After reading a ton of threads with people saying that their dealers and Mini corporate have told them that it's normal for Minis to burn as much as 1 quart of oil ever 1000 miles, I have to ask, WTF? I'm sorry but I have never heard of something so ridiculous in all my life. My last car was a high performance turbo and in the almost 70K miles that I drove it for, I never, not one single time, had to add even a drop of oil. I have also owned plenty of other cars and the only cars I've ever had to add oil to between oil changes were complete pieces of crap, like a 1970 something VW rabbit and an old datsun B210.

Even my 2001 pontiac sunfire which was a pile of crap and the cheapest car pontiac made never burned oil like that.

So, how can it possibly be normal for a brand new or recent model year Mini to burn 1 qt every 1000 miles and Mini claims this is normal?

I'm sorry but this sounds like a load of crap from Mini.

Has anyone else had any other recent model year cars which consumed that much oil and it was considered normal? I've never heard of such a thing.

 

My 2011 MCS has 6000 miles and I check the oil each weekend before we do a club drive or take a trip. Its oil level has not changed 1mm on the dipstick.

I had the oil changed at 1500 miles, not that it matters.

My wifes 2011 Clubby hasn't lost any oil either, that I can tell, but she just hit 2500 miles.

Any car that burns 1 QUART (!?!?) every 1000 miles is thirsty.....

That being said....we drove both our cars like we stole them from day one, following some recent theories that its better to break them in by driving the way you would normally, to seat the rings in the first 200 miles. I'm not saying we redlined every gear and were abusive, but we worked the gears through a full range of RPMS after they were warmed up.

More info HERE: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

I have heard they have a pretty high piston to cylinder wall clearance (.008 I've heard...)

While I have not had the chance to measure first hand...if true, this is a HUGE gap and explains a lot of the high oil consumption.

 

Auto manufacturers and service managers might not share the normal definition of "normal." Normal might mean "that sometimes happens", which is different from "they all do that." Oil consumption that lies within two standard deviations of the Mean (95% of the cases) might be considered "normal."

MINI isn't the only one to adopt the "1 quart per 1000 miles" upper limit before they'll want to tear into what otherwise seems to be a healthy engine trying to identify a repairable problem.

The relatively wide range of oil consumption patterns developed by engines coming out of the same assembly plant has long puzzled me though. Maybe just by the luck of the component parts draw, some engines end up with better balances and tolerances than others. Some make a few more (or less) hp than "normal" on the bench dyno too. Maybe owner break-in procedures or driving patterns also affect subsequent oil consumption. I don't know; but I'm very willing to listen to someone who does.

 

My 93' VW GTi 16V purchased brand new burned 1 qt every 1200 miles......the industry standard I was told way back then was 1qt per 1,000 miles.

Going back further, my 5.0L 302 from 85' with over 90,000 miles burned "0" oil between 3K mile oil changes.....( back then we didnt drive much, maybe 12K miles a year was average for most )

Get an oil catch can. Check oil frequently esp in the N14 engines....At one time it was common to check oil levels during every fill up......

And it's my understanding the lack of oil in these engines is what's causing the timing chains to heat up and stretch....leading some owners to install longer tensioner bolts or whole kits.....

 

The turbo models use some of the oil to aid in lubing the turbo. A common issue people run into is not changing their oil frequently enough, and the turbo seizes because the tube the oil comes through gets gummed up. I check my oil all the time, and it is has never been a quart low. I also do not drive like a grandma, so the oil is always moving.

A phrase to think about: all turbo cars are a bit thirstier than their naturally aspirated cousins.

 

Oil consumption is a little like blood pressure - while lower is generally better, there is a fairly wide range for what is considered "acceptable". Engines vary in their oil consumption due to a wide range of factors. Most new engines use very little, but it is impossible, with current technology, to build hundreds of thousands of engines and not have one in twenty or so use quite a bit of oil.

All engines use oil - anyone who says that their engine "doesn't use a drop" is being disingenuous as it is impossible to measure small rates of oil consumption on a dipstick with all the other variables involved (temp, how long since shutdown, car level or not, etc.). When most people say that their engine doesn't use any oil, they're usually saying that they don't use enough to have to add any makeup oil between changes which may mean they're actually using a fair amount, depending on the frequency of their oil changes.

And oil consumption isn't necessarily the last word in engine health - you can have engines that are very healthy, but have somewhat high oil consumption. In fact, oil consumption of a qt every few thousand is actually good as it lessens upper end ring, piston, and cylinder wear.

So high oil consumption isn't desirable, but it is also one of those things where fixing the problem is extremely expensive and often the cure is often worse than the disease. (You don't want the yokels down at the local Mini shop tearing the engine out of your car and replacing hard bits if you can avoid it.) So the mfgs have adopted standards that err on the side of doing nothing, even for fairly high consumption. This isn't a Mini problem, the whole industry is basically the same.

If you get unlucky, the best approach is usually to suck it up and add oil every third or fourth gas stop. If it gets really high, then the mfg will step in and fix it. This is usually the best way to deal with the problem. It isn't the end of the world and you probably will get lucky on your next car.

- Mark

 

Don't forget that it is a hybrid German-British car. So its the German in it burning the oil. Just a little FYI.

 

I think you need to keep in mind that normal is not necessarily the same thing as acceptable or within specs.

As far as late model cars, yes, we had a 2006 Chrysler that was burning off at least a quart every 1,000 miles. Could not find any signs of a leak and according to Chrysler, this rate was considered within spec.

 

Very good info in this thread and i wil monitor my oil more often now. Does anyone know what a quart low looks like on the dipstick as far as how many millimeters down from the top of the indicator.

 

Are these cars suspected of pulling oil past the rings or valve guides into the chamber (symptoms of a worn, or not yet broken in engine)? Or is it as I suspect, blowing into the intake tract via the crankcase ventilation system? I've been noticing a trend of modern cars with crankcase ventilation systems that to me are not up to the task.

 

 

Mine used about a cup of oil in it's first 1,000 miles and hasn't used any since then, but I've never gon more than 4,500 miles between oil changes. I only have 17,000 miles on the car now that it's 3 years old.

 

Typically, the difference between the high and low marks on the dipstick is about one quart.

 

I had to add a quart of oil once in 6000 miles, about a month and a half before the dealer did its annual free oil change. I have an oil catch can installed and it caught about 6 oz of oil in that time.

Dave

 

64,000 miles on my MINI S. Doesn't even take a sip of oil. But my A4 1.8T drank a quart every 1k miles =\

 

VW / Audi are one of the brands notorious for poor breather function. A lot of TDI owners use catch cans, or even vent right to the atmosphere, because in those cars, a combination of the oil rich intake air, and hot EGR gasses causes a sludge buildup which clogs the intake manifold. I had a dealer service advisor tell me they recommend replacing intake manifolds at 150k

 

I didn’t believe the fact they burn oil neither until one day my engine light came on and my car started making unusual noise. I checked the oil and sure enough it was real low. I always make sure each cars oil is changed on a regular schedule so I would have never thought it could be low. I took my copper S to the dealer for noise issue and the dealer told me my timing chain needs replacing and also told me the copper S definitely burns oil, now I check it every weekend.

 

I have used Motoman's break in technique since 1965 - probably before he was born - on every new car or motorcycle I have had, and I have had quite a few, and I have never had an oil burner. YMMV but it has worked for me for 45 years.

 

I just follow the factory recommendations on my cars/bikes and haven't had any oil burners either (at least until they get old enough that the valve guide seals start shrinking and letting oil past the valve stems, but that has nothing to do with how the engine was broken in.)

With the durability of modern cylinder coatings, I wonder how much of the oil consumption people complain about is actually oil going past the rings and how much of it is from the EGR system. Modern cylinder durability is crazy good - I've seen engines with 100k+ miles on them where the factory honing marks are still visible on the cylinder walls and there's no cylinder ridge worth speaking of.

 

Mine will use up to a quart between oil changes - if - I wait till the MINI computer or the dealer says to change it. So I change it more often.

But I agree with GuitarMan in principle. I've owned a couple dozen cars, and only the junkers of my youth - and my MINI have burned significant oil between changes.

Even though the spec is synthetic, I think the 'free' oil changes is just a gimmick, because if you think like me, you change the oil more frequently than mfr's spec. Especially if the car burns oil between changes, which i have never experienced in a newer car.

 

E9x M3s (current generation) will absolutely DEVOUR oil (which is ONLY available at dealers BTW) if you live in the high-HP upper RPMs. The cost and newness (is that a word) of the car has little to do with it. It's all about the way the engine was designed. Some cars use aluminum pistons which leak a bit until they heat up and expand. Cars with high cylinder pressures will have a lot of blow-by which doesn't help either.

 

But wait, as someone in another thread told me i must of gotten a "monday build"

08 S with 79k in 36 months. 3 qts low and blew the engine. if burning a quart of oil every 800 miles is within normal range as i was told by mini how come it didn't burn oil for the first 77,000 miles.

I've been without my car for 3 1/2 weeks but when i get my $8,000 new engine you can bet i will check the oil every second gas stop.

 

not to drift, but this is something i'm concerned about as well. I was accustomed to changing oil every 3k-4k miles w/ my old car. When I was informed that the MINI's go approx 15k miles w/out having an oil change (not including 1 year anniversary of purchase maintenance), I was floored. I don't know much about the inner workings of cars, and don't really care to. I follow the way the car is programmed, however I am concerned I could run into a bad situation and get jammed up with an engine problem even though I'm following the car's maintenance computer. Any advice other than just checking oil level? (which I'll be honest, I don't really know how to do, I know there's a stick under the hood somewhere for it..but I've never attempted to look haha) My cooper has ~4400 miles on it so far.

 

Oil change intervals have gone up in the last decade because oils have gotten better. I was worried about those same OCI on my M3 and sent it to Blackstone after the first oil change and they said it was fine. Granted, a Cooper S is a turbo instead of normally aspirated but it doesn't rev like an M3 so they should be fairly comparable. With what I've seen I'd be ok with Mini's recommendation.