Hi Folks, We're the proud owners of a used 2007 MCS . Just brought the car home from the dealership yesterday and I have a couple of questions about which I'm hoping that experienced Mini owners can enlighten me regarding Mini dealer service and carfax.

This little guy has 18,000 miles on it. The car fax report says it had Mini Dealer service (at Towson BMW) at 17,422 miles. It says the oil and filter were changed and the tires were rotated, among other things.

My inspection showed the front tires are practically to the wear bars while the rears have almost insignificant wear. To my eye it doesn't look like these tires have ever been rotated -- they appear to be the original run-flats.

Next, oil appears to be a good 1/4" above the full bulb on the dipstick.

Now my questions: I would have expected the recent Mini service to put the worn tires on the rear of the car and to not have overfilled the oil. Is this typical of the quality of Mini dealer service?

Yes, I'll be replacing the run flats with real tires and executing my own oil change immediately. I'd just like to know the consensus of the community on Mini dealer service. Thanks much, Rich

 

I would contact the dealer and request a service history on the vehicle. It doesn't sound like the tires were rotated. When you start the car, you will see a number in the speedo that tells you when the next service is due. It should be about 15k if the service was done less than 1k miles ago. As far as a consensus on MINI dealer service, it's unlikely you'll find one. Opinions are all over the map, as customer service seems to be vary widely between dealerships, and sometimes within the same dealer depending on circumstances. And you will so much happier after you lose the runflats.

Welcome to NAM and enjoy your MINI.

 

my dealer does generally pretty well but y're better off dealing with tires thru an independent like Discount.

As far as the oil goes, my dealer thought my 09 had an 05 engine in it and overfilled it by 1/2 quart One of their few messups, but they cheerfully drained it out, refilled correctly with a new filter no charge NQA.

good luck!

 

Many dealers are over-filling oil at oil change. Mine did it as well, and many others have reported it in threads of this forum. My suspicion is that it is a quiet policy to compensate for some oiling problems in the 2nd Gen MINIs. I complained about the over-fill and the Service Manager said not to worry about it. Wont cause any problems. So, I left it. If there are no adverse consequences, more oil is better to dilute contaminants.

 

This is odd. I wouldn't trust a mechanic who changed oil based on specified capacity. Too many variables. Even a half decent tech checks the level before calling the job complete.

 

MINI of Mountain View uses a machine that dispenses a certain amount of oil. I doubt you will find many, if any, dealers check it later. Time is money to them.

 

OK Folks, I appreciate all the responses. I'll be writing off the Mini Dealer "free" service as simply more marketing snake oil. Good thing I don't mind, but rather enjoy, getting grease under my fingernails! Now to find a good source for oil filters... Rich

 

They don't even bother to check the level? Kids these days..

 

If I put too much oil in my Toyota PU I'll risk blowing a crank seal. Ah, the good old days.

 

Just picked up an oil filter kit (paid $17.05) and 5 qts of "Mini" 5W30 ($6.56 ea). Employees at Otto's Mini were friendly and helpful. The gentelman there said the records (upon querying the keyfob) indicated the oil/filter was changed very recently. I'll consider it cheap insurance on my part to re-accomplish this service with new filter and oil and do a little undercar inspection before the wife puts the little guy into service. If the previous dealer's service claimed they rotated the tires, which they obviously didn't, I'd like to make sure there is new oil and a new filter. A little bit obsessive perhaps but cheap peace of mind.

 

well

dealer hasn't over-filled mine ..... R U sure U R reading the dip-stick correctly? Unfortunately it does not say FULL right on the dip-stick like some of my older vehicles. But I also caution to check the level b4 you leave ANY oil change place. Years ago with a Miata I left the dealer after an oil change and a yards out of the lot my pressure dropped to zero (in the days they had a functioning g') ... a quick U and I was back at the dealer. Whoops, we forgot to put any oil in .... once the line purged I had a valid reading. I drove the car another 50,000 miles so I know there was no damage BUT never left a dealer/service place again before lifting the bonnet and checking myself ... despite their looks.

I can't think of anyone who'd say changing the oil too often is a problem, other then the tree-huggers who know you are actually wasting a resource or requiring energy consumption to recycle it unnecessarily. On the other hand, in older cars like my '79 you can actually screw things up if a 'flush' actually knocks out sludge that was serving as a seal and you subsequntly have more leaks


and I've never considered the maintenance free - pre-paid maybe .... but certainly not free.

Tire rotation with MINI has been wierd since they first started selling in 02. Then they said "do not rotate" which I attributed TO the pre-paid maintenance. Since the desired service inverval for oil was 15,000 but most would rotate tires twice or more times in that interval it seemed a logical move by MINI to say DON'T so as to keep us out of the service bay for just that item. Then for a short while I understand the manual did say rotate but I don't know at what interval. And now we're back to don't.

For me - asking a dealer about tires is a waste of time. Your warranty on the car specifically excludes tires. You are sent to the tire company. Now curiously imho because of a TON of mis-information out there (here) about runflats (can not be repaired yada yada) some dealers have correctly identified the golden egg just waiting for them and have begun selling tire insurance and tires . . . well, I'll state my opinion again, asking a car dealer about tires is a waste of time. Unfortunately asking many tire dealers is as well but THAT's a different subject. If you plan to be an automobile enthusiast you need to hook up with a local car group and ask them who the local tire (and alignment) guru's are. Once you find the good ones you'll never look back .... kind of like finding a GOOD dentist.

I rotate at 5000 and have enjoyed reasonable wear on Pir' RFs (about 28,000) followed by a set of sport non rfs for about the same milage .... on My 07 I have Cont' all seasons with about 22k and I'd say they have another 10k or so on 'em....with rotation. There's an important point here.....don't expect the same kind of wear from a performance car/tire (esp a performance RF tire) as you might get from your Accord, minivan or all season tires. Grippy sport tires are soft and wear out faster .... esp if you find yourself driving different now that you traded the van for a MINI

just a few comments from an old fart . . .

 

Pardon the interruption....

Sorry folks, can't resist:

A vacationing penguin is driving his MINI through Arizona when he notices that the oil pressure light is on. He gets out to look and sees oil dripping out of the motor. He drives to the nearest town and stops at the first gas station.

After dropping the car off, the penguin goes for a walk around town. He sees an ice-cream shop and, being a penguin in Arizona, decides that something cold would really hit the spot. He gets a big dish of ice cream and sits down to eat. Having no hands he makes a real mess trying to eat with his flippers. After finishing his ice cream, he goes back to the gas station and asks the mechanic if he's found the problem. The mechanic looks up and says "It looks like you blew a seal."

"No no," the penguin replies, "it's just ice cream."

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

In the 'old days' overfilling was a problem and would assume could still be a problem. Overfilling could cause aeration of the oil with crank and rods making contact with the oil in the pan. This would then cause air bubbles to be pumped throughout the system resulting in less oiling in critical areas. Under performance conditions (high sustained revs) this was not an issue as there would be more oil in the upper part of the engine resulting in less crank to oil contact and less aeration. If vehicle was to be driven under normal conditions after high performance driving it was recommended to drain some of the oil back to normal levels. My .02 worth...

Clint

 

O....M....G!

I truly very nearly choked on my french fries after I read your post!

Thanks for the belly-laugh!

 

1. Carfax reports are extremely unreliable.

Case in point:

I bought a car several years ago and the Carfax report showed single owner, low mileage and no accidents.

Fast-forward to Labor Day weekend. I was t-boned on the passenger side. Collision center discovered that there was SIGNIFICANT repair work on that side.

Fast-forward to Thanksgiving weekend (same year). I was t-boned on the driver side. Collision center discovered there was significant repair work on THAT side, too.

Now, the paint job was flawless when I bought the car. Absolutely flawless. No orange-peel or anything.

In retrospect, the entire vehicle had probably been re-clearcoated, but who knows!

I found out after the Labor Day accident that Carfax only reports accidents/damage that were reported to an insurance company (ie: claim made). If a person pays out of pocket or does the work themselves, it won't appear on a Carfax report.

Many of us let the dealership do the routine oil change, but we take it a step further and do an oil change in between.