We bought our 2016 F56 earlier this year. The car seems to run many things by computer, such as the oil level and service intervals.

We're getting close to needing our first oil change and I'm not sure when I'm supposed to take it in.

We're over 9,000 miles and the manual had said oil change at 10,000 miles. However, when the car starts up it says 2,400 miles until the next oil change, making it around 11,400 miles.

Am I required to change the oil at 10,000 miles or when the computer says?
What does the warranty require?

 

Either when computer says or one year after the car was delivered to the dealership (not when you bought it) and every year thereafter.

 

If you plan to keep the car long term you should have changed the oil already. If its a short termer wait for car to tell you or as stated one year. Many of us believe in frequent oil changes on turbo cars, 5,000 seems to be a good number.

 

I have no problem going 10,000 miles if the manufacturer recommends it. Fully synthetic oil can stay in good shape for a long time.

My 2002 VW Golf TDI, Turbo and diesel, would only get an oil change every 10,000 miles and it aged extremely well. I only used fully synthetic oil in it.

 

This is always a debatable topic...everyone has their sides.

Manufacturers are in the business of selling cars. Ensuring that they last a long time is not in their core business plan. Like many people say over and over again, I believe in changing your oil more frequently than what the manufacturer recommends. Intervals of 10K - 15K per oil change are not in YOUR best interest. And without even knowing it, many owners are driving their cars under the "severe" driving conditions - stop and go traffic, consistently short travel distances, extreme temperatures.

Oil changes are relatively cheap and will no doubt do your car's engine a lot of good over the long haul. Every 5000 miles is just good practice. Plus, if you have the time, space, and ability to do them yourself, it provides you the opportunity to see what's going on with your car, within the engine bay, and underneath the vehicle.

If you want your car to last as long as possible, frequent oil changes are the number 1 step you can take to achieve that goal.

 

Mini's burn up oil like crazy. Especially if it's an "S"

If you're not going to do more frequent oil changes, I'd suggest adding a quart of oil every month or two as needed. You may find that if you wait a year and don't add oil, your car is going to start sounding really rough because the oil level is dropping.

 

I'm getting the oil and filter changed as well as tires rotated on my '16 JCW tomorrow. It turned 5k miles over the weekend. No problem having to pay for every other oil change for 3 years.

Mike B.

 

My MCS is exactly one month old and has 1100 miles on it, and my car is telling me I have 7000 miles until I need an oil service. I believe it said 10,000 miles until service when I took it home. I do drive a lot of stop/go downtown city driving though.

 

I'm not a fan of the computer calculating when to change the oil based on driving habits/use!

I'd much prefer that service and routine maintenance intervals be included in the Owner's Manual for the benefit of the owner, but MINI doesn't do that so you'll always take your car in for service! I'm not at all happy about this intentional omission!

Some of us would prefer to do our own maintenance, especially the easy stuff like oil & filter changes, rotating tires, etc.

As for oil changes, I'd think at least once a year or 5,000 to 6,000 miles whichever occurs first! I always change the filter too with every oil change in all my cars.

 

When Mini gives me a 100K mile warranty I'll go with 10K oil changes.
Since it's taken me a year to get the car modded to my satisfaction and I plan to keep it for a long while, I will continue to change oil and filter every 5K miles.

 

my dealer just changed mine under warranty at 7400. If you ask them to do it, generally i think they will. no way i was going to wait 10k. I was willing to pay them 50 to do it (they had a special).

I will probably try to do mine every 5 to 6k.

 

I have a '15 S Auto with 31,000 miles and it has not used a drop of oil. Also, my previous MINI was a '12S Manual and after 40,000 miles, it never showed any oil consumption.

 

My '15 MCS hasn't burned a drop in 17K miles. My R56 was a different story.

 

I thought Mini recommended the oil changed every 8K miles or annually.

 

I cut it in half, every 6 months or if the computer said 10k miles for free change I did one myself at 5k

I would NEVER go the full computer change miles far too many "my mini burns oil" threads

 

Some people do the free one at the scheduled time frame, then change at 5000-7500 miles in between.

DIY F56 Oil change

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...rocedures.html

 

I was a proponent of changing every 3-5K just on general principle. Old habits die hard. It wasn't until 2013 that I moved my 3K mile blended synthetic oil changes to 5K.

After reading about the new synthetic oils and their lifespan, I've now changed my way of thinking to changing annually if driving less then 10K per year or every 10K (or sooner if computer indicates).

I do not plan on keeping mine beyond the factory warranty which further influences my oil change regimen. Perhaps if I intended to keep for a long time, I would go back to the 5K interval....but a high quality synthetic can go up to 15K under normal driving conditions....so are we throwing money away thinking we are prolonging engine life? Dunno..........................................so
As with everything, do what you feel right about doing as long as it meets minimum manufacturers recommendations. You'll never have a warranty issue for changing your oil more than recommended.

http://www.fuelinjectorcleanerhq.com...ange-interval/

 

USA-RET, thanks for the good read. I really like the part about being green by changing our vehicles' oil only when it's necessary.

Like you, I drive much less than 10K miles a year so I only do annual oil changes on my F56S. The car would actually tell me to change the oil after one year regardless of mileage.
Another fact is that Mini, BMW, and other manufacturers specify different change intervals depending on different climates and driving conditions of different countries.
For example, in Asia our F56 change interval is officially at 10,000 km which is approx. 6000 miles. 95% of our driving is stop and go traffic at a constant yearly 90F+ ambient temperature. We see IATs of 120-150F all the time everyday. Plus our gasoline is still EURO2 standard with high sulphur content. I would call this driving condition quite severe.

I personally think that a change interval of 6000-7500 miles with full synthetic oil is the sweet spot. Anything less than that would be overkill. I would even be comfortable with 10K miles if the car is a daily driver with normal driving conditions.

 

I remember some oil change threads on the R56 forums when I had my 2007 MCS. One dude had his oil analyzed and it was still OK at 7500 miles. My R56 started consuming oil around the time the warranty ran out, about 4 years. So far my R58 has used zero at 28 months.

 

I changed mine at 1,500 my own dime. I then changed at 5k and will change it every 5k so the 5k was on me and now the 10k will be on them. I made sure my guy didn't reset the computer.

1. It is way easier for me to remeber so all my vehicles get changed at those increments.
2. My grandpa always told me to change oil evervy 5k and keep your car clean and they will last forever.

Oh yeah and my JCW has not burned nor leaked a drop yet. I followed my Motoring Advisor directions, don't know if he is right, drive in varible speeds and rpm's keeping the car under 4k for the first 500 miles. Then drive the car like you stole it and that has worked for all 15 of his Mini's from all years including the years when they were notorious for leaking and burning oil.

 

The "hidden" free oil change.

For our vehicles with Free Maintenance that have on board CBS (condition based service) there is a way that you can have an earlier then expected free oil service (and whatever associated service that may be due)

We all know that later model cars have a 10,000 mile interval or 12 month base interval, and depending on how you drive ( miles driven, load, fuel consumed) that number from 10k goes down not relative to actual miles driven. So a lot have seen maybe an oil service warning due at, let's say 8000 miles..

The secret is that MINI /BMW will allow the dealer to perform an oil service under the Maintenance plan if you are within 2000 miles from when actually due. So for the example above where the dash displays 8000 miles you can actually get it done at approx just over 6000 miles. This saves everyone the "in between" oil service that you would have paid for.

For instance my first free Maint oil service was done at about 6200 ish.. ( I did do a "break in" oil service on my own at 1000 just because but of course I did not reset the light). I have approx 9200 on the car now, ( and its 1 year old at this point ) and the CBS is showing due in 4100 miles. So deducting 2000 from 4100 will allow me to have MINI do the next oil service at about 11,200. This turns out to be a Free Maintenance MINI oil service at an interval of about 6000 miles on average give or take..

The KEY READ that the dealers do print out the CBS data and they will see and you can look at it showing that the oil service is RECOMMENDED. This is the fudge factor that MINI / BMW built in so as to not inconvenience a customer by having to come back. It does need to show recommended though and this is triggered at a value of 2000 or more miles before when it is actually DUE.. DUE and RECOMMENDED are the terms that are important.

The associated services also get done at the same time.

Your individual mileage to RECOMMEND may be different as driving style dictates it as mentioned before.

So for our 3 year or 36000 mile Maint plan I could technically get probably 5 or maybe 6 free Miant oil services instead of 3 or 4...

*** cars with the older 15k 24 month interval will obviously get less out of the program..

Hope this helps everyone.

 

Do you guys recommend doing a "break in" oil change at around 1000 miles? First car I've bought in quite a while and definitely want to hold on to this car for a while.

 

I did one and I can tell you that when I did the oil that came out was ever so gritty. I do it on all my cars but that is just me.

 

I'll probably go ahead and pay the dealer to do it in a week or two when I go in to pick up my plates, as well as my MINI second date. Been raining a lot too so I can look forward to a free wash too! I'll probably have around 1400 miles by then.

 

I paid to have mini done at 5k miles. $39.95 plus tax.... Inexpensive peace of mind if you ask me. Next one will be on MINI.