2019 Mini JCW 3553 miles, factory fill, likely 0W20

Joined
Sep 7, 2018
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Location
Ireland
I bought the Mini in March this year with 2500 miles on it and put on another 1000 miles before the lockdown. I would not normally change the oil so soon, but the lockdown provided an opportunity to do an early change to Shell Helix Ultra 0W30 ECT C3 (LL-04) for which I have commissioned and posted a VOA - see it here

The oil looks to me like a 0W20 with high VI as noted in the UOA comments. There is one measurement which gives serious concern and perhaps this early oil change is fortunate - it won't take you long to spot it. Imagine running this for the full OEM / car computed OCI which would likely have been another 4000+ miles. It is like this is some special thin run-in fluid with minimum additive pack without the OEM requirement for an early oil change. Anyone else come across this before?

The oil is high in Molybdenum and zero Boron so this does not look like Shell to me - the VOA and UOA I've seen for most Shell GTL oils are low in moly and at least 50ppm boron.
 

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Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Your PDF is not displaying for me?

Thanks for noting this. Attached screenshots.

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I just bought the same model and year car, with 1236 miles on it! I see where the oil was changed at 900 miles by the dealership after it had been owned one year (what were the first owners doing, other than having a 49,000 car sitting in the garage?). I've driven it about 500 miles and am going to change the oil/filter just to be sure I know what is in the crankcase. Thought I'd go with half BMW 17 FE+ 0W20 and half Redline LL04 0w30. Several people suggested simply running Pennzoil Euro 0W30. Still thinking....
 
Should be a BMW LL-17 FE+ rated 0W-20 I believe. I think they require a minimum starting TBN of 6.0 and I'm not real certain I buy that labs 0.60 TBN.

That said my understanding is these lubes can have a very low tbn and wear metals and acid remain under control. You oxidation and nitration look like the oil was still doing its job. I've seen higher numbers with a 7.0+ TBN. It's very hard to judge things like iron levels during break-in but considering I don't see anything alarming.
 
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