The Crossfire is my first synthetic oil vehicle. With all my prior vehicles, I got the oil changed "every 3 months or 3,000 miles" - because I take the subway to work, more often than not I hit the 3 mos before hitting the 3K miles. The Xfi owner's manual says the oil change (with A or B service) should be done every 7,000 miles (less with harsh road conditions). I get mine done every 5,000 miles to be on the safe side given D.C. road conditions (lots of short trips & stop and go traffic). Today is June 2, 2007 and I got my last oil change/B Service in January 2007; in that time I've only put 2K miles on it. Is there any harm in waiting until 5K miles for my next oil change?, or do I need to change the oil now by virtue of time elapsed? It may be the end of the year before I hit 5K miles. Is a year too long to go without changing the oil so long as you're honoring the mileage-based service interval? The manual doesn't address this & I don't like that.

 

I average about 4,500 miles per year (90% in the summer). I change mine once per year in November, the dealer told me, once per year if you don't hit the 7,000 mile mark.

 

The crossfire engine management system, as with all MB cars, analyses the mileage, ambient temperature, trip duration and many other factors to advise you when to get service. The FSS will tell you when to get service including oil changes. Changing it more often is not necessary.

 

I agree with you and change my oil when the FSS tells me to.

In all fairness tho, do a search on the topic. It has been discussed in length, pro and con, since this board
first came into being in 2003. It all boils down as to what each owner is comfortable with...

 

As with the old Mercedes, I go with the FSS. No issues yet. 130,000 on the Mercedes. The Crossfire only had 5,000 miles on it at the beginning of this year and is now my daily driver due to fuel costs. But I will go with the FSS. My average oil change interval was 1,500 miles up to this year...

 

I'll have to ponder. The skeptic in me says the FSS is merely a downwardly counting odometer. I've never seen its recommendation vary from the pure mileage based prescribed time, despite harsh city driving conditions in DC.

 

I know the FSS in my Mercedes varied in both directions. Sometimes it would go over by a few hundred miles, and other times it would go under by a couple of thousand miles depending on driving conditions. I hate to assume things, but in this case I would assume that the Crossfire would do the same. I don't have enough miles on the XF to say for sure, but for now (I just went out and checked) it looks like the FSS will be around a thousand miles under for this oil change.