu.be/g_6K8op73Bc

What was the distance travelled between services? not just 12000 km over
Synthetic oil allows anything up to 30,000 km most change it at 15000 km though
Mineral oil change at 10,000kms

Listened to the video and the extra noise sounds like the jet boosted diesel heater which means there may be a leak in either intake or exhaust.

Teitur.
There are a few noises there, the loudest sounds like the tail shaft center bearing. Eric

Well Amboman

its last oil change was at 212.760 km, in the book they write that the next change should happen at 218.700 km and the car is now at 230.000 km - so that is about 17.000 km (10.563 miles). But I figure having 6000 km between oil changes is a little short.

You are right about the blow out.
I looked at it better and there seems to be ether the gasket between the engine and the exhaust or on the exhaust itself, have to look better later.

Eric.

Is this the center bearing you talk about?
Could this fault be in my car? I don't hear this, but im not that in tune with the car to notice yet.
https://sprinter-source.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21794&d=1267842894

https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749&highlight=tail+shaft+center+bearing

Teitur said:

Good information!

Did you mean to say:
"as the engine warms, the oil gets thicker"
Dont you mean as the oil gets hotter it gets thinner??

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Click to expand...

This concept is sometimes difficult to get across, the oil gets thinner as it warms up, but the important thing is that when cold, a multigrade oil has a similar viscosity to a single grade oil which is much thinner all the time.

So a 0W40 oil is as thin as a 0 grade oil when it's -25C (extreme winter temp here!), and as thin as a 40 grade oil at 90-95C (operating temp), noting that a 40 grade oil at 90C is thinner than a 0 grade at -25C. This multigrade behaviour is achieved with fancy additives, I think polymer based, and it means that the oil is thinner when cold so it gets spread around the engine more quickly to make sure it is protected from start up.

Since you are in Iceland where I suspect winter temps go below -25C, you will want a multigrade oil with a 0 starting point. Whether you choose 30 or 40 for the viscosity at operating temperature depends on the amount of engine wear, a low viscosity oil will leave a thinner coating on parts, so if the wear means the clearance is bigger than the oil film the engine is going to rattle and wear a bit more which is why most people would start with 0W30 in a new engine, and change to 0W40 later in it's life. Having measured the clearances in mine, I'm not so sure that at 200000 miles (320000km) it is necessarily worn enough to need the 10W40 I am putting in it (10W40 OK for starting in temps down to -20C, I have only known -18C here once and it was considered 'extreme'!), I might be OK with 10W30.

By the way, Oz is a nickname for Australia - easy to think it's always hot there but it is effectively a continent in it's own right with varying climate, I bet there aren't many parts of it that need a 0 grade engine oil though?
Most of the non-US members here seem to be from UK or Australia, although there are a few Scandinavians too. That will teach me to try and guess where people are from - I knew it wasn't US because they never had the 312D Sprinter!

Thank you for the explanation Boater, I get what you mean.
We actually don't get that many cold days here. -16 is about the lowest Ive seen continuously for many days. And ive never seen below -20.

I read this article Motor oil 101 its good.
A little above my head (allot over actually), but this guy says everyone should use a 0W5-40 oil. It helps with lubrication when the car is cold and gives you higher MPG.

But, I think I understand him correctly in saying that thinner oil also builds up more oil pressure in the engine?
And that might be fatal in an old car like mine I believe?

I remember the term ozzy, I just did not make the connection
Very happy you mistook me to be native to English

Teitur.
Yes that is the bearing I refer to but you should fix the exhaust leek first and then listen again. Eric