The "A" in API stands for American Petroleum Institute. The API refers to an International standard but the ratings are a minumum standard, not an equivalency standard. Europe has even higher standards than those utilized by the API and the Castrol shipped to the dealers from Europe meets the higher European standard that the US Castrol would not. But the dealer Castrol and the local store Castrol would both meet the API rating.

It would be like saying that both Roger Clemmons and I meet the 55 mph fastball standard. But Only Clemmons meets the 90 mph fastball standard.

 

Go look at the back of a bottle Castrol Syntec and a bottle of the German Castrol. One lists a bunch of BMW, VW, Mercedes specs the oil meets and the other doesn't. As for API rating. There are plenty of conventional oils that meet the same spec.

from Castrol's website:
Their conventional Catrol GTX high mileage in 5w30 also meets API SL and SM. Still think they're the same?

 

I bought MINI branded Castrol at MINI of Mountian View and the bottles say "Made in the USA".

 

The only way to really know is to have them analyzed. Marketing speak can go a long way in the oil business.

However, as I really do not have a vested interest in knowing either way, I will capitulate to the masses.

Like Robin said. The bottles at the local dealers say "Made in the USA". May not mean a thing.

To anwer your question, yes I do believe the oil Mini uses here at the BMW dealerships is the same oil you can buy at any local auto parts store. Is it the same as oil sold in Europe. Probably. But again, only way to know for sure is to have an independent firm analyze them.

 

FWIW, The standard Mobil 1 one most often finds in auto supply stores is only rated for 5,000 miles. To get 15,000 mile rating from Mobil, one needs to buy Mobil 1 Extended.

 

There *are* two "full synthetic" formulations sold by BP at retail under the Castrol brand in the U.S. A little googling would tell you all you need to know. You could add the keyword "lawsuit" to read about the court case over using the word "synthetic" in a petroleum-based product. BP successfully defended their case, and can do so in the U.S.

 

Googling Castrol "full synthetic" brings up 28,900 results. Which one did you have in mind. The first page seems to be mostly ads and pages about super bikes and diesels.

 

Two minutes and I found this:

 

Anyone using Amsoil?

 

Does the European Castrol sold at dealers say Made in USA as stated by some others in this thread? If so, how can you tell it from American Castrol sold at AutoZone?

 

I don't know. If I have an extra bottle at home, I will try to remember to check tonight.

 

Does anyone know if the oil the dealers use is different than the oil that comes in our cars from the factory? I've had three oil analyses done so far on our two cars (checked the factory-fill oil on both cars after about 12,000 miles, and the dealer-filled oil on my car after about 9,500 miles.)

The analysis on the dealer-filled oil showed that it was significantly thicker than the two samples of factory oil. In fact, it was even thicker than unused Euro Castrol 5W-30 should have been - the analyst said it looked more like a 5W-40.

 

the castrol thing is a myth? how much $ is the castrol from mini dealer?

 

There are two types of Castrol sold in the U.S., but the vast majority is blended in the U.S.

The only place that I know that you can obtain Castrol that is made in Germany is at Autozone and then only in 0-30. To compound matters they sometimes have either U.S. made 0-30 or 0-30 made in Germany or a combination of the two. German made 0-30 has a slightly different label than U.S. made 0-30. The back of the bottle of the German made 0-30 reads 'made in Germany'. The U.S. made 0-30 (as well as all other weights that I have seen) states 'Made in the U.S.A. from domestic and imported components" and then under that 'not for sale outside North America'. The back of Mini 5-30 reads "Made in the U.S.A. from domestic and imported components". I do not know if it states 'not for sale outside North America'. Perhaps someone has a bottle handy and can look and report back here.

As stated earlier in this thread Mobil protested Castrol's use of the term Synthetic since its base stock was group III and basically group III is very, very refined dino oil. Most of the impurities have been refined out of it. Mobil 1 is assembled from scratch by combining various chemicals (I'm not a chemist) and therefore contains no impurities. It is truely synthetic since it did not begin life as dino oil. Mobil base is/was group IV. I have recently found that Mobil's lawsuit against Castrol is a myth in that there was not a lawsuit, but rather a protest to an American marketing association (if I had the time I'd look up the name). The association basically found that Castrol had 'altered' dino oil so much that it had made a case that it could call its oil synthetic. Mobil was no doubt pissed since group IV base is more expensive than group III. Mobil disparaged group III and generally thumbed their nose in Castrol's direction for several years. A car magazine, perhaps Car and Driver (again, I'd look it up if I had the time) brought Castrol's use of group III to car enthusists attention and basically blasted them for calling Castrol synthetic much to Mobil's great joy I would imagine.

Fast forward to about a year or so ago. Someone on www.bobistheoilguy.com (all the oil geeks hang out there - you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about oil and waste several hours of your life there) ran a virgin (unused) oil analysis on Mobil 1 and found facts that lead him to believe that Mobil 1 is now using group III oil base. Several people wrote Mobil 1 and directly asked if group III was being used. Mobil gave evasive answers worthy of a presidential candidate. The oil geek community took Mobil's failure to deny the use of group III or affirm that group IV was still being used as proof positive that group III was being used. The oil geek community felt betrayed and was generally pissed. There was much nashing of teeth.

From all this I have drawn the following conclusions. Since group III is cheaper than group IV and can be called Synthetic in the U.S. almost all makers have stuck with or converted to using group III including Castrol. Redline, some Amsoil, and perhaps some types of Mobil 1 still use group IV. There may be other non-mass selling oils made in the U.S. or Canada that also use group IV. Apparently only oils with a group IV base can be called synthetic in Europe and thus the statement on U.S. made Castrol that it is 'not for sale outside North America'. Since Mini branded oil states it is 'made in U.S.A. from domestic and imported components' it also is made with a group III base, in my opinion. My guess is that Mini branded 5-30 oil made in the U.S. is simply U.S. made Castrol 5-30 poured into Mini bottles. It could be that Mini specifies its own blend of additives, but I believe that this is very unlikely based on what I assume would be a limited volume of oil sold by Mini dealer as opposed to Walmart (Super Tech), or NAPA, etc.

Perhaps someone has a bottle of BMW branded oil handy and can see where it has been blended and if it states that it is 'not for sale outside of North America' as well.

Now with all of the above said is group III garbage? I don't think so. I think it is nearly as good group IV. If you check out used oil analysis reports at bobistheoilguy you'll see that people have been getting very good reports on Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic which uses a group III base - even better than Mobil 1 in the same engines. Castrol whether it is U.S. or German made has good reports as well.

My approach with my Mini has been to do an oil change between the dealer's annual change using German made 0-30 Castrol. I may put in U.S. made 5-40 Castrol if I do some track events this summer. I also would not be afraid to use Mobil 1, but since it is more expensive than Castrol and is made from group III I see no reason to use it. With this schedule I will change my oil once a year and the dealer will change it once a year. I'll have 5 to 7K miles on each change. Could you really go into the teens based on the Mini oil monitor? Maybe, but I'm not going to do so. A do it yourself oil change is pretty inexpensive and I sleep better at night without have xteen mile old oil in my Mini.

As for my other cars and trucks I simply buy whatever Synthetic group III is on sale and/or has good rebates. I got some Valvoline Synthetic for a $1 a quart after rebate at Checker, some more Valvoline at Autozone for $2.35 a quart and some NAPA Synthetic (blended and bottled by Valvoline, Ashland Oil) for about the same price. I change oil on two of my vehicles twice a year and they accumulate between 5 and 7K miles on each change. One of my vehicles gets low usage so I only change its oil once a year.

Now if I can only score some of that sweet, sweet, Pennzoil Platinum on sale my life will be complete!

Mark

 

I think it was $5.40 per qt., but that is from memory and I wasn't paying close attention to the price.

 

The BMW Euro 5W30 oil is $3.XX something with BMW Club member discout. (Glad I still have that.) Less than $1 more per quart than the US blend. Well worth it for the lifeblood of the engine. I will probably go with that for my do-it-yourself oil changes.

 

if you look at the specs I pulled for US Castrol Syntec 5w30, it doesn't meet ACEA A3, B3 specs. So the Mini 5w30 can't be the same thing. German Castrol 0W30 does meet that spec. I don't know that the county of origin on the label necessarily tells you the same thing about the oil as for Castrol.

 

Mine has said 19,000 from day one to now ?

 

From Mobil's web site:
So, no ACEA A3, B3 for Mobil 1 Extended, nor for the more common Mobil 1 either.

Seems to me that the MINI branded Castrol is a good way to go.

 

You got your car early in the year, right? Have you had a software upgrade done? That might change it.

 

Which synthetic oil meets ACEA A3, B3 specs?

Does Mobil 1 Extended meet it?

Thanks

 

$5.40 a quart for good synthetic is really cheap. <$4 is super cheap. might be worth it just to get it from the dealer

on that bottle tho, it says made in usa

 

No I think there supposed to do a free oil change at 12 months It will all be done then .

 

I've had BMWs with this system for 25 years. The best thing to do is totally ignore the mileage to go on the service indicator. Change your oil at the intervals you have chosen. When the countdown reaches close to zero....or a year has gone by take it to the dealer for your free oil change. On one of my BMWs the indicator showed 3000 miles but a year was up and they changed the oil. Remember MINI is a BMW product.

 

It says, "Made in the USA with foreign and domestic components." It also says it meets ACEA A3/B3 which, if I understand all this correctly, is a higher spec. than met by store-bought Castrol Syntec 5W-30, Mobil 1, and Mobil 1 Extended. None of them list ACEA A3/B3. Instead, Mobil 1 lists only ACEA A1/B1. Mobil 1 Extended and Syntec list A1, A5, B1, B5. Perhaps someone could explain what A1, A3, A5, B1, B3, and B5 mean. I couldn't find an explanation.