No change that I noticed.

 

That's good, I want to change my oil at about 2,000 right after the break-in period, then at about 7,000 and then I'll do the OBC change around 15,000. Right after the break-in period is when the oil is at its worst condition with all the heat and wear going on inside the new engine. I just can't see myself waiting until 15,000 for my first oil change.

 

I guess the question now is

Have I ruined my car using over the counter castrol 5W-30 full synthetic
that I bought from Advance?

The mini dealer is 120 miles away.

I wasn't trying to save $0.50/quart getting it locally.
It's just that I can't drive 240 miles round trip for oil.

 

no you haven't *ruined* anything, don't freak out. people are very sticky about their oil choices. the american castrol may not technically be a true synthetic, it's still a good grade oil. i just wouldn't leave it in there for 15k miles

 

The issue isn't about whether it is "true" synthetic or not, it is about he viscosity difference between A1/A5 and A3.

I also doubt that any damage was done. I expect a lot of people are running A1/A5 oils, such as Mobil 1 Extended, but I'm more comfortable using an oil that is A3. My guess is that this would be a subtle difference that would only show up after a long time.

 

My '07 MCS is at 42xx miles now. I plan on pulling a sample from the dipstick (bought a suction gun) at 5k miles and waiting for the analysis to see how the oil is doing. There are several audis with direct injection having problems with fuel dilution causing the oil to breakdown prematurely. As soon as I have results I'll post them here.

 

I have 14,210 miles so far. My reminder says 9000 more miles to go. Got the car at the end of April and it said 16000. Had the dealer change the oil at 4000 miles. They did not reset the reminder, and there was no change in the reading. Only in the last few weeks has the service reminder started to change. One day it said 11000 more miles, and then two days later it was down to 10000 and now this past weekend it is down to 9000.

 

My '07 MC is at 113xx miles now, OBC shows 8000 to go. I plan to stick to OBC guidelines. If I get nervous, I may have a sample tested around 15000. But I hope to not get nervous.

 

That's what I guessed early in this thread, that like the fuel guage the thing starts dropping quickly at some point in the cycle. Keep us posted as to how much it drops in the coming weeks. I bet not a lot of us new owners have had the OBC get near zero.

 

I would think that as long as you're not doing anything crazy with your car like redlining it all the time, it should be ok... Then again, I ruined the transmission on my Jeep Liberty by having the transmision oil changed at Jiffy Lube where they used the wrong oil. It should have been AFT-4 and supposedly used something compatable, well it wasn't, a month later my trans failed. The valve body was all screwed up and cost ME $1500. Of course transmissions are way more sensitive to the type of lubrication that is used than engines. I think you'll be alright, I'm sure you're not the only one that's done that.

 

I looked at a bunch of synthetic and synthetic blend oils today just to see which ones stated they met A3 specs. None of Mobil 1 'regular' or extended did, but there was no 0-40 European formula on the shelf and I suspect it might have met the standard. Pennzoil didn't nor did Quaker State. Valvoline
Full Synthetic Maxlife 5-30 as well as Valvoline Full Synthetic 10-30 did state on the bottle that they met A3 which surprised me. Most of the oils had only the API SM, etc ratings. Others that had European ratings showed A1/A5. Perhaps Valvoline Synthetic is pretty good stuff.

Mark

 

There is a specific Castrol that you can buy at Autozone that will meet the mini requirements. You have to look on the back of the bottle and it has to say "Made in Germany" People on the BITOG forums call it Green Castrol, or GC, because at one time the oil was a neon green when poored.

These are the specs:


SAE 0W–30:

Castrol SYNTEC 0W–30 European Formula is engineered to meet the Mercedes Benz 229.5 specification. The 0W–30 viscosity grade is ideal for winter conditions where low temperature pumpability is required. A unique, low–temperature formulation provides exceptional pumpability in cold weather and allows for unaided engine starts down to –40ºF. Exceeds all car and light truck manufacturer's warranty requirements for the protection of gasoline, diesel and turbocharged engines where API SL, SJ, SH, CF or CD is recommended. Exceeds European ACEA: A3, B3, B4; VW 502 00, 505 00, 503 01; MB 229.1, 229.3, 229.5; BMW LL–01; GM–LLA–025, GM–LL–B–025 and the engine protection requirements of ILSAC GF–3 for API Certified Gasoline Engine Oils.

 

That tells me that you need to see Made in Germany on the bottle if you buy it in a regular store. I'd need 5W-30, not 0W-30. People who buy at Mini dealers say theirs say Made in USA, not Germany (WUWT?). The oils seem different. I'd want the European formulation myself.

 

It's really the specs that you should be worried about. So long as the oil meets the specs of the manufacture, you will be ok. As far as a 5w-30 over a 0w-30 there is really no difference, as they are both 30 weights after the engine has warmed up. Castrol UK recommends 0w-30 or 0w-40 for the MINI.

Link:
http://www.ew2.lubesinfo.com/framese...=1156&langid=1

 

So if both are 30 weights, then what is the 0W or 5W in the front? UK recommends 0W, any ideas why is that so, here in the US, it states we need 5W-30? Does it have to do with our weather? but even in the USA, the weather varies greatly, I am in CA and it doesn't get as cold as NY.

 

The "W" stands for "Winter." 0W, 5W, 10W and 20W are winter flow values. The lower the flow value, the more flow at cold temp.

Here's a chart of the 2004 SAE numbers:

http://www.infineum.com/information/...sity-2004.html

 

So I guess I am getting Valvoline 5W-30 full synthetic, since it meets A3 specs.

 

Actually, the w really represents that the oil will effectively be a "0" weight or a "5" weight at start up when the engine is cold. Once the engine has warmed up, the oil will act as a 30 weight. The reason why the do this is so the oil can be pumped quickly to all the moving parts of the engine, especially the valve-train, and become a 30 weight to provide better protection to the engine at operating temp.

As far as why Castrol UK recommends a 0w-30 might be due to their cars requiring better miles per gallon, and that some areas in Europe experience colder winters than most parts of the US.

 

^ +1

And just because the question always seems to come up when discussing multi-weight oils:

Multi-weight oils do *not* get thicker as they get hotter - they just don't thin out as quickly as they heat up when compared to a single-weight oil.

A 5W-30 oil has the same viscosity when cold as a straight 5-weight oil when cold, and it has the same viscosity when hot as a hot 60-weight oil.

As to why MINI would spec a 0W-30 as opposed to the 5W-30 that's spec'd for the US cars, one reason may be that they're a little more sensitive to fuel prices there, and a 0W-30 will give you slightly better fuel economy while the engine's still warming up.

Or, it may be because there are places in the UK where the average temperature is colder than the average temperature in the coldest parts of the US (Alaska excepted).

 

if the 0W-30 gives better fuel economy, wouldn't it make more sense to have all cars just use 0W-30? That way the window sticker would show a better MPG for city and Hwy.

I am all for fuel economy, I do a mix of city and hwy. driving and my average is about 30mpg. If I could get 32mpg that would be great.

 

I'd be a little concerned about using 0W-30 all the time, especially in warm weather, regardless of the potential fuel savings. My house in Virginia is less than a half-mile from the interstate that I take to work, so I'm often on the freeway going 70+ MPH within a two or three minutes of starting the car. The oil takes a lot longer to warm up than the engine coolant, and I don't know that I'd want a large portion of my daily commute to be at highway speeds with what's essentially 0-weight oil lubricating the engine.

 

I think this whole ongoing oil conversation should be some sort of forum "sticky". There's a lot of good (and so-so) information and a lot of similar questions and answers in multiple threads now.

 

We need someone who has done the oil change and is knowledgeable in the oils to give us a list of oils we can use in our cars. So far from this thread I have gathered that you need A3 specs and that the MINI branded oil has it but is US made, and that European CASTROL is the one to get and that Valvoline full synthetic is the other oil to get that has A3 specs.

 

True - except it's hard to make a "sticky" for something like oil, where the level of enthusiasm can often approach religious zealotry.

If we made a sticky post, it would have to be limited to things like factory-recommended weights, the technical meanings of various terms and oil specifications, etcetera.

 

And while I hate to add to the confusion, there's something else to consider if you're going to do extended oil-change intervals (like the OBC recommends). There's a set of BMW "Long Life" standards, called "LL98", "LL01", and "LL04".

It's possible to have an A3-rated oil that's still not suitable for extended drain intervals. Of the three standards, LL04 is the most-stringent, and LL98 is the least. There are also some Mercedes-Benz specs for extended-drain oil that would probably be applicable to our engines as well (I think MB229.1 is one of them).

So, in addition to finding an oil that's suitable for the performance of our engines (A3), you need to dig a little deeper to find one that's also suitable for extended usage, if you choose to go that way.

I've had three samples done on the BMW 5W-30, and I really don't think it's good for much more than 10-12K miles, based on the results.