[thedonnmeister]

My girlfriend's 2007 Mini has had 2 complete oil changes in less than a year, and on the last oil change it had about 1 litre in it...! :wow:

Today she calls me saying it has low oil pressure so the local garage has a look and puts another 2 litres in, baring in mind it was changed about 2 months ago...

The mechanic says he had a cooper and it used about 1 litre of oil every month!!!

I find this outrageous! I thought they were meant to be well built and reliable, and its just been a load of rubbish over the last two years!

 

[crazycarb]

Has adequate oil been put in on the past oil changes?

 

[cue2]

This Brazilian Chrysler engine ?
http://www.allpar.com/mopar/rover.html

 

[thedonnmeister]

No it has the second gen BMW engine. All 2007+ coopers have the new engine.

 

[belavia]

Most european cars have an oil consumption of 1lite per 1000kms, so i dont think your cooper has an issue.

 

[KrisW]

Most european cars have an oil consumption of 1lite per 1000kms,

No they don't.

I usually need to top up six months after a service, and then it's about 500 to 750ml. I do 22,000 km a year, about 80% of it open-road at around 100km/h.

My previous 1.6 TwinSpark was worse on oil, but it only needed twice what I add now (same amount, twice as often). I considered that to be at the high end for oil-consumption, and the 1.6TS did have that reputation anyway.

@thedonnmeister, when it's low, is the oil on the dipstick black or still amber? Black suggests it's being burnt off, clean suggests there's a leak somewhere, but my advice would be a second opinion from a different mechanic. I think that engine is also used in Peugeots, if it helps to find someone.

 

[symon]

Maybe the turbo has a leak on one of its seals?

 

[keithyboy]

Most european cars have an oil consumption of 1lite per 1000kms, so i dont think your cooper has an issue.

My Saab has got 150,000 miles on it and the only time I have topped it up was after removing the oil cooler and losing a load in the process. My 156 didn't use any either, I never topped it up between changes. Even my ancient knackered Audi didn't use a litre in 600 miles.

 

[thedonnmeister]

Maybe the turbo has a leak on one of its seals?

Its not a turbo, that is the cooper s.

I will have a look when I'm home at the colour of the oil, but 1 litre a month is taking the ****!

 

[Al Faromeo]

My GT (2.0 JTS) used up a liter/1.000 km; my V6 3.0 Spider uses about 1 liter/10.000km - I don't believe it's "normal" for a European car to use 1 l/100 km.

All of our previous cars were more like the Spider. Even the 156 I had before the GT was at less than 1 l/5.000 km.
The previous cars that never required a top-up between services include peugeots, vauxhals, audis.

I'd say something's wrong with your mini.

 

[symon]

Its not a turbo, that is the cooper s.

I will have a look when I'm home at the colour of the oil, but 1 litre a month is taking the ****!

Fair enough, I get the cooper and cooper s muddled up.

I take it there is no visible smoke or leaks?

I am pretty sure it is not meant to be like that.

Even my old 113k Golf doesn't use any oil. In fact it will go the entire 8,000miles between oil changes with the level not moving from the max mark on the dipstick.

 

[thedonnmeister]

I take it there is no visible smoke or leaks?

No visible smoke, and the mechanic checked for a leak. Nothing was seen, and the drive way is clean. Very very odd.

 

[Dave Brand]

That'll be the BMW-PSA engine sold by PSA as the 120VTi?

If so, apparently there's a Citroen "InfoRapid" (service bulletin) regarding high oil consumption caused by an "electrovalve" fault.

It's certainly very high - mine uses a litre every 5,000 miles or so.

I'm surprised that she wasn't getting a "low oil" warning - that should come on when the oil level drops to the minimum level on the dipstick, i.e. one litre below full.

 

[AlfaDrivingFan]

Alfa dealer told me that a litre every 1000 miles was perfectly acceptable for their new cars. Fortunatly the Mito has got a lot better as the mileage increased. Still uses a litre every 6000 to 7000 miles. My old 110000 mile Fiat 20v used no oil at all.

 

[Zoo]

its well documented on the mini cooper forums, BMW designed this engine to use oil in such a way.

you should be checking your oil/fluids weekly as a driver as it is a machine after all

 

[symon]

its well documented on the mini cooper forums, BMW designed this engine to use oil in such a way.

you should be checking your oil/fluids weekly as a driver as it is a machine after all

I don't believe they did, who in their right mind would deliberately design an engine to use oil in this day and age? Especially with todays tough emissions targets and long service intervals.

They have made a balls-up in the design similar to the one Alfa made with the TS, and they are using "deliberate design" as am excuse. with the TS it was due to its "Racing heritage".

 

[thedonnmeister]

Yeah that is rubbish, the engine takes 5 litres, so going on their roughly 21,000 mile oil change interval I would have to put about 21 litres of oil into the engine?!?!

Its a massive manufacturing balls up, as if an engine should use that much oil!

Also, it has only started to happen recently, the engine never used to use oil, just in the last 10,000 miles has it been an issue, which is mirrored by a lot of other owners.

For some unknown reason, the engines have just started to drink all their oil!

 

[Cream]

we had a 2002 mini cooper, previous engine, it never used any oil in 8 years... likewise ive had a few alfa TS engine cars, they never used oil either, however if an alfa engine is ever run low on oil then it will use oil

Maybe its a bad car