after one year? What if i have a high mileage car and my one year is until November?

 

mileage indicator light or one day after one year from date of activation of warranty.

 

wow, that is gonna be a really long way, i have 9100 miles, and the indicator shows 10,000

does that mean until 19,100 or 1 year, whichever comes first.

over 15,000 miles is a really long way to go before the first oil change. i am gonna have to change it myself sooner then. probably when it reaches 10,000 miles

 

Are you sure you're reading that mileage-to-maintenance indicator correctly ? The first maintenance should be around 10-12,000 miles on the odometer.

Unless you drive like an old lady, and I seriously doubt you do, there's no way your MINI should go to 19,000 miles before the first maintenance/oil change.

Put your reading glasses on and read it again. I'm thinking you're seeing one too many zeroes.

 

Go ahead and change it now if it has the orginal oil in it.

 

Yes, change it NOW!!!

 

mileage or 1 year, whichever comes first.

 

About to hit the road from Seattle to Denver. Bought mine in September 07, and I'm up to 7100 miles. When I finish the roadtrip, it should be around 10k.

I haven't opened the hood since I bought it ... Is this a bad thing?

 

Check your oil and fluid levels frequently!!! Yes that is a bad thing in my book....especially if your going on a trip. you might even contact your dealer to see if you can drop by and have them check it out too before that trip. I was going to drive from Portland OR to Texas and took mine in and they went ahead and did a service for me and checked things out.

 

My indicator said the first change was due at 21000 miles
That was in April, and my MINI was also one year old. I had already
changed it three times myself.

 

Yes, assuming the OBC indicator keeps with its current recommendation. Some have reported that it accelerates near the end.

If this is the original factory oil, change it NOW! Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

I changed mine at about 1,500 and it had lots of glistening metalic sheen to it from engine break-in. I changed it again at about 6,300 miles and sent a sample off for analysis. Some of the indicators showed that it was getting near the end of its life -- additives were about gone. While the viscosity was good, and fuel dilution wasn't too bad, it did have elevated levels of metals and silicon from break-in.

When you change it, I believe it is best to use an oil that meets the stricter European standard recommended in the UK manual. Look for ACEA A3/B3 on the back of the bottle. MINI dealers sell a MINI branded 5W-30 Castrol that is blended just for BMW. I paid $5.40 qt. for it. You can get the same stuff from a BMW dealer with BMW branding -- usually costs about $1 more. This is one of the very few 5W-30 oils in the USA that meet ACEA A3/B3.

There are some 0W-40 oils from other oil companies that are A3/B3 and should be OK. Most brands have one or two such oils. FYI, ACEA A5 is not better than A3. The main difference is viscosity at temp -- A3 is thicker. A1 is just an economy rating and not recommended for high performance engines (which the MINI definitely is).

The USA version of the owners manual only mentions an American oil standard that is much broader than ACEA A3/B3. I suspect MINI did this to avoid complaints about requiring esoteric European oils.

 

On one of these fora, I followed a link to an oil analysis test of extended change intervals. The followed several vehicles using different protocols. The findings noted two things I found interesting.

1) most of the engine wear was occurring in the first 3k after an oil change. Their conclusion was that even synthetics require a break-in; and

2) that changing only the filter at 5k and topping off with clean oil as needed made a big difference in the rate of contamination--it broke the upward trend and kept it lower even after it began to rise, again.

So, it looks like the answer is to change oil at what--7k-10k and consider changing just the filter at 4 or 5?

 

I read something like that about a long-term test with a 20th Century American V8. IIRC, it needed to have oil added periodically and that helped the life of the oil considerably.

Seems to me that such a plan would work. It would certainly be better than only changing it after 19,000 miles.

 

hmm does changing the oil yourself (favorite pastime of mine) affect the free service warranty? i could see them getting snotty over something like that.

 

My dealer wasn't. He knew I wasn't going to wait a year for an oil change, and he knew I wasn't going to drive 90 miles to have it done at his shop. He actually gave me an oil filter to take with me. I don't see how a dealer can get snotty over someone caring for their car.

 

do you need any mini specialized tools to change the oil in a mini?

 

It happened when I did it! Only paid for parts, labor was free! DIY, it is very easy, really!

 

No. Tools area available at any auto supply.
The drain plug on some MINIs requires a T50 Torx. Some require an allen (I think it is 8mm, but better check if yours doesn't use a Torx).

Remove the oil filler cap to allow air into the engine while the oil drains.

You need a 27mm socket and extension for the oil filter. Loosen the filter housing just enough to break the air seal and leave it in place so it can drain into the engine. Pulling it off immediately will spill some oil.

With an MCS you will need an 8mm socket to move the coolant tank. You can get the 27mm socket in there to undo the filter housing without removing the coolant tank, but it is too tight for reaching down there to lift it out. You don't need to remove the hoses from the tank. Just unscrew the one 8mm screw, unhook the tank from its plastic mountings, and lift it out of the way.

Be sure to remove the old copper washer on the drain plug (may be stuck to the bottom of the oil pan) and use the new copper compressible washer when putting the drain plug back in.

If you want to be precise about it, use a torque wrench to tighten the drain plug and oil filter housing. Torque oil filter cap to 18.5 ft. lbs., drain plug to 22 ft. lbs.

 

There's a thread with pictures around here somewhere that really helps. I changed mine at 3,000 and it was really easy, not much harder than any other car. My old oil actually looked pretty good, it was still rather clear and clean; to the naked eye anyway, but I felt better having new oil after the break-in period.

 

I did my first oil change at 2000 miles and the second one at 5000 miles. Both times, my oil looked pitch black!

 

I'm not a mechanic (and I don't even play one on TV!) so take this with that in mind.

If most of the engine wear occurs within the first 3k after an oil change...shouldn't LONGER oil change intervals then be better? (of course within reason). Your #2 point seems logical, but why change at 7-10k and have the engine have to "break-in" the new oil again? Is Mini on to something with the 15k? (other than saving on "scheduled maintenance" costs during the first 36k?

 

I believe he is talking about engine break-in, not oil break-in.

Oil breaks down, it doesn't break in.

 

OK, so i f I understand correctly, there are supposedly on-board-diagnositis that are sophisticated enough to know the current state of the oil, correct? And that once it's "broken down"/dirty, etc, the computer will tell you to change the oil. And that's what Mini is trying to "sell" us on (rely on the computer to tell you when to change the oil).

So that being said, (and assuming that's correct), by changing it BEFORE the computer says to change it, the oil will never get to the state where the OBD says to change it, right? So if you always changed it at, lets say 7500 miles, the OBD would NEVER tell you to change the oil?!?

Not saying you shouldn't have changed the oil, just trying to wrap my brain around how sophisticated and reliable a diagnostic tool the computer really is.

 

I'll go back and try to find that report. They were talking about synthetic oil, in fact about Mobil 1, protecting better after the first 3k. This was based on their oil analysis results showing that contaminant growth slowed after the first 3k.

Let me look for that link.

 

I recall that discussion. IMO, that study was badly flawed. It jumped to conclusions that didn't take all possibilities into account. When you first change the oil, there is still old oil remaining in the engine. So, the pristine oil is going to gain contaminants as soon as you mix them together.

I've yet to see anything that substantiates the idea that oil breaks in.