..........

 

MINI recommends their own oil, of course, which is a Castrol full synthetic 5w30. MINI also recommends Mobil1 full synthetic in either 5w30 or 5w40.
There are lots of threads on which oil is best if you want to research further.

 

I'm getting paranoid about changing my oil now, after 600 miles.

 

The USA version of the owners manual recommendation gives you a fairly broad range of choices because the USA standard is fairly broad. However, the UK owner's guide recommends 5W-30 oil that meets ACEA A3/B3 standards.

In the USA a 5W-30 that meets ACEA A3/B3 is very rare. The MINI branded and BMW branded 5W30 are the only ones I know of. However, there are some 0W-30 and 0W-40 oils that meet A3/B3. Most major brands have something in those weights. Look on the back of the bottle.

I've found the MINI branded oil is about the most economically priced. At MINI of Mountain View I've paid $5.40 qt.

 

You could probably wait until break-in was done at 1,200 miles.

 

Ok, thx!

 

Nothing wrong with 600 to change the oil, your MINI is already "broken in" at that point, that's what mileage I do my motorcycle oil changes at.

 

I checked my oil at 10150 km (6308 miles) today and to my surprise it hasn't consumed ANY oil?? Not in break-in period, or after!

 

It may still all be there ... but it's quite a bit dirtier ...

We just got our oil changes today and I'll be sending off both samples to Blackstone for analysis. I'll post the results back on the NAM forums afterward.

 

Great!

 

I changed my oil at 3,000 miles, and put in Amsoil European 5w-40 formula. Now have 4,800 miles on it and I have seen it runs a little quieter, and my MPG's have picked up by 1.2 MPG. I am currently averaging 32.6 MPG with my Clubman S.

 

Does the Amsoil Euro formula meet the proper specs to keep MINI/BMW happy?