Hi R56 owners,

I've been looking for the quite some time for the best street oil for the R56.

What do you think about the ester based Motul 8100 X-Lite 0w-30 ? It kind of haves the specs of a normal 5w-30 oil, Sulfated ash is a tad high 1,5% weight, and yea it's pricey ! It's kind of on the same page in term of specs with the 0w-30 GC, which you all might be familiar with, but oif course a lot better base stocks for the Motul and double the price.

http://www.motul.com/system/product_...pdf?1323961360

Any oil Gurus ( not necessarily though ) would like to share some opinions about this ?

Thanks much !
Alex

 

Is the car under warranty? If so, then only use MINI approved oil and keep receipts. If not, use what you want.

I use Mobil1 0-40 Euro blend or MINI oil. Blackstone labs says it's still good when I change the oil and filter at 8,000 miles. (Mobil1 0-40 euro blend is MINI approved)

 

I 2nd the Mobil 1 0W40.

After seeing its ability to clean out coke and sludge from high mileage turbo engines without harm.. I'm sold... Plus it meets BMW LL specs.. ( as well as a host of other Euro standards).

 

I'll be switching over to Mobil 1 0W40 on the next oil change. Just curious do you have any links showing the oil cleaning sludge?

 

No, no links.. just my own experience based on what a Audi tech told me about it..

I had inherited a high-mileage (100K) Audi A4, that was my Dad's, it was 15,000 miles due... Turbo 1.8T motor. Caked on crispy junk inside the valve cover.. 2 qts low. My Dad stuck to the 10K Audi oil change intervals, but in his declining years he really neglected the car.

So... I got it.. ran 4 qts of Mobil 1 0W40 at the suggestion of that Audi tech..

Changed it 2000 miles later, the oil had turned jet back... much less sludge inside the cap area... almost clean... did another change in 2000 miles.. 5000 miles, the cap/cam and cam area were clean.. perfectly clean.

The car now has 135K on it, with Mobil 1 changes every 5K.. I had to change a timing chain seal.. (a very common leak for the 1.8T) .and had the valve cover off... its PERFECTLY clean inside that engine now.. spotless... just that golden tan hue to the aluminum head..

Just for the fun of it I took a video boroscope and inspected the crank-case area... nothing but clean shiny metal.. nice tan hue...

Audi had extended the warranty on the engines to 12 year/120K miles... but only if you used Audi/VW spec oil (Which Mobil 1 was the best option here in the US)

 

Thanks for the answers guys

The car is OUT of warranty. Mobil 1 0w-40 is indeed a popular oil in the Mini Community, and a really good oil. But there is a BUT. From the research i have done, the Prince engine ( mostly developed by Peugeot, with the timing components designed by BMW - "Facepalm") requires a 30wt oil. Failure to use such an oil can affect the already fragile timing chain mechanism even more.

So if i'd be looking for the right oil, i would look what Peugeot recommend for it. They recommend two oils : Total Quartz 9000 0w-30 ( very similar in specs with GC 0w-30 and X-Lite 0w-30), also LL01 approved, but out of production i think :( and ... prepare for this.. Total Ineo ECS 5w-30 fuel economy oil. Very thin oil with a HTHS of 3.0 ! On the opposite side, BMW even recommends 5w-40 oil for the COOPER S, now who to believe ?

So, anyone here using Mobil 1 0w-40 on the R56 Cooper S had timing chain problems ? Besides the great cleaning proprieties, are you satisfied how the car runs with it ? I've heard a lot of people saying that BMW engines ( even though this a very partial BMW engine) don't like Mobil oil at all.

Hope i haven't bored you lol

 

have a 2007 r56 my owners manual says you can use 5w30 or 5w40. i use redline 5w30 and have had no problems. I used to work in a oil shope and we used the Mobil 1 0w40 alot and also the castrol edge 5w30 5w40 and 0w40

 

That oil doesn't have any of the right certs for this car. X-Cess 8100 is appropriate. I actually have a sample of it on the way to Blackstone that should be in this week.

--Matt

 

@Jordan I was thinking about using the Redline 5w-30 oil too. Being Ester based should flow a bit better than your average synthetic oil. So how's the car running with it ? Any chain noises at startup or other sounds ?

Thanks

@mattkosem The 8100 X-Lite used to have and it's still recommended for LL98 applications, in theory this should be acceptable for us too?

ATM, i'm using Motul 8100 X-Clean 5w-30, this is a C3 spec oil, sometimes i get some noises, which i believe it could be the timing chain, but they are pretty discreet. The car runs fantastic and MPG is great ( 30.55 MPG)

 

First question to the op....
what is your location?
Reason is simple. Outside of Europe where ethonol in fuel can cause more moisture issues mini/bmw says to use a longlife1 spec oil....euro cars...which are run on ethonol free gas are 5o be run on longlife4 oil....lower tbn (corrosion/acid resistance), but more common in europe due to its use in diseal cars....so oil choice WILL BE DIFFERENT based on location and fuel.

 

Hi Zippy,

I live in the EU, so i can use LL04 oils. In fact i'm using one now ( Motul 8100 X-Clean 5w-30 ). I'm trying to stay in the Mini\PSA specs for this engine with a high performance PAO\ester 0w-30 for better flow at start up, but to find one that also meets the LL requirements is close impossible now.

In theory you could also use the LL04 oils in the US, but you should change the oil more often, as the TBN depletes faster due to the sulfur in your gasoline.

 

The only folks using longlife4 oils in the north America are generally a TINY number of diesel owners. ...simply paying 2x the price for an imported oil that lasts Half as long.....not populwr. About the ONLY longlife4 oil that is in wide spread car use is shell rotella t4....cheap for a syenthic as it is commonly used in heavy trucks that use it by the gallon.....
oils here, both in requirements, prices, formulations, etc are all very different. ...imports are around...but if one looks into it....they are generally a poor choice in our market(north america).

 

Not according to its current spec sheet. They only have VW/MB specs on it:

http://www.motul.com/system/product_...pdf?1334963012

It's probably more than adequate but, if you're concerned with warranty, X-Cess has you covered. I'm only at 8k miles, but I'm interested in seeing how the X-Cess did in this engine. It didn't do as well as RedLine in my FSI VW engine, but I don't want to switch to RedLine on this car until the warranty is up.

--Matt

 

Here's that analysis report that I said I was expecting on the X-Cess. I'm still under 10k miles, so wear metals are going to be high. This run was also almost entirely winter whereas the first was from warmer weather so, all in all, it's not too bad.



--Matt

 

I have always used redline and I love it. i dont have any issues at all.

 

@mattkosem

Thanks for the UOA. It looks average though. I've used the X-Cess 5w-40 in a lot of my cars. But seeing how bad it flows in low temperatures, i'm not using it anymore, at least in my daily's. ( NR2 in the video).


I still consider that 5w-40 oils are not 100% appropriate for the 1.6 THP engine, but they should work, i guess if Mini backs it up.

@Jordan

Thanks for info, now really considering it. The Motul X-Clean 5w-30 is a great oil too, apart from some sounds i've haven't heard in a while, the car runs super smooth with it.

 

Ok, people, i've decided to go with latest Euro-Series oils from Redline : http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=142&pcid=21

Theoretically, low saps + low evaporation oils should really help against the build up in DI engines.

I'll let you know how it works.

Thanks,
Alex