[Ryephile]

I decided to do an early oil change on my JCW to flush out the break-in metals. This is not strictly necessary but as the saying goes; "oil changes are cheap insurance". To back up my thought process I collected and sent off a used oil sample to be analyzed by a lab that specializes in such things. The findings were quite interesting.

This was the factory fill oil that had 2,810 miles on it [ignore the mileage and engine size errors on the lab report]. They found the oil to be less viscous than expected for a 5W-20, but other than a little bit of expected Silicon, the wear metals normally found in a fresh engine are pretty much not there. This is a spectacularly clean break-in oil. So much so I wonder if BMW runs the engines for a little bit at Hams Hall assembly and then puts fresh oil in when they marry the engine to the chassis. It's possible and it would explain the super-clean oil results.

Enjoy:

Screen Shot 2015-10-20 at 9.28.30 PM.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr

I plan on doing another Used Oil Analysis [UOA] in another ~9k miles when the car gets its first complimentary change at the dealership.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

[Dromedary]

thanks for the information! good to see that there might be some logic behind MINI saying not to change the oil until 9k.

 

[JPslov]

Excellent to hear indeed. I like to think MINI/BMW know what they're doing...always good to see some proof though.

 

[jeremybingham]

Thats really good news; factory fill uk is 5 w 30 so i wonder if the oil viscocity has degraded? i changed mine for that reason at 6k miles!

 

[Steve07]

Hi,
What a brilliant idea to have the engine oil analysed.
The results give me alot of confidence around BMW build quality and long life oils.

I too like Jeremy used to change my oil with more frequency than recommended but not on the two MINI's I have owned.
The dealership guys talked me round and said it was not necassary.

I wonder if we have laboratories in the UK who will do this testing for a fee and peace of mind?

 

[Ryephile]

Thanks guys, glad to help. I've been doing oil analyses for years on a variety of vehicles, but to be honest this is the cleanest break-in oil I've ever personally had. Usually there's a reasonably high amount of iron, aluminum, lead, and copper as the cylinder bores & rings, valve-train, and bearings break-in. In this sample, there's silicon from sealers and castings getting washed, and a little bit of copper from bearings, but otherwise no notable cylinder block metals, which is great.

I'm not against thinking that MINI actually put a 5W-20 from the factory, and then spec a 5W-30 during real-world oil changes. It's also possible that the oil sheared down, but that's less probable for a modern synthetic, especially given the very few miles on the interval.