You all do realize that all engines burn oil but the amount it burns is dependent on your driving style. So for example, I redline my M5 a few times a week and I drive about 600-800 miles a given month. Typically I add 1 quart every 3-4 months or about every 2-3k miles. Normal to me. The car even tells me when to add the oil and how much.

I recall during my drive from North Carolina back to Cali 2 yrs ago that by the time I finished 3k miles, I had to add 1 qt of oil. Normal to me.

BTW, just use the BMW/Mini oil. It is just Castrol Syntec. I always use factory recommend fill (5w30) and follow the CBS intervals. I figured by adding fresh oil into the system every 3k or so, it keeps things stable. Synthetic oil has a much longer life cycle than regular dino oil. Changing it before 7-10k is usually just a waste of good oil.

 

Thanks cschues80. Never heard of recirculating oil vapor consumption. I'll need to research that a bit. The gaskets are cheap, and usually easy to replace - I'm not sure where $1000 comes from - but I'll know soon.


JT, I hope you don't mind if I respectfully disagree. I recently drove a Camry with 210,000 miles on a 1500 mile trip and couldn't detect any oil level change. The Camry is a one-owner car and all those miles were with "SuperTech" brand oil (Walmart, non-synthetic). I've read a lot of posts in various automotive forums over the years justifying high oil consumption and I don't agree. I'm a mechanical engineer that thinks it's just bad engineering.

For those interested in oil-related topics, I'd recommend www.bobistheoilguy.com

Dave

 

Dave, I don't mind that you disagree. What is funny is I was going to make snide comment in my post that the only cars you're not going to see burn oil are Hondas and Toyotas, but then again do any of us really want to compare our German designed minis to a JDM econo sedan? Did you redline your camry even one time during those 210k miles or drive it anywhere as hard as your mini? Our minis (and my BMWs) inspire to us to drive with condfidence and in a sporty way that no toyota camry or Honda accord can and ever will.

As far as oil goes, I am aware of bob the oil guy's website. The oil debate has been beaten to death long before this board has been around. I've seen and read it all over almost everyone of the BMW forums I've been on. Since it's one of those topics where in the end, everyone agrees to disagree, I've just stuck to factory fill on the recommended factory schedule. BMW has teams of engineers with way more years of experience on this matter than anyone else on any Internet forum so I will stick to their recommendations. My philosophy lately has been to use BMW/Mini OE branded parts with disposables and mods. Actually I don't even mod anymore bc I think that for most part BMW got it right the first time around. I only retrofit stuff that I wish had come with my car or to being the car up to 2011 specs (some of my cars are old!).

 

One more observation I want to make is that I do agree that it seems that the Japanese automakers do build their engines to a higher tolerance than BMW. With all the hidden recalls and issues I've seen over the years, it's led me to believe that the engine design is often superior, but the buid tolerances are not on par with the Japanese. The burning oil issue is just one of the topics related to that. I was only stating that I've grown accustomed to this issue as a long time BMW owner. You can prob tell by now that I am a big BMW fan too but I have to admit they are not perfect in anyway.

 

I know my MINI better not be burning ANY oil!

 

Thanks for being a good guy JT. I appreciate your opinion and your experience.

My son (mostly) drove the Camry and my wife and I drive the Mini. I don’t want to speak ill of the boy, but he’s not the gentlest behind the wheel (in contrast to my wife, who surely is). To answer your question, I don’t think the just-a-cooper ever got to redline until yesterday. I read a post about proper break-in (also controversial) and figured I’d see if it smoked on a compression deceleration – run it up in 2nd and let it wind down. I didn’t see anything in several attempts.

I was startled to see the oil consumption. The last oil change was 6500 miles ago and it took about 2 quarts fill up after getting the warning light rounding a corner. That means I was running on 4.4 – 2 = 2.4 quarts. Not good. I’ve never seen that kind of consumption in this car before, so something is different (hopefully the valve cover gasket).

I researched NAM, and the Mini2 forum, for comments related to the valve cover gasket causing oil use. I didn’t find anything. I’ll stop by the dealer in the next day or two and talk with the mechanic. For those interested in doing the work themselves, the gasket looks like it is $24 at rockauto. A dealer replacement for one forum poster was $300.
Dave

 

The oil light warning comes on at -2 qts in BMW cars without the electronic dipstick. Which IMO is unacceptable for BMW to give such late warning. On current bmws with the elcectrnoic dipsticks the warning light comes on when the engine is down 1 qt. At that point it is perfect time to pour in a quart. I'm disappointed that BMW did not implement the electronic dipstick for the 2nd gen minis. I would think t would be a safeguard from prevent oil starvation with the oil cooled turbo.

Btw, I recall reading that synthetic oils tend to burn off more easily than the regular Dino stuff. Perhaps that is what is running inside the older Japanese cars.

The cyclonic oil/vaporizer system that is being discussed serves to recover vaporized oil and collects it into the catch and puts it back into the engine. If this system fails then you would end up burning more oil than you should. However I haven't heard of this system failing this early on in the cars life. You typically see these issues later around 80-120k. However this is based on BMW's 2.5 I6.

Even though our engines are made by Renault, they are very BMW'ish in design. I can tell just by lookin at them and with the introduction of valvetronic, there is no denying BMW is implementing their full engine technology into mini.

I understand that a lot of what I've said my sound anecdotal but my friend is a BMW master tech so I pick his brain a lot. He even works on minis when it's slow around the shop so he points out all the similarities and even explains the engine technology. BMW puts them through a lot of training when they release new tech so they understand what they're working with. It's great bc he shares this info with me and I can pass it along to fellow owners.

 

You mean Peugeot

Yes, well said. This whole thread can pretty much be reduced to this paragraph.

 

Update - I took the Mini to the local dealer and talked with the most experienced Mini mechanic (10 yrs). After looking over the car, his answer was: “I’m about 90% certain it’s the intake manifold”. He said this problem is more common on the turbo cars but he does see some problems on just-a-coopers. Ninety percent is good enough for me – I ordered a valve cover and will put it on after it arrives in a few days.

I did try to “sell” the mechanic that my sweet little wife mostly drives the car and so it had never been driven very hard. I argued that the break-in may not have been as rigorous as this racer deserves. The mechanic would have none of that saying break-in is not a problem on these engines.

Dave