has anybody used royal purple oil yet. like the xrp 5-w30 or the regular 5-w30 syn. any feedback on this will be a help.

 

i use regular royal purple. i see no reason to go to anything else. my car dyno'd 13 whp when i switched from castrol to royal purple. the xrp- is extreme performance racing, and its recommended for off-road, racing or highly modified engines. i dont think its necessary in all honesty

 

cool leaker, what kind of mini do you have by the way?

 

I don't see any ACEA ratings on their web site so I was trying to get an idea how the 5W-30 compared to an ACEA A3 oil. It looks like 5W-30 SL has a somewhat lower viscosity at temp than an A3 oil.

Here is what I found for Royal Purple 5W-30 SL:

cSt Viscosity @ 100C: 10.6
SUS Viscosity @ 210F: 59

Here is what the MINI branded 5W-30 measured at after 5,200 miles:

cSt Viscosity @ 100C: 11.26
SUS Viscosity @ 210F: 63.7

Does it matter? I have no idea.

 

hey robin can you put some of this in terms i can understand a lil better . are the royal purples numbers better than the mini oil?

 

From the little bit that I know, I can tell you that the higher numbers represent a thicker viscosity. This is a measurement of how thick the oil is at operating temps. The MINI typically runs at 222-225F (101-107C).

I can't tell you what is better for the MINI engine, but it seems to have been designed for A3 oils. So, my guess would be that the RP SL is a little thinner than it was designed for. Whether that makes any difference in wear or cooling, I don't know.

 

i need to put up a sig. at this point i dont have a mini. i currently have mazdaspeed 6. my next car looks to be a mini cooper s if not a jcw. i like to do my hw prior to buying a car.

 

robin c thank you for the info sir and leaker good luck with the new mini on the way.

 

please tell me if I am wrong but from what I understand, lower viscosity means less protection, but also less fraction on the moving parts and therefore the engine can produce more power / higher mpg. So if you are driving gently and not pushing to the limit, it wouldnt hurt to use a lower viscosity oil

 

Can't argue, Robin, but why is it the MINI owners' manual only requires 5W30 or 40 and SM? Nothing about ACEA or BMW LLxxxx standards.

Royal Purple 5W40 has an SM rating. I'm going to try it at 5k, which is coming up soon. Of course, I have to order it because all the shops around here carry only the 5W30 RP, which is SL, as you point out.

If RP doesn't live up to its promises, or if I read something else that argues against it, I'll change oil to the fully synthetic Castrol or Mobile 1. The Castrol says it's an A3 oil as well as SM. Don't remember Mobile 1's claims.

 

The USA version of the owners manual uses a USA oil standard that is much broader than ACEA A3. A UK owner posted that the UK version of the manual specifies ACEA A3/B3.

My speculation is that the marketing dept. department had something to do with the switching to a USA standard. ACEA A3 oils are a bit hard to find in the USA. The average user would probably see it as a serious negative if they had to looking for an obscure European oil. People who expect to be able to buy a qt. of oil at a gas station would not be pleased. I suspect it would generate a lot of negative threads here as well.

There are only one or two weights of Castrol and Mobil 1 that meet ACEA A3. Neither company has an off-the-shelf 5W-30 that is A3.

I wish I knew more about what range of viscosities @ 100C were good for the Prince engine.

 

Royal Purple is good stuff, I use it in all my cars, boats. PS: I don't turn down the free stuff from Mini when the schedule maintience comes my way either.

 

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