My MINI dealer actually offers you the choice of using Castrol or Mobil 1!! They claim that owners choose mobile 1 2 to 1 over Castrol. They actually recommend it as well. Now in all fairness, Mobile 1 is a US product and Castrol is a British product, so Gee I wonder why a British car dealer would tell you to use Castrol. Kind of makes you go Hummmmm.

Drive Safe
Phil

 

BTW, you should NOT use Castrol Syntec in your car as that WOULD void the warranty. Castrol makes a full synthetic which is approved and sold under its own brand as well as "MINI-branded" ones in the dealership. As for Mobil 1 - it is most certainly OK to use on your baby provided you are using the correct viscosity.

 

That's funny because one of the MA's at my dealership said the mini will need a quart of castrol syntec 5W-30 at around 6000 miles.

Luke

 

That's scary as Syntec, although a good oil, is only partially synthetic.

 

After a little bit of searching, you are right. Castrol SYNTEC in europe is fully synthetic, which is what BMW uses, but in the states its not.

 

So, is the MINI Castrol oil sold in the US totally synthetic (definitely) ?

If so, I may as well stick with it to save any potential hassle since it costs the same as Mobil 1.

 

So is the MINI-branded version fully synthetic or not? (I'm getting pretty confused here!)

 

Both service techs at my dealer told me they'd rather see me use the Mobile 1 than the "junk" that MINI sells.. And it would not void the warranty. He also supports me in doing oil changes in between scheduled changes, and would even do it cheap if I showed up with the oil! I have one more scheduled oil change at which I'll use the MINI oil because it's free.. After that, it's stricktly Mobile 1 after that..

As a side note, I did notice that the motor ran smoother after putting in the Mobile 1..

 

When I read a thread like this I just have to scratch my head. I can go to Walmart and get a big jug of Mobil 1 or Castrol Syntec full synthetic for about $20. If the dealer says using the Mobil 1 will cause a problem with him down the road, is there anyone out there that will claim that the car will run better, or last longer on the Mobil 1 than the Syntec?

Considering that there is absolutely no evidence that using Mobil 1 will improve anything, and you know it may be a warranty problem, why are you even considering it? Just buy the green rather than the silver jug and be done with it. Do you think Mini is trying to force you to use an oil that will harm your car?

Why make up problems where none exists. Too often people have misplaced loyalties to products - there is no real benefit, just a "feeling."
I am sure that any of the major brands of synthetic oil that I have used over the years, like AMSoil, KeyToOil, Purple, Mobil 1, Syntec and others will work equally well in the Mini, but if the dealer wants you to use Castrol, humor him.
There is no risk here at all. Why aggravate over this kind of nonsense? Save it for your kids or something important.

 

If they are telling you that you must use xyz oil then there is a problem. If you just let it go it will continue. Just like when they try to deny warantee service just because you have a mod which in not even related to the problem. Dealers are notoriusly crooked and need to be put in check!

When its ******** its our responsibility to call ******** ! Or we all get screwed again later.

If someone at a dealer tells you that youmust use xyz oil I would get their name and report them to the GM and mini usa. They can recoment but not force you to use their stuff or void youwarantee...its just plain BS!

Use whatever makes you happy as long as it meets the requirements set by the MFG just like the specs mentioned above.

 

If the oil they want you to buy cost 2 or three times or even 50% more, then you could argue that its a big ripoff. But the factory Mini oil is not much more than you pay for any full synthetic. I refuse to believe that ANY other oil will significantly improve engine life or performance. So for the few bucks it costs, why aggravate? Save it for when they say your warranty is voided by the radar detector. Don't sweat the small stuff, and believe me, this is the small stuff.


Statements like "dealers are notoriously crooked" can be countermanded by dealers who claim that "customers are notoriously crooked." I truly believe that there are more cooked customers than dealers. People who want to buy a stock car, make a race car out of it and make it tolerate stress beyond its design, and have the dealer fix it for free if it breaks.
Oils like Mobil 1 carry their own warranty - they claim that no harm will ever come to an engine from using it - guaranteed. So if you use Mobil 1 you are still warranted, just by Mobil, not Mini. But I bet getting warranty service out of Mobil is more difficult than getting it out of Mini. Why chance that hassle for a few bucks. Choose your battles. Live to fight another day. If you get on their S list over something simple like oil, the paybck will come later when the transmission blows.

 

...so based on this assumption - what does it matter which oil you run at all?

 

Ya know, I participated in a discussion similar to this on another board not too long ago. And I ended up writing to Castrol USA and asking them. Their response:

Castrol Syntec is a 100% fully-synthetic motor oil.

Castrol SYNTEC is not made with petroleum base stock. Synthetic motor oil starts with synthetic base oil. There are many different chemical processes available to make synthetic base oil due to advances in the technology of synthetics. These chemical processes are different than the simple refining techniques used to make conventional base oils.

For conventional base oils the process is simply a separation and subtraction process. Once the base oil is separated, the subtraction process cleans and removes impurities and undesirable compounds, such as wax and sulfur.

Synthetic processing uses select crude components that are chemically converted to create molecules that are different from the starting material. Synthetic processing rearranges, builds up and breaks apart molecules.

This chemical processing produces synthetic base oils that are engineered to provide consistent and predictable superior performance over conventional base oil counterparts. Synthetic base oils exhibit superior performance at both extreme hot and cold temperatures.

Synthetic base oils are then mixed with specialized additive systems that can be engineered to meet more demanding performance specifications than what is achievable from conventional motor oils. The combination of synthetic base oils and choice additive systems offers many benefits for your engine.

Subject: Castrol USA - Contact Us Form Data

Dear Onlinecustomerservice,
COUNTRY : United States of America
WHO CHANGES YOUR OIL? : You
INQUIRY DETAILS : My inquiry concerns Castrol Syntec in the United
States. Is this a true synthetic oil, made with a synthetic base or is
there any dino oil used in it?
I AM CONTACTING YOU BECAUSE I HAVE A: : Inquiry
SUBCATEGORY : Products
CATEGORY : For Me
EMAIL :
TITLE : Mr.
FIRST NAME : Cory
LAST NAME : B

 

From the 2004 Service and Warranty Information booklet (page 4), that came with our car:

"At the time of the printing of this booklet MIN High-Perfomance Synthetic 5W30 Oil and Mobil 1 5W30 and 5W40 Oils are strongly recommended and approved by the MINI Division of BMW of NA, LLC for the Cooper and Cooper S models."

 

Thanks for all the stimulating discussions & feedback. I guess my negativity towards the MINI oil was based on (mis)information that it wasn't actually fully synthetic. Hence, I felt that Mobil 1 was a better option.....I guess either should be fine.

 

I also think Royal Purple makes a great engine oil. Pure 100% synthetic. It still looks clean after 5K miles when I change it.

 

I would have needed to add about a half a quart of oil to the MINI at 3000 miles if I had not changed over to Amsoil 5w40.

Now I am coming up on 8500 miles and have not had to add a drop.

If you are going to go the full 10000 miles on the MINI oil/Syntec you are going to have to add oil you may have to add as much as two quarts of oil. As the engine ages that will probably go up to 2.5 quarts.

The castrol syntec oil has a very, very high Novac(sp?) volitality rating. Basicly what that means is that the oil burns off easily. I could go track down the ratings for various oils if someone wants me to.

I wouldn't use the syntec just for this reason alone.

 

Joe I understand your point about picking your battles, but my point is if they will take advantage of the uninformed on the choice of oil brands what will they do to a slighly modded car ? They look for any reason to try to void your warantee.


Its really the point and if they get away with something that is wrong it will continue and grow and grow.

And yes there are a ton of crooked car owners as well but the ones who suffer the most are the honest ones and the uninformed motorists.

 

The problem with dealing with car dealer service department is that they have great latitude when it comes to what they do "under warranty." If they deny you a service, you can wastes a lot of moiney and man hours and the most you can ever get is the service you want for free. You will never be reimbursed for the aggravation and time it takes to fight it. They know this and use it against you.


Just like the Army, it is often best to say "Yes Sir" and No Sir" and be a good little customer and do not make their life difficult. It pays you back when real disaster hits. Oil is simply not worth fighting about. Besides, you can put just about anything you want in the car, and as long as no warranty service related to oil failure occurs, who knows? I have never had a car that has ever had any sort of failure related to oil quality, EVER. Engines blow because people let the oil level drop too low, or do not change it often enough. I use good oil and change it often. The chances of such a failure truly are tiny these days. If you use a good name brand synthetic oil of the proper weight, chances are that you will never have a problem.

 

Speak for yourself. There are too many variables involved to make a blanket statement like that. The fact that your car acts like that does not mean all MINIs will act the same. I ran my car to ~12,000 (exactly according to the Service Indicator) before the first oil change and it did not need topping off at all in that time period.

 

Fuel and water can get into your oil pan, are you sure the Amsoil doesn't encourage this behavior?

Does the fact that an oil will "burn off easily" improve or degrade it's ability to effectively lubricate engine parts?

 

Just checked everywhere... wallet, lockbox, glove box... and NOWHERE can I find my enlistment papers, dagnabbit!

My point here being that I want to use the oil I want -- regardless of who thinks my brand loyalty is misplaced. Ain't yo' call, friend. And it CERTAINLY isn't MINI's call, provided I'm using oil to the proper specs. It isn't aggrivating because it's STUPID for a dealership to assert that it's their way or the (warranty-less) highway. It's a matter of principle -- whether it's $.50 more or $50.00 more, it's my money and I want to have control over where it goes and towards what. Not to mention, I'm so terminally sick of this company that I don't want them making any more superfluous profit off me...

 

And they know you know it and use it to intimidate you. If people stood up to them instead of taking it this sort of nonsense would stop


So you agree that what they're trying to force customers to do makes no sense? They're being paid to perform a service. Their customers don't work for them and they certainly aren't in the "Crappy MINI Dealer Army".

Mark

 

Here is a link to a rather lengthy article on the nature of Castrols "Synthetic" oil. It appears that although Castrol meets the definition of "Synthetic" ol it is not made the same way as synthetics by Mobil, Amzoil, and other "Synthetic Oils".

http://www.pecuniary.com/newsletters...csdefined.html

Warranty coverage should not be an issue as Mobil 1 is specifically mentioned in the owner's manual as an acceptable oil. So we don't even need to get into the fact that any oil that meets the service API or SAE designation will maintain the warranty coverage on a vehicle.

 

Ah where's good old Castrol R when you need it?

..............and that smell of burning R.