1st Gen 100K+ Most liked posts in thread: Oil for High Mileage First Gen. MINIs

We have a couple of local club members who are at 170K+ and have never used anything but factory MINI oil and filters in their cars.....both run perfectly still, one a Justa and one an S.

I had the pan off of the S not too long ago (Like many he was convinced the pan gasket was leaking, I maintain it's the crank sensor o-ring, not the pan gasket) and that motor looked brand spanking new inside, no sludge, no nuttin!

Both guys follow the twice a year or every 7500 miles oil change interval, FWIW.

I can't imagine the Long Life rating is necessary if you're going to change it this often, as long as you use a good synthetic like Mobil 1.

 

That is certainly a decent option for a high mileage car, and good point about Walmart, they do have some good prices for oil and that is where I buy now.

BTW, speaking of prices, sometimes you can get the local Advance or Autozone to price-match Walmart, just talk to them and ask for a discount.

 

Wouldn't it be just as beneficial for <100K MINIs?

Gonna try to find it. Thanks for the tip!

 

I'd be interested in alternative oils for my car, because my car has always been a high oil consumer. It has a small leak somewhere, and as far as I know it's the pan gasket, but I can't be sure as I haven't looked into it at any length. At my last change, I put in some leak stopper, but that doesn't seem to be helping my consumption. If anything, it seems to be worse. Anything think stepping up to 10w30 from 5w30 help? I'd give this high mileage stuff a try if I thought it would help. I have 102k on my car.

 

I'm gonna give this a shot next oil change. I'm changing every 3k now that I'm over 100k, so that said, at 106k, time to put the "senior" oil on my Cooper.

 

Would this be a benefit to an older low mileage car (6yr old 40K)?

I have been using the 0W-40 for the last few changes.

 

I should probably know this, but I haven't read my manual in a while:

Do MINIs require BMW's LL-01 approval for their engine oil? If so, does this M1 meet it? I understand that this doesn't always make the oil, per se (as is the case with the 5-30 RL I use), but I'm still curious since I thought the M1 0-40 ("euro") was the only oil that's "okay" for BMW engines.

Thanks.

- Marc

 

I've been running Mobil 1 for a long time now in all of my cars (except for the occasional beatermobile). Thanks for the additional info on the newer formulations, k-huevo. It's good to be well-informed.

I tend to change the oil in the MINI at about 5000 mile intervals (that's the average showing in my spreadsheet, anyway). I suppose this may be midway between "short" and "long".

Oh, and I totally believe that, for many engines, fuel dilution is the leading cause of viscosity drop. I used to work in a place that worked with Ford on engine remanufacturing programs for their 4.6L and 5.4L engines, among other things. Reading through dyno test reports, it was common for engines to "make" oil during the tests (some tests were as long as 1200 hours), as fuel made its way down into the sump.

 

Thanks for the clarification K ! These were some of the things I was thinking when I decided to change to the 0W-40 as I change my oil just once a year (only drive about 6-8K a year)

Glad to see my "gut instinct' actually was on the plus side this time.......

 

So, what would be a good thing to try if my motor consumes oil at a rate of about 1qt/3,000 miles or more? I've always run 5w30, either Mobil 1, Castrol Syntec, or Royal Purple. I've been changing my oil at long intervals, sometimes up to 10,000. I figured since the factory oil change was every 15,000, that I was ok. My last oil change I only waited 6,000, but that was because my fiancees car needed a change, and I wanted to do them both at once.

My car doesn't have a fast leak, and doesn't smoke unless it's really hammered. It leaves a drop every now and then on the garage floor. I'm not sure what I can try, other than start checking and replacing seals.

 

Just in the interest of research do a google search on Shell Rotella T Synthetic just for giggles.

 

Diesel oil eh? My buddy runs that in the rally car. Then again his motor probably sees more abuse in one day than mine sees in a year.

 

I don't have smoking on accel or de-accel, except if I really tach it out to like 6900, which I do very rarely. My only guess is a possible oil pan leak, due to where oil actually accumulates on the bottom of my car.

 

Just picked up high milage 10W30 for an oil change tonight - thanks again k-huevo for the heads-up.

 

Yeah I think I'll try that stuff next time too.

 

Any new thoughts on the subject of oil for Minis with over 100,000 miles. I have been using Royal Purple almost exclusively and change oil and filter between 9,000-11,000.

I figure there might be some new insight into this subject in the past two years.

 

Any noise or smoke?