Its my first car ever and I don't have much experience. I have a Mini Cooper S and I was wondering when do I go in for my first oil change? My dealership called me and said to wait until the indicator light comes on.. but of course the dealership would want to save money and not want me to come in for an oil change. I'm at 6000 miles.

I would like input from everyone. Thanks

 

My dealership told me to come in after one year for my free oil change, so that's what I did. I had 6500 miles on the odometer.

Dave

 

One year or when the service indicator says to. Just be sure to check the oil level on a regular basis.

 

Also if you're planning on keeping the car, I'd recommend changing your oil in between dealer maintenance intervals. Engine wise, these cars have a way of acting up out of nowhere. You really won't know if you got a bad one or not. It's always good to take precautions.

 

I'm with MiniBOL on this. In my opinion, 6000 miles is not too soon for a first ever oil change; some change even earlier than that.

I assume that you bought your MCS new, and that you've put 6000 miles on it in less than a year. If you have only a month or so to go before a year is up, then you might choose to wait. But if you've still got a half year to go, it might be a good time to change the oil and filter, but don't have the service interval re-set.

Many owners here apparently change oil/filter at least once (some more) between scheduled services. Our MINI gets an oil change every year because we don't put many miles on it, but, even if we did run-up the miles, I certainly wouldn't wait for the 15k or 17k miles between services that our brainiac car says we should.

 

I'm bringing mine in on 1 Aug for the 1 yr. service, and will have under 12K on the clock.
I've already changed the oil four times, and if I didn't have to see the dealer to keep the warranty intact, I would do all of the work myself anyway. Good luck.

 

Four times in 12k? That's quite a lot actually. I thought I was overdoing it with 4-5k between oilchanges :D

There's an ex-CTO from one of the big oil-companies, Shell or Exxon or BP, can't remember. He drove a big european car, a BMW or Mercedes without changing the oil.. Drove over 170k with it without any problems. It can be done, but well, just change it once a year or maybe every 12-15k. If you drive fast and have loads of mods, you might want to change more often

 

Thanks for all the advice!
I actually found another topic on this forum about Mini dealerships not allowing their customers to get an oil change until the 1 year mark/10,000 miles! I hope I don't run into this problem :( My cooper s is hitting the 1 year mark but it is no where near 10,000 miles!
And I really don't want to pay for an oil change.. i demand the FREE oil change as stated in the manual!

 

Remember, the earliest they will do the free oil change is the day after the one year aniversary of your purchase.

Dave

 

You need to be careful about when you get your first service. If it's after your anniversary date you may not get the third service free. See my previous post:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-schedule.html

 

Get err done now. If you just pay for it now, then when your car beeps at you for service in about another ~6k then they'll do it for free. If you're planning on keeping the car for a long time then it's better to be safe especially after breakin!

 

An oil change analysis will give an indication of how long one should go between changes. Yes, it varies by car, mileage, type of driving, climate, etc. I don't think the recommended intervals are out of line for the majority of cases, if a group 5 synthetic is used.