I know what the owners manual says about changing the oil. Do most people change it more often, say 7500 miles?

 

This is opening a can of worms on this site, well on most car sites.
I change every 5,000 partly because it is easy to remember (when the odo reads ..5,000 or ..10,000 time to change) and partly because I know the oil is still good. Longer is probably fine but I would rather be safe than sorry.

 

do you service it at the dealer?

 

Do a search on "oil change" you will find lots of good information on this topic as it has been discussed many times.

Only you can decide what is best for your mini, My suggestion is: do your research and make your own decision. Your service manger at the dealership is a good contact on this topic, mine had company stance and a personal stance, that he explained to me.

I change my oil every 5000 miles with Mini approved oil.

 

I do not get service at the dealer.
I live about two hours from two different dealers so I do most of the work myself. Oil changes are just as easy on the MINI as other, just a few differences with the oil filter.
If you don't do the changes yourself this is a good reason to go longer on oil changes to save money.

Change interval also depends on the car, R56, R53, R50 and the age of the car.

As ron-s mini said there is plenty to read on this site about oil and changes.

 

I originally changed every 5,000 miles but I have increased to every 7,500 miles.

 

1st change was at 3000 miles, then about every 7500 after that (halfway
between each indicated change).

 

Just did my first DIY oil change at 17K. Only other change was by the dealer at 1yr and 11K. Glad I didn't see what they dumped. The oil with 6K on it looked and smelled like coal tar and the filter was HEAVY. Put in Mobil 1 0W-40 Euro Spec. 4.5Qts put the level even with the top mark. 6K will be my interval from now on. Also installed a Dimple Super Magnet drain plug. "Super" indeed ! Took forever to get it started as the thing's so strong it kept yanking sideways in the hole. Hint: Put the car on ramps, not jacked up on one side. This allows a near complete drain of the old oil from the center/rear position of the drain plug. Let it drain at least 1hr .

 

Wow!

Thanks for the post Dwight. I just now have 3500 on my MINI and I've got a filter on the way and plan to get the break in oil out of it.

I've never used SYNTHETIC oil, but don't know if the maintenance schedule is right to go so many miles between changes.

Any way its good to be on the safe side.

 

I've owned many BMW's with the same oil change interval as Mini and have always done the one year or service light. My advice is if you plan on keeping the car past 50,000-60,000 miles change it more often but if not you waisting your time and money. I never keep cars longer than 3-4 years so it's no issue. I don't believe BMW would let all their cars go 15-17,000 miles without oil changes if they thought it was destroying the engines. Warranty and resale would kill them. I also remember a Consumer Reports study maybe 8-10 years ago from NYCity where half the taxies changed the oil every 3,000 miles and the other half changed every 7,500 miles and they found virtually no difference in engine problems.