In the last couple of months this forum has probably taught me just enough to be dangerous, but I’m still not confident in answering this question: How does one decide an appropriate oil change interval?
The car: 2010 Mini Cooper S (1.6 L turbo Direct injection) , 6 sp manual, driven daily, 40 mile round trip commute, including some [censored] cold days, mostly highway, where I usually aim for maximizing gas mileage, occasional full throttle accelerations…just because it’s fun.
The factory oil is a BMW/Mini branded 5w-30 synthetic widely believed to be Castrol. Acceptable alternatives in the manual are Euro formula Castrol 0w-30 and Mobil 1 0w-40.
“Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations” sounds like a sensible rule. On this car the onboard computer calculates the number. When new it started at 15k miles for the first change and has since risen to 18 k. Other mini owners tell me this is typical for somebody who drives like I do. It might go even higher, but I won’t drive that much in a year (around 15k miles) and the manual says change it at least once per year.
Used oil reports on this and other sites suggest to some people that 15k may be too much for a DI turbo engine, even with these long wear oils. No doubt some units can handle this but wouldn’t it be expected that some will have more fuel dilution, etc., than others?
I keep my cars for a long time and want to do the same with this one. Is oil analysis the way to go or can I spend the money on oil and just stick with some conservative number, maybe somewhere between 5k – 10k? Or maybe I'm making this harder than it has to be and once per year is the answer?
The car: 2010 Mini Cooper S (1.6 L turbo Direct injection) , 6 sp manual, driven daily, 40 mile round trip commute, including some [censored] cold days, mostly highway, where I usually aim for maximizing gas mileage, occasional full throttle accelerations…just because it’s fun.
The factory oil is a BMW/Mini branded 5w-30 synthetic widely believed to be Castrol. Acceptable alternatives in the manual are Euro formula Castrol 0w-30 and Mobil 1 0w-40.
“Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations” sounds like a sensible rule. On this car the onboard computer calculates the number. When new it started at 15k miles for the first change and has since risen to 18 k. Other mini owners tell me this is typical for somebody who drives like I do. It might go even higher, but I won’t drive that much in a year (around 15k miles) and the manual says change it at least once per year.
Used oil reports on this and other sites suggest to some people that 15k may be too much for a DI turbo engine, even with these long wear oils. No doubt some units can handle this but wouldn’t it be expected that some will have more fuel dilution, etc., than others?
I keep my cars for a long time and want to do the same with this one. Is oil analysis the way to go or can I spend the money on oil and just stick with some conservative number, maybe somewhere between 5k – 10k? Or maybe I'm making this harder than it has to be and once per year is the answer?
