BMW / MINI Cooper Engine Oil Supplier Change
For as many years as I can remember, BMW, and later BMW & MINI, have defined the ONLY engine oil of choice to be the synthetic engine oils produced by CASTROL for BMW & MINI Cooper. They were specifically designed, defined, and packaged for BMW / MINI use. This included the Castrol TWS Motorsport 10w60 blend, which was defined for all M cars since the E46 M3, and ever since. Most BMW & MINI Cooper owners were fanatical about the oils to be put into their car. That is why we at BRracing have also ONLY used the specifically packaged Castrol products for all services and oil changes. But, now, from out of nowhere… BMW makes the announcement that it is changing the defined “SUPPLIER” for its engine oils to SHELL. Shell is a worldwide brand, but not well know in North America for producing the top of the line products, or the best synthetic oils, and is not even available readily in most stores. While it would seem this is more of a business decision, financially driven for sure, it breaks the fanatically attachment to Castrol, and really just means that BMW says multiple oils are OK, and that the current brand of choice is the Shell brand, as it meets the two BMW standards, the LL-01 and LL-04 (Long Life 01, for most gas engines, and the Long Life 04, for most diesel engines).
Here are our oil change kits for the OLD CASTROL kits…and you can NOT buy the Castrol oil any more from the BMW or MINI dealers…as of Jan 1, 2015, they have all switched to the new Shell brand.
MINI Cooper Oil Change kit w the OLD CASTROL branded engine oil bottles:
Here is the OLD BMW oil change kit from BRracing, w the Castrol 10w60 oil:
Here is what the new BMW branding of the 5w30 oil looks (and we now have this in stock):
Here is the text from SHELL about the new agreement / relationship:
Shell today announces that it has been chosen by BMW AG as its only recommended global supplier for aftermarket engine oils for the following BMW brands: BMW, BMW i, BMW M, MINI and BMW Motorrad.
From the start of 2015, premium engine oils manufactured by Shell will be available to customers at BMW’s network of more than 3,500 dealers, in more than 140 countries, including China, Germany, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the UK and the USA.
The collaboration means that Shell will produce and supply BMW branded engine oils. These products will meet the latest BMW engine specifications and are underpinned by Shell’s PurePlus Technology. Shell PurePlus Technology is a breakthrough in how engine oils are formulated. It is a patented gas-to-liquid (GTL) process, developed over 40 years of research, which converts natural gas into a crystal-clear base oil.
Base oil, normally made or derived from crude oil, is the main component of finished oils and plays a vital role in the quality of the finished oil.
Will be interesting to see how this oil stacks up, and how tests results will stack up.
BRracing now has this oil in stock (as you can only get the pure BMW / MINI Shell oils from the dealer, or from us (but at a much better price).
BRracing – ensuring the blood of your engine is pure
If we live in the USA what is our best choice of oil to replace the Mini branded 5W30 that we have been using?
MINI has come out w a new oil, starting in Jan 2015, made by Shell.
It comes in an OEM MINI bottle, but is a much better full synthetic than the previous generation Castrol version.
It is still a 5w30 weight syn oil.
If you want an even better choice of oil, then you can select MOTUL 8100x-cess.
If you want the best possible (but very expensive), then select MOTUL Trophy 300V.
Hope that helps…thanks for responding.
Nice info about BMW / MINI Cooper Engine Oil Supplier Change. Well described from Castrol to Shell. Informative post. Good Job..