Pennzoil 5w30 euro spec synthetic in my r52. Never have had to add oil. Works for me.
Good to know as well thank you. I already ordered my Liquid Molly and the car is ready to go through some maintenance and upgrades coming up shortly, including the oil change. We shall see how liquid Molly does!
I know it's an old thread but I wanna add.
I was advised to use Rotella t6 5w40 since i was going to be eunning a performance engine with a ns1 cam and tpr2 head.. well , 2x years into it. About 15k miles and 3x oil changes and 0 issues what so ever sofar with the build.
my engine has very minimal oil consumption between oil changes and also idk if it was the new timing components or switching to the Rotella oil but since the 2x years , I get NO valvetrain noise upon startup.
I used to befor the head n cam swap and relatively stock engine , even in summer when id 1st start it i could hear the valves tick or chain spin fir a few seconds.
I too also run a quick drain valve in my oilpan , only thing with it is you HAVE to remember to move the ps cooling fan while rasing and lowering your engine it will snag on the drain valve..lol ask me how I know...
@shrevemini Which flavor LiquiMoly do you use? I'm planning to give it a try and am leaning toward Leichtlauf but would like to hear others' experiences.
I used Liqui Moly on my R53 for its first oil change under my ownership and have noticed about 0.5 quarts of consumption per 1,000 miles. I suspect that this may be normal for a forced induction motor, but I will likely try a different oil for my next change. I'll probably try Motul 8100 X-cess 5w40. It seems to be very well known to virtually stop oil consumption on many turbocharged applications (several R56 owners use it as well and report little to no oil consumption).
In my case the Motul did indeed stop oil consumption as I rarely if ever have to top up, also had a bonus side benefit of quietening valvetrain noise at idle.
I've been running it several years and it made a believer out of me.
Previously had ran Liqui-Moly 5w40 then switched to Amsoil euro 5w40 which both consumed a bit, so I was highly impressed when trialing the Motul and have stuck with it.
I'm really the ONLY one running Rotella?
if you guys got oil consumption and valvetrain noise on startup.. USE THIS OIL ! dont spend 2x the amount of other brands just because they list their oil as high performance , look at their chem sheets and youll see that Rotella has alot of extra antiwear additives and boiloff inhibitors..
I watched from mobile1 0w40 to the Rotella t6 5w40 and have never looked back !
yea i know , you think im stupid because i use truck oil in my mini but i highly suggest you research this oil.. idk as of this moment but Rotella had some of the BEST antiwear inhibitors on the market out of any off the shelf oil.
I'm really the ONLY one running Rotella?
if you guys got oil consumption and valvetrain noise on startup.. USE THIS OIL ! dont spend 2x the amount of other brands just because they list their oil as high performance , look at their chem sheets and youll see that Rotella has alot of extra antiwear additives and boiloff inhibitors..
I watched from mobile1 0w40 to the Rotella t6 5w40 and have never looked back !
yea i know , you think im stupid because i use truck oil in my mini but i highly suggest you research this oil.. idk as of this moment but Rotella had some of the BEST antiwear inhibitors on the market out of any off the shelf oil.
I'm sure there are others here running it,
Rotella is quite highly regarded.
Like you, I'm a true believer to my choice of brand, but I don't try to evangelize about it because it's all subjective personal experience and even citation of oil analysis won't sway that allegiance in many cases, just sayin' what works best for you works best for you, and me, me.
My favorite wine of all times is Cesari Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Superiore --- everything else is pisswater!
M1 full synthetic in everything gas. For the minis I ran 0w30 for a spell, recently switched to 0w40 euro spec because a) I had it on hand and b) It's compatible with everything in my fleet and c) it generally gets rave reviews. No issues.
I'm really the ONLY one running Rotella?
if you guys got oil consumption and valvetrain noise on startup.. USE THIS OIL ! dont spend 2x the amount of other brands just because they list their oil as high performance , look at their chem sheets and youll see that Rotella has alot of extra antiwear additives and boiloff inhibitors..
I watched from mobile1 0w40 to the Rotella t6 5w40 and have never looked back !
yea i know , you think im stupid because i use truck oil in my mini but i highly suggest you research this oil.. idk as of this moment but Rotella had some of the BEST antiwear inhibitors on the market out of any off the shelf oil.
I always felt that an oil with lots of anti-wear additive was like a parachute that came with a pillow as a back up...
I want the oil to provide good anti-wear.
ZDDP is a lousy anti-wear additive anyhow. (Now it serves more as I think a detergent additive.) To work heat and pressure must be so high the ZDDP forms a glass like layer on the two surfaces. This prevents or stops wear then but the glass layer comes off and in doing so can take with it base metal which degrades the surface and can further compromise lubrication.
I remember from my early Porsche days some Porsche owners went with Rotella because it was for "Turbo Diesel" engines and the word Turbo jumped out at those who owned Porsche Turbos.
Back then I was able to get an MSDS and IIRC Rotella contained about 30% mineral oil.
Some members claimed Rotella quieted tick-y engines. But fresh oil does that anyhow. A few later admitted their engines got tick-y again after just a few thousand miles.
I'd leave Rotella to the big rigs..
I forget what oil I used in my Z28 but in my Boxster and VW Golf TDi and my 2006 GTO, and my Cayman S and my 996 Turbo I ran Mobil 1 0w-40. This oil was on the approved oils list for all these cars/engines. Drove the Boxster to 317K miles, the Golf to 150K miles, the GTO to 50K miles, the Turbo to 161K miles. No engine issues. Oil consumption was nil.
For my my 3 Dodge Challengers I used Pennzoil 0w-40 oil as the factory called for. The local M-B dealer used some 0w-40 oil in my M-B cargo van. Not sure it was Mobil 1 oil. At any rate the engine was happy with the oil. Sure I had only put 20K miles on the van when I traded it in (for a new MINI) but the engine was fine. Used no oil. Made no tick-y noises.
For my 2018 JCW the local MINI dealer used some BMW oil. Only put around 25K miles on the JCW but the engine was fine. Yesterday just had the oil changed in my 2023 MINI (early with 843 miles on it) at the local BMW dealer. Invoice lists 0w-20 BMW Group LL-17 FE+ oil.
My take is the factory is the only authority on what oil to use in its engines. So that's what I use. And I encourage others to do the same. Use the oil the factory approves. And change it at least as often as teh factory calls for. I change the oil, have it changed, more often than the factory calls for, sure. My use doesn't fall into the type of use that I can drive 10K miles let alone with the Boxster 15K miles the factory says the oil is good for. For my driving I settled on (with a bit of safety margin) 5K miles.
Yeah, a car owner can if he is so inclined use any oil he wants provided of course he's ok with the risk that in the event of a warranty claim for an engine issue it might be denied. As an aside Porsche when a vehicle was brought in for what might prove to be a warranty claim had the tech obtain a sample of oil for analysis I'm sure looking to see what oil was in the engine. At any rate the owner can use any oil he wants and for any reason he wants. All reasons are equal and all equally bad.
For high performance and exotics I’ve heard 15w50 is recommended over lower viscosity oem recommendations.
What are some opinions on oem oil weights with regards to fuel mileage targets and planned obsolescence vs a weight that offers more protection from wear (not specifically 15w50), and do you think this applies to MINI’s or other “regular” vehicles?
Given the same viscosity, why would one brand of oil have less consumption? Seal swell additive?
Different oils have different volatility/evap character … the NOACK numbers on oils are a good indication of that…
Consumption is often not related to physical blow-by … but rather the oil, or more accurately, components of the oil boiling-off
It’s challenging sometimes to find the NOACK spec of a given oil … 11 is considered ‘acceptable’ … but I’m a fan of finding a good oil with NOACK in the 6-9 range for a port injected motor (like in the first Gen) … and keep it in the 6-7 range for a GDI engine like Gen2/3
I generally don’t pay much heed to the BMW LL spec … it’s a fair indication of decent lubrication qualities... and that the mfg of the oil paid BMW for their certification that it meets minimum spec for the BMW 'blessing"
5w-30 Mobil1 ESP, Amsoil signature, Redline, some of the Ravenol oils … good places to start for sure. All of these are excellent oils … with low NOACK numbers and also the important SAPS, TBN and other important figures .
Been using Royal Purple since day one. I also change the oil and filter every 2,500 miles whether it needs it or not. Owned an 86 Chevy Blazer S-10 that was new to me and changed the oil and filter at the same intervals. When I sold it in 2006, the original engine had 250,000 miles on it and still ran like a Swiss watch. I think when looking at all the different tests and comparisons on all the different brands out there, I found this description makes a lot of sense; there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics !
I'm sure there are others here running it,
Rotella is quite highly regarded.
Like you, I'm a true believer to my choice of brand, but I don't try to evangelize about it because it's all subjective personal experience and even citation of oil analysis won't sway that allegiance in many cases, just sayin' what works best for you works best for you, and me, me.
My favorite wine of all times is Cesari Amarone della Valpolicella Classico Superiore --- everything else is pisswater!
YMMV
I was fortunate enough to pickup 4 bottle of pappy Van Winkle the real deal from a in-law in Kentucky many moons back. So I like to enjoy that as well.
Been using Royal Purple since day one. I also change the oil and filter every 2,500 miles whether it needs it or not. Owned an 86 Chevy Blazer S-10 that was new to me and changed the oil and filter at the same intervals. When I sold it in 2006, the original engine had 250,000 miles on it and still ran like a Swiss watch. I think when looking at all the different tests and comparisons on all the different brands out there, I found this description makes a lot of sense; there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics !
dang , royal purp every 2500. That engine is one lucky engine!
I have wanted to try royal purple too but unfortunately they NEVER have the weight my vehicle requires then.
Lol your rite though, every oil claims " the best on the market "... project farm on YouTube does amazing comparison videos of oils and other products and stuff.
A question for those of you using Motul 8100 X-CESS: are you using Gen 1 or Gen 2. I read this morning on a VW forum that Gen 2 is noticeably thinner than Gen 1 and there are reports of increased oil consumption (vs Gen 1) due to this. My reason for planning to switch to Motul is the reported decreased oil consumption. Gen 1 is still available but will be phased out.
