I just purchased my MINI two weeks ago and they told me to be back at 10,000 miles for my first oil change and every 15,000 miles after that. Frankly, I'd like to cut the time period in half by doing my own and letting the dealers do every other one. I think changing oil often is the key to preventing engine problems. Has anyone ever done this with their Mini with the dealers approval as long as you use Mini synthetic oil and their filter?

 

Don't use the MINI synthetic oil since it is Castrol Syntec which is not synthetic. Castrol Syntec is a highly refined petrol oil that has some synthetic properties but is not a true synthetic. They can't do anything to your warranty as long as the oil you are using meets all the API certifications for the motor.

If you do a search on Castrol you can find many threads on the oil and I am waiting on my oil rep friend to send me some of the volatality stats on the top tier oils. If I remember correctly syntec has on of the highest volatality ratings of any oil. This means that the castrol will burn of at a very high rate and there is no way it can make it to 10,000 miles. I wouldn't trust the castrol for a dozen miles in any motor of mine.

 

I personally am torn with what oil to actually buy. I plan on changing my oil ever 2000 miles for the first 10,000, then every 3000 after that. None of this 10-15k between oil change mumbo jumbo, I like to have my engine actually last, thank you very much. I'll just let the dealership change the oil on the service intervals that the speedometer says I should bring it in on.

 

Does anyone know if Fram, AC Delco, etc had a filter for the Mini yet? If yes can you provide the part number? I suppose I'll have to get one from the BMW dealer if none of the Major filter companies dont have them yet. I plan to use Mobil 1 oil.

 

Hello all,
Just hit 5K on my mini s....
I live in Long island where things are usually a bit ...pricey
Went to my local mini dealer...bought an oil filter for about $9.
Went to a local auto chain and bought ...mobil 1 synth oil 5w30.....(5) qts for approx $36
Went to a local garage....$15 to do the oil change.
TOTAL=$60
WELL WORTH THE PEACE OF MIND :smile:

 

I bought my filter from BMW ($7.50) , it looks a bit different to the original but you don't need to cut it to fit (as some people on this site have done) it's a bit tight but it fits. Then I changed the oil to Amsoil (true synthetic). This was done at 3000 miles. When I reach 10,000 miles the dealer can do their thing, then I'll give it another 1500 or so miles and then do the Amsoil thing again. The warrantee is fine. I don't believe any service mechanic is going to send dirty oil out to a lab for analysis, and it wouldn't matter if they did because Amsoil is superior to their partially synthetic stuff.

 

I've read several threads regarding oil changes such as how often they should be performed and what kind of oil to use, etc. It seems that a lot of people are planning to change their oil every 3000 miles (or less), despite the 10,000 mile interval recommended by BMW. My first question is, if you're going to change the oil that frequently, why bother using synthetic oil? Wouldn't a good quality petroleum oil be just as effective? Isn't the whole point of using synthetic oil the fact that it doesn't break down nearly as fast so you can go longer between oil changes?

As far as the interval between oil changes goes, I put about 4000 miles a year on my vehicle. I certainly am not going to wait two and half years before going in for my first oil change. If you don't go by mileage, what is a good interval (in months) for oil changes?

 

Finally, one more question before I call it a night. Can you purchase a extended warranty for the Mini. If yes does anyone have any idea the cost? I'd like to get a 6 year, 100,000 mile one.

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2002 Mini Indy blue/white top While ordering one to be delivered in three months a customer called and cancelled his that was in stock. I took it with great pleasure. As a former Triumph and MG owner from way back I thought I'd never have that driving feeling again. In my Mini it's back.

 

There are other advantages to synthetics besides the increased drain interval but if you don't take advantage of the extended interval you are losing money instead of saving it.

*Reduced wear to internal motor parts

*Slightly increased MPG I have seen anything from 1 to 3 MPG overall depending on the vehicle

*Slightly increased HP I have seen dyno resluts between 5 and 15 on an engine dyno depending on the type of motor.

 

sirron, what about bringing 5 quarts of the AMSOIL to the dealer when you drop the car off for the 10k service? I'm sure they don't have to use the Castrol, especially if you don't want it in your car. Has anyone done this?

No way I'm waiting to put 10,000 miles on a new engine before changing the oil, especially without true synthetic oil. I'll probably switch to a synthetic around 2k or 3k, and THEN wait until 10k.

 

>>sirron, what about bringing 5 quarts of the AMSOIL to the dealer when you drop the car off for the 10k service? I'm sure they don't have to use the Castrol, especially if you don't want it in your car. Has anyone done this?
>>
>>No way I'm waiting to put 10,000 miles on a new engine before changing the oil, especially without true synthetic oil. I'll probably switch to a synthetic around 2k or 3k, and THEN wait until 10k.


I'll check with the service guru at the dealer. Of course if it's a woman tecky, is that a service LULU? But then I've yet to see a ******* mechanic!
Oh! I forgot "My Cousin Vinnie"


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sirron

 

I changed mine at the 4000 mile point using the BMW filter and BMW high performance synthetic oil. It cost about $6 a quart, but I figured if it's good enough for a Bimmer, it's good enough for my MINI (since they're manufactured by the same company). I read the label on the bottles, and it's recommended for high performance engines. I believe it's fully synthetic as well.

Has anyone purchased oil that has the MINI label on it, or is it the same stuff I put in my car? My intention is to use only fully synthetic oil, probably Redline next time.

Jason

 

>>I changed mine at the 4000 mile point using the BMW filter and BMW high performance synthetic oil. It cost about $6 a quart, but I figured if it's good enough for a Bimmer, it's good enough for my MINI (since they're manufactured by the same company). I read the label on the bottles, and it's recommended for high performance engines. I believe it's fully synthetic as well.
>>
>>Has anyone purchased oil that has the MINI label on it, or is it the same stuff I put in my car? My intention is to use only fully synthetic oil, probably Redline next time.
>>
>>Jason

Look here

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...pic=2165&0


About midway down the page. Castrol apperntly has a contract with BMW where all BMW's come factory filled with Syntec which is not a true synthetic. Syntec is not even a partial synthetic it is a highly refined petroleum oil with some synthetic like qualties. I would put Redline, Amsoil and Royal Purple at all about the same level of quality. I would put Mobil 1 one step down from the previous three. It is worth mentioning however that Amsoil is the only oil that warrantees its oils for extended drain intervals.

 

Just picked up the new Mini Saturday. I plan to do the same.

Change oil and filter at ~ 1200 miles after break-in then alternate the factory schedule doing it myself. I plan to just change the filter and top-off the oil (Mobil 1) if I have been easy with it or full oil change otherwise.

Randy

 

Changed at 1200 in the Cooper S at Mini with their product. Of interest on my BMW R1100R they recommend motor oil for the first 20,000 and then synthetic. I plan to do the same thing with the S, so I'll just bring it to Mini every 2000-3000 or 2-3 months. Castrol ain't bad....it is just not good :evil: .....

Florida Mini Owners

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2Minis

 

OK - Maybe I'm missing something here. I had the dealer change the oil at about 1700 miles. I provided the Oil (Castrol Syntec) and the dealer provided the filter and labor for 20 euro, so the total cost was about $50 US.

Some folks have said that syntec is not a true synthetic oil, but what I found is that there is more than one type of syntec. There is the full synthetic version, which is what I used, and a blend, which has synthetic and conventional oil. It took me all of about 2 minutes to double check this using google.com.

The main reasons that I used castrol syntec are:

1. Here in Germany, there isn't much of a choice

2. Recommended by MINI (I figure that if I use the stuff they recommend, then there is no way I can run into any questions regarding potential warranty issues.)

 

Some folks have said that syntec is not a true synthetic oil, but what I found is that there is more than one type of syntec. There is the full synthetic version, which is what I used, and a blend, which has synthetic and conventional oil. It took me all of about 2 minutes to double check this using google.com.
The main reasons that I used castrol syntec are:
1. Here in Germany, there isn't much of a choice
2. Recommended by MINI (I figure that if I use the stuff they recommend, then there is no way I can run into any questions regarding potential warranty issues.)
>> :evil:


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2Minis

 

>>Finally, one more question before I call it a night. Can you purchase a extended warranty for the Mini. If yes does anyone have any idea the cost? I'd like to get a 6 year, 100,000 mile one.
>>


100,000 miles?! If they'll do it, you'll be paying $1000s more than its worth!

 

I raced professionaly on Castrol products for 6 years and I continue to use them today because we never had any problems with it. Anyone telling you that their products aren't any good probably has another agenda. Your origanal oil probably contained some break-in ingredients that you've now dumped down a drain. Remember this should your car continue to burn oil.

 

>>I raced professionaly on Castrol products for 6 years and I continue to use them today because we never had any problems with it. Anyone telling you that their products aren't any good probably has another agenda. Your origanal oil probably contained some break-in ingredients that you've now dumped down a drain. Remember this should your car continue to burn oil.

Read Car and Driver 11/2000 re. Castrol. Their agenda....as far as I know Castrol still pays to advertise in the mag even after what they had to say about Castrol SINTEC :evil: or as some call it Syntec. It ain't the best. Break in ingredients? What are they?
Thanks for any info you can provide

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2Minis

 

Oh what the heck. This discussion has come up at various times so here is the
article from Car and Driver.
Synthetic Motor Oil Gets All New Semantics

(first published in Nov., 2000 issue of Car and Driver by Patrick Bedard )

Now that the meaning if "is" has gotten so slippery you need to grab it with both hands, we'd better keep an eye on longer words, too.

One's already got so squirmy on us- "synthetic," as in synthetic motor oil.

Most guys know two things about synthetic oils. First, the price is three to four times that of conventional oils. Second, they're not real oil, not made from crude.

News flash: Scratch that second part. Now motor oils derived from crude may be labeled "synthetic." But they still cost over four bucks a quart.

Bait and switch? That's the obvious conclusion. Except in this case the advertising ethics people have given their approval.

Here's what happened, according to a detailed account published in the trade magazine Lubricants World. Late in 1997, Castrol changed the formula of its Syntec "full synthetic motor oil", eliminating the polyalphaolefin (PAO) base stock (that's the "synthetic" part, which makes up about 70% by volume of what's in the bottle) and replacing it with a "hydroisomerized" petroleum base stock.

Mobil Oil Corporation, maker of Mobil 1, "Worlds Leading Synthetic Motor Oil," said no fair and took its complaint to the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. NAD often arbitrates between feuding advertisers on their conflicting claims.

The notion behind synthetic motor oils as we've known them is an elegant one. Instead of relying on the cocktail of hydrocarbons contained in crude oil, why not go into the laboratory and build the perfect base stock from scratch, molecule by molecule, and builds it till it gets 10-carbon molecules, then combines three of those to form PAO. The result is a fluid more stable than the usual base oils derived from crude. It keeps flowing at low temperatures. It's more resistant to boiling off, and more resistant to oxidation, which causes thickening with prolonged exposure to high temperatures.

Still, there's more than one road to the point B of improved stability. Petroleum refiners in recent years have learned how to break apart certain undesirable molecules - wax, for example, which causes thickening of oil at low temperatures- and transform them by chemical reaction into helpful molecules. These new hydroisomerized base oils, in the view of some industry participants provided properties similar to PAO's but only cost half as much," Lubricants World reported.

The argument before NAD tiptoed around the obvious- does the consumer get four bucks' worth of value from each quart of synthetic oil?- and plunged straight into deep semantics. Mobil's experts said "synthetic" traditionally meant big molecules built up from small ones. Castrol's side held out for a looser description, defining "synthetic" as "the product of an intended chemical reaction."

What do unbiased sources say? It turns out that the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) both have technical standards covering motor oils, and both of these organizations in the '90's backed away from their old definitions of "synthetic," leaving lots of room for new interpretations.

In the end, NAD decided that the evidence constitutes a reasonable basis for the claim that Castrol Syntec, as currently formulated, is a synthetic motor oil, said Lubricants World.

The obvious question now: Has the term "synthetic motor oil" been opened up to the point that it no longer means anything? Maybe. But here's a better question: Did synthetic ever mean what we thought it meant?

"Great oil" is what most guys think it means. "At that price, it's gotta be great stuff!"

Okay, but how great? Your cars manual tells what motor oil you should use, and with few exceptions, that description will consist of only two specifications. One is for viscosity, such as 10W-30; and the other is for the API service grade, SJ being the current one for gasoline passenger cars.

The buck-a-quart multi-grades meet these standards, as do the synthetics.

The synthetics, on the back label, claim compliance with more standards, but even if you know what they mean, they seem beside the point for U.S. passenger cars. For example, should you care about diesels if you drive a gasoline burner? API service CF is the oldest of the current specs for light-duty diesels; some synthetics list that one. Synthetics may also list ACEA A1 and B1, which are European specs roughly equivelant to API gasoline and diesel specs. The Europeans grad their oils by level of performance, so that A2 and A3 are tougher specs than A1. Same for diesels. Usually the date of the spec is omitted, but A1-98 is newer than A1-96.

Completely absent is the one performance claim that would have some real meaning for all of us- some indication of longer oil life. (except for AMSOIL which clearly states 25,000 miles/1-year or 35,000 miles/1-year for their Severe Service 0W-30 synthetic). Automakers hold synthetics to the same oil change intervals as conventional oils. And the oil companies, promise even less. "To give added protection and life to your engine, change your oil every 3000 miles." This same language appears on the back of both Penzoil Synthetic and conventional oils. Valvoline synthetic makes a similar recommendation. (commentary: Since 1972 AMSOIL is the ONLY synthetic oil manufacturer in the world to guarantee 25,000 miles or 35,000 mile oil change intervals and utilizing full PAO synthetic technology exclusively).

Synthetics do get one unambiguous endorsement: Corvettes, Porsches, Vipers, and all AMG models from Mercedes-Benz come with Mobil 1 as the factory fill.

Most synthetics mention GM 4718M in their list of claims; that's the unique spec created by General Motors for Corvette oil. It's a high-temperature requirement that tolerates less oxidation (thickening) and volatility (boil-off) on a standard engine test called Sequence 111E according to engineer Bob Olree of GM Powertrain. (note: AMSOIL 0W-30 far surpasses GM's 4718M spec).

But don't expect to learn such details on any label (again, except for AMSOIL which clearly states test results on the back of every bottle of Series 2000 0W-30 and 20W-50 synthetic). Mobil 1 at least uses straight forward declarative sentences. Most of the others read as though they were written by a lawyer looking for an escape clause. Why else would the following claim be so rubbery? "Penzoil Synthetic motor oil is recommended for use in all engines requiring ILSACGF-1, GF-2, API SJ, SH, or SG, and in engines requiring oils meeting GM 4718M." Okay, but does it actually pass those standards?

"Yes" says James Newsom, Penzoil's motor-oil product manager.

Castrol Syntec, on its label, "exceeds" every standard it mentions. Hmm. Now that the meaning of "is" is in play, I have to wonder, does Syntec meet those standards as well?

"It does" says Castrol's Julie Ann Oberg. While I have her on the phone, I ask if there will be a Syntec price reduction now that the lower-cost base stock has been substituted for the old synthetic. She says no.

End of article.
Now what would Car and Drivers agenda be publishing this? Think they want to lose Castrol ad dollars? Not.
And to all a good night.....


Florida Mini Owners


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2Minis

 

Ok.. I've researched the topic about synthetic oil and after reviewing the performance tests on these, I am convinced that Amsoil is the way to go.
I only have one question?
WHERE CAN YOU BUY AMSOIL PRODUCTS BESIDES ONLINE?

Thanks for the info.

 

Re: where to buy Amsoil....
Try here...

Florida Mini Owners

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2Minis