I know. I was surprised to see that BMW Castrol is actually a darn good oil. It's hard to make conclusions based off one car and one analysis, though. If I switch to Redline, I might do an anaysis after a couple changes (I've heard you get high wear #'s with Redline for the first couple runs because it's cleaning everything out). It's just hard to budget $20+ for an oil analysis at every change.

Another thing that you have to think about is if the oil can go 10-15k miles and still have a high enough TBN, can the filter go that far as well...would a filter-only change at 6k be the way to go??? That, too, would only be answered by testing and oil analysis.

 

I'd been alternating between factory oil (the free changes) and Mobil 1 until
the last change. I'd learned that Mobil 1 is no longer group IV but a mix of
group III and IV (more IV in the extended formulation), and was about to
go for Redline or Motul (both group V), but then noticed that a local shop
I drive by nearly every day had Amsoil (IV) on their shelfs, and went with
that this time.
I usually change every 5-7.5K (halfway between recommended intervals),
so it's probably a much of a muchness between the choices.

 

Some on BOB are noticing Redline slipping in the cleanliness dept. lately.....right out of the bottle (seeing visibile particulates). I've also noticed they have higher Iron #s in virgin analysis too. I don't know, but I would stick with the BMW Castrol LL or Mobil-1 (in a pinch).

 

I use Mobil 1. Car companies actually have contracts with other companies wherein they will advertise a particular product (by recommending it) for some arrangement with the supplier. Movies do that, too. If you see someone drinking a Coke in a movie, it's likely Coke paid for that. Or bands, that put something like "Dave uses DW drums exclusively" on their cd.

 

That would be my post.
Those on "Bob" are blaming my air filter. I'm not so sure at this point.
I went back to a paper air filter for this run and will see if the iron goes down. There have been more postings lately with high iron numbers with German Castrol, so maybe it's the oil.

 

 

No. German Castrol is 0w-30 and says European Formula.

 

Hi I used this oil , it does say BMW and it was expensive

 

Yeah, that's pretty good oil. I think it's made in Belgium. It's a little thicker than what MINI recomends but should work fine. Gas mileage may suffer a bit though.

 

But in my glove box manual ,it was OK? Belgium has good refineries and good additve package

 

Yeah, saw the MINI manual recommending 5w40 good for hot climate areas too ....I'll probably give that grade a try in my next interim oil change.

 

anyone here using Motul oil? i currently have Motul H-tech in my MC

 

I really find "seeing visible particulates right out of the bottle" hard to believe.

 

We've been using AMS oil synthetic for about 4 years now without any trouble, changing it about every 5-7,000 miles. Don't really care about the dyno, more about longevity.

 

And I sure wouldn't call that "slipping." More like totally blowing it. I'll probably use Mobil 1.

 

Royal Purple does an excellent job of protecting engine internals. I had outstanding results from my last 7,000 mile OCI analysis (5W30). Because of fuel dilute levels, the viscosity has been upped to 10W30, and I’m changing a few things about the tune.
http://www.lonestarminiclub.com/foru...read.php?t=411

Oil analysis is a good investment; a thorough report analyzed by an expert costs more than a cursory one but is far better than burring head in sand delusive thinking.

 

Mobil 1 5W-30 every 5,000 miles.

 

One thing I noticed when I changed my oil last week it was very dirty. I usually see that dark of oil in an old diesel tractor .It must really blow alot of combustibles past the rings

 

Let's both not believe it. The BOB forum has a weak search function...also tried the Google site search to see if I could find where I saw that. For now, here are some threads I recall:

Redline discussion:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/foru...0&fpart=1&vc=1

http://theoildrop.server101.com/foru...131#Post787860

BMW LL Virgin Analysis:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/foru...e=5#Post474688

original MINI one:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/foru...e=0#Post853636