After being unable to find the Mobil 1 Extended in the proper weight I decided to give Royal Purple a try for my last oil change. I have seen this brand recommended on numerous forums. I have never been one to get excited about oil brands but this oil did make a difference in my Mini. The engine is now much quieter and runs smoother. When initially starting the engine in the morning I no longer get that slight shake of the car when the engine 1st turns over. I also hear it improves mpg, but haven't had a chance to check that yet.

 

Where did you buy Royal Purple and in what weight (5W30, etc.)?

 

I've seen it at Walmart in 5w30.

 

I got it at the local auto parts store. 5W30.

 

I prefer using a torque wrench, and getting it right. For those who don't use one, just a reminder that 22 ft-lbs is not a lot of torque. I would guess that most would over-tighten, rather than under-tighten. It's very easy to use too much torque, especially with a long-handled ratchet.(Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. - Archimedes)

 

+1 !

 

Don't think I had ever used a Torque Wrench on a Drain Plug before.

I had also never seen a drain plug with a Copper Crush Washer either and even at 22 ft/lb it seemed that I was tightening
a lot more than I would have expected.

If you went to finger tight (just contacting a new Copper Crush Washer) and then noted the number and fraction of turns to pull 22#,
you could just use that number in the future.

Oil Filter tightening had always been done by that method for other autos, but again, 18.5 ft/lb seemed tighter than I would have gone.
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For those who turn wrenches a lot;
There was an old Pilot watching the old Aircraft A&I (Vince Fette) put his Aircraft together and asked "why no Torque Wrench?"
Vince put a torque wrench in the pilot's hand and said "Check'm" and went to lunch, the pilot found every bolt had been perfectly torqued to spec.

 

I paid $5.40 per qt. for MINI brand oil at MINI of Mountain View. The cheap Mobil 1 (not extended service) costs more in my area. For those using Mobil 1 for more than 5,000 miles, be sure to get Mobil 1 Extended Performance. I believe their 0W-40 is the only one that meets ACEA A3 specs. As said, the main thing about the A3 spec. is the shear strength at operating temps.

Most dealers will do a free oil change, but nothing else on the 12 month mark. The service indicated by the odometer countdown includes other things such as filters, brake check, etc. They may even flush brake fluid, but I'm not positive about that.

Many have reported that dealers over-tighten the drain plug, so it seems that they don't consider it critical. On the other hand, the torque spec. insures that you apply the right amount of pressure to the copper crush washer. I bought a torque wrench because wheel lug bolts should be torqued to 103 lb. ft. So, I figure I might as well use it for oil changes as well.

 

Well, I got through the oil change with no difficulty, thanks in large part to this thread and the fore-mentioned NAM Alliance article.

The one thing in my opinion that folks might want to watch for is how much new oil they put in. Someone said they called MINIUSA and were told that the '07 R56 takes 4.4 quarts and the article on NAM Alliance said 5. I went with ~4.4 and found it to be full. Will check it agaiin in the morning, but it seems all's well so far.

 

FYI-I picked up oil and filter kit at the dealer last week and the parts guy informed me that they stopped including the crush washer with the filter kit. You'll have to buy it separately.

 

Not the case with mine melman8r; both the washer and O-ring were included. If in fact it is the case at your dealer, maybe you should shop elsewhere. I got two the other day just to have one on hand, but will use one of the vendors on NAM in the future.

 

I didn't post this to have a dispute. It's just an FYI, in the future before you walk out of your prized dealership, open the box and look for the washer. It was in fact the case at my dealership, he showed me two different boxes of product; the newer ones did not have the crush washer. BTW, my dealership is ALL over NAM, happens to be a sponsor. Thanks for your concern on where I shop.

 

No dispute taken. Appreciate the heads-up and will be sure to check on future purchases. Thanks.

 

Doing this does not prove the bolts were torqued to spec. It means the bolts were either at spec or over spec. and most likely over spec.

 

...sounds like an "old pilots tale" to me...

 

I just use my standard length 8mm Hex wrench ( commonly called an "allen wrench" ) I don't use torque multipliers for something so simple as a drain plug, now your talking trouble. Like I said, I'm not dismissing it out of hand, but we had people using a Torx wrench and such so I was just reasoning that a lot of people have the basic tools to perform this easy task without going out and buying a torque wrench. If your talking lugnuts and the like I couldn't agree more.

 

How true
Spot on it was a first hand account, by an "old pilot" named True and I was young when he told me.

Truman had a beautiful Luscombe 8F that he had bought brand new and flew for over twenty years, even had an RDF 'Loop' on the roof.
If he gave you a ride, first thing he wanted to do was demonstrate that he could still perform a loop.
There was a saying about "...no Old/Bold Pilots." but, glad to report that True did not expire in his airplane.

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Doubt that you could over-torque the drain plug with an Allen Wrench before hurting your hand and would be surprised to see a MINI Shop Tech use a Torque Wrench on the drain plug, but that is where experience makes the difference. I was pleased to see that although he drew 5 quarts, he only added half of the last one.

Over Torque can be a danger, as proper torque actually stretches a bolt a specific distance and over torque= over stretched.

 

Some MINI's use Allens, some take Torx. Mine takes a Torx. Even if I used an Allen, I'd do it with a ratchet wrench, and I expect many others would as well.

IIRC, there have been several reports on NAM of dealers torquing the drain plug so tight they couldn't get it off. Perhaps they use pneumatic tools. They are usually paid by the job -- not time -- so speed over craftsmanship is the name of the game at most car dealers.

 

When I did a change, I found that getting the filter housing to re-thread could be difficult, it was both easy to cross-thread, and required a good bit of pressure from a difficult angle to get the spring to compress enough to get the housing to catch the threads correcty. It was nerve racking until we called a friend who was a BMW mech. and he gave us the pressure secret.

 

Thanks giancola, for the great pics.
I'm going to do my first oil change at around 2k. I use the Mobile 1 Synthetic 5W30 in my other cars. However, after reading the other replies, I think I'll try to find the Mini recommended Castol at The auto parts store.

 

Do you have a Gen2 (R56) MINI? When I put my oil filter cap back on it's very easy, never cross-threads, and requires litle or no pressure. I've heard the Gen1 MINI filter caps were harder to get back on in some cases.

 

Mine threads on with no pressure also. dgodesky, did you make sure the filter was pushed up onto the cap all the way?

 

Yes, my friend's MCS is a gen 1, so what you heard may be accurate; based on my sample of one change. I just ordered a gen 2, JCW, waiting for it to come in December. My prior mini was a Gen 1 but I sold at 3 years and didn't have to do any oil changes on my own.

 

I believe we did, I recall it was a firm fit, and we had to push quite firmly to make sure it was all the way in there. Again, only one experience, but, in my call to my nephew (the BMW mechanic) he immediately had the advice to give, saying it was a common complaint, that aligning the housing was difficult, and we had to be sure to give strong direct pressure to get it to catch properly in line, not cross thread, etc. Once I heard that, it was fine. Perhaps having experience on only traditional spin on filters, my feather touch used on a traditional filter was making a firm push to compress the housing feel like a lot of pressure.

 

The spring that keeps the filter up in the cannister is off-center, so that can tend to push the cannister 'crooked' on screw-in.

It is easy though, to keep it straight for that first turn, also worthwhile to pay attention to thread's 'start' point
and have thread engaged for that first turn.