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Just FYI many people seem to run non-LL-xx oils in BMWs with excellent results even on newer cars and I'd bet money they would work perfectly well in a Mini as well.
I agree with glennc. And a few of my thoughts on the issue.
The problem facing BMW and their use of their own oil spec's, is that they are specifying some very long oil change intervals -- 15K miles in many cases. From BMW's perspective, they are going to want oils that are up to the task of these long drain intervals -- so they make up their own specification to try and make sure the oils used can go the distance. From the various oil manufacturers perspective, having all these different oil specifications from different auto manufacturers are a "pain" and an additional cost to get them certified. There are probably quite a few synthetics out there that could meet LL-01 if the oil manufacturer was willing to jump through the hoops to certify them -- but many are not. And as pointed out, there are oils out there that likely better than some of the LL-01 oils.
So what do you do?
I think a good alternative to doing a 15k mile OCI, which many here will consider too long in some cases (and some would consider way too long) even with the BMW certified oils, is to just use any off-the-shelf synthetic and cut the OCI down to something like 8 - 10k miles.
Another alternative is to just use any conventional 5W-30 (SM/GF-4) oil and cut the oil change down to the 5-6k mile range -- maybe even longer with a UOA. I think the Group II/II+ based SM oils are
very compelling from a price/performance POV.
What about meeting the HTHS of 3.5 of LL-01? I think the widespread use of 5W-20's, and that fact that many new manufactures specifying 5W-30 where in the past they spec'd 5W-40, and the good results of these lower viscosity weights, indicates that the oil specifications (for HTHS) many auto manufacturers were working with in the past were on the conservative side. We've seen many engines back spec'd to 5W-20. And we've seen posts here with people concerned about towing a 7,000 lb trailer with their F-150 in 100F weather that specifies 5W-20. Well, apparently the engineers at Ford are confident these oils are up to the task. AEHaas has used a 20 weight in his Ferrari and states that the new Ferrari's are being shipped with 5W-30 (as opposed to the previous 40 weights).
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AEHaas …
I personally used 0W-20 Mobil 1 in the 575 Maranello and for the first oil change I drained the Murcielago’s (OEM) 5W-40 Agip and replaced it with 0W-30 Mobil 1. The engine became much quieter. A valve tappet noise disappeared. I am now using the 5W-20 Red Line in the Lamborghini. Used oil analysis shows that this oil works well for my non racetrack application. The same oil went into my Maybach 57. My Enzo Ferrari calls for the Shell Helix Ultra racing 10W-60 but I am using the Castrol Syntec European Formula 0W-30. This is different than the easy to find plain 0W-30 Syntec. It MUST say European Formula across the front of the label. I buy it at AutoZone stores but it is often mixed with the plain stuff.
I called up FNA and was told that all new Ferrari cars are delivered with 5W-30 Shell Helix Ultra.
The 5W-30's that meet HTHS of 3.5 are usually basically just meeting that spec with a KV of around 11.5 - 12.0 cSt. Dropping down to a conventional 5W-30 at 10.5 cSt just isn't going to make much difference. If you were tracking the car in 100F weather -- one might be a little concerned if the oil temperatures were very high, but for street use the slightly lower viscosity just isn't going to be an issue. And seeing how well the 5W-20's are performing also gives me confidence that 30 weights are more than up to the task.
If the BMW dealers aren't obsessing over LL-01 and are just using a Syntec 5W-30 that doesn't meet that spec., then this says to me that using any 5W-30 (with some appropriate oil change interval) will just be fine.
