Sorry to ask such a basic question, but how many quarts of engine oil -- including filter --does the N18 hold in a 2013 MCS? My owner's manual simply tells me to have the oil changed at an authorized dealership.

I tried searching the threads here, but gave up after not finding the answer in the first few dozen results.

 

It's around 4 1/2 quarts. Fill with 4, and then level the car, start it, let it run a minute or two while checking for leaks, shut it down, and then check the dipstick adding until you get it right.

 

Thanks! I bought 6, just in case.

 

Good one Robert . . . as there is perhaps no dipstick ever developed by man that is less precise and less consistent than the R56 'stick' - and not even the Cravenspeed upgrade can fully cure the fatal tubing design flaw. Sure there are various contorted workaround/wait methods to achieve varying levels of perceived accuracy, but really??!!

 

Agreed, the dipstick is horrible. It seems designed to draw oil up the tube as you remove it, so that it gets re-coated on the way back in.

 

So it's Robert's fault for the poorly designed dipstick, really?! No one including myself has had any issues with the Craven dipstick, never heard anything about the Craven not properly reading oil levels properly. This is the first time I have heard this non-sense.

 

Lighten up, Francis . . .

 

ROTFLOL! "Any of you guys call me Francis, and I'll kill you."

 

Yep.

 

Well, that was interesting! The oil filter housing was on so tight that I thought I was going to break it, and of course, there's no room to get much leverage or to turn the wrench more than a few degrees at a time. But, it's done and I could probably do it in half the time from now on.

It took 4.5 quarts, BTW. Thanks for the replies!

 

You are welcome, you have to move the expansion tank out of the way , its held in with one screw, don't unplug it form the coolant lines , just set it off to the side a bit. Gives you much more room to get an extensions and socket in there. Also to remove that plastic cap. I have seen oil change places tighten that cap like crazy. Then its really hard to get off.

 

I moved the expansion tank out of the way and used a bungee cord to hold it, but it's still tight in there!

All previous oil changes were performed by the dealer, so it surprised me to find that the filter was on so tight.

 

I've never had problems with the OEM dipstick myself. It's not the greatest, but it's readable. Must be user error...

 

Actually Mini redesign the dipstick three times so user error may vary.

 

Yep my 07 had the all metal coil dipstick. Switched to the newest version.

 

There is no doubt that the factory dipstick is poorly designed, inaccurate, inconsistent, difficult to read, and wanting of improvement. This forum is replete with threads on this very issue, and even a cursory search will reveal various modification attempts, overnight wait and/or paper towel roll methods, and various pull and clean approaches to overcoming the inherent shortcomings of the stick. This is not 'user error' - this is a bad stick and tube.

Subsequent iterations of the OEM stick have perhaps been an improvement, but I have no personal experience with them.

I DO have personal experience with the Craven stick, and there is no doubt that it too is an improvement over the stock dipstick, but it still has its issues based primarily on an inability to overcome the design flaws of the tube itself. You can put a straw hat on a pig, and some will claim that he looks better, but - in the end - he's still a pig. And the poorly designed tube is still a poorly designed tube. This is not 'user error'.

While the Craven slinky is much easier to insert and remove, it still suffers from pooled oil over and above the indices due to no fault of its own, but of the tube design. And yes, it also has its own faults, in that the red pull handle becomes very hot, and (perhaps related) it seems to 'stick' in the tube making it much more difficult to remove than the stock stick. Further, the indices are not terribly easy to read with new clean oil. Reading the oil level should not be an 'event'.

Bottom line, I suppose it's nice to at least still have a dipstick at all (BMW is systemically moving away from physical sticks), but I'll take the flat blade dipstick on the '69 Mustang that was my first car any day over either the stock stick or the Craven - that Mustang stick just worked.

 

I remember the flat blade like dipsticks, it was easy to see the oil levels even after an oil change. This is what happens when German manufactures try to re-invent the wheel when there's no reason to do so. For the record my Craven pulls easily out of the dipstick tube without feeling stuck, perhaps you just got unlucky and got one that was less than perfect or machined bigger in diameter. I have never heard of anyone ever complain about the actual tube itself.

 

Yea, the flat blade on my R52 MINI Cooper ( NON S ) is about the easiest to read.

 

There easy to see where the fresh clear oil is wet allowing you to accurately tell where your oil level is, why can't Mini/BMW leave it alone and keep it the way it's been for decades?! They gotta make it difficult for themselves.

 

Yea, my R52 Cooper dip stick works fine at almost 250K+. Its a Peugeot /citroen shared engine, so I think its more carry over then MINI design. Looks at some DS#'s and it looks the same , just has a mount that comes farther out the side.