2013 Mini Cooper S - Castrol Edge 5w-30 - 3200 mil

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Hi all. Car is my wife's; tons of short drives (ie, never warms up), while we do drive it on the weekends up to temperature. Capped the oil life off with a drive through Tail of the Dragon during Minis on the Dragon (ie, much harder than she ever drives it typically).

Car has 17,600 miles on it. Oil has 3200 miles on it.

Car is stock hardware, using the Burger Tuning tuner; http://www.burgertuning.com/Mini_Cooper_S_N18_JB_performance_tuner.html

As for the analysis itself, not hugely happy the viscosity dropped as much as it did in that time period; 12.0 to 9.1 seems excessive.

I've honestly not done a UOA on this vehicle up until now; my focus has, frankly, been on my WRX, but I figured I'd run one on this just for curiosity's sake, since I've been doing more investigation on oils in general, especially fuel dilution-derived viscosity drops, which the 2015 WRX I have is experiencing as well.

My go-forward plan is to move up to a 5w-40; I've switched over to Rotella T6 in the WRX, and plan to do that next go around on the Mini. The last oil change (the one this came from) was changed with the Pennzoil Euro L 5w-30. In reading up more on the Minis, a lot of people are using Mobil 1 0w-40 and other 40 weights, so I figured I'd just standardize on Rotella T6 on all my cars; makes it easier :p

As for OCI, I've always done 3k out of sheer habit, and it allows me a good chance to get the car up on jack stands and take a look at what else might be wrong/missing, if nothing else.

Anyhoogle, that's all I got. If nothing else, it's a data point.
 
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Yup, I know. Drivetrain is voided for all intents and purposes anyways; the Burger Tuning device would be frowned upon, I'm sure :p

Mini calls for BMW LongLife 01 or LongLife 01-FE, or the BMW High Performance 5w-30. They specify:

"When selecting a motor oil, make sure
that it belongs to one of the SAE viscosity
classes 0W-40, 0W-30, 5W-40 and 5W-30; oth-
erwise, malfunctions or damage to the engine
may result."

but yeah, the T6 won't fall under the LL spec.
 
Why are you using a BMW LL-04 spec oil in this car? You should be using a LL-01 spec oil. The sulfur in our gas will eat away the TBN on these low-SAPS diesel oils in gas engine.
 
With his shorter OCI than specified by Mini, I don't think TBN retention will be an issue when LL-04 oils are used.

Originally Posted By: Finklejag
Why are you using a BMW LL-04 spec oil in this car? You should be using a LL-01 spec oil. The sulfur in our gas will eat away the TBN on these low-SAPS diesel oils in gas engine.
 
Originally Posted By: Finklejag
Why are you using a BMW LL-04 spec oil in this car? You should be using a LL-01 spec oil. The sulfur in our gas will eat away the TBN on these low-SAPS diesel oils in gas engine.


+1 mobil 1 0w-40. Meets the LL-01 spec.
 
That would make more sense, agreed. With the anal-retentiveness of the 3k mile oil changes, I'm not overly concerned about TBN wearing out. That said, the Mobil 1 does meet the requirements, and is equally cheap.

I'll try that next time around, after the Euro L comes out. Drive more, woman!
 
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