Don't worry it wasn't a MINI dealer... anyhow, I bought my car from Mossy Nissan in San Diego, they changed the oil before I bought the car. Well, I decided to look in the owners manual to see what the oil change interval was... because the computer was telling me I still had 9000 miles until my next oil change (I'm used to changing it every 3-4K miles). Anyhow, to make a long story short. MINI says to use MINI oil or Mobil 1 Syn. The dealer put regular oil and on top of that... the wrong weight!!!

Is there any issue going back to synthetic?

BTW, I've put on nearly 4K miles since I bought the car.

 

Do it ASAP and you should be fine. The weight is the more important thing.

 

Will do... thanx a lot. Now the hard part is going to be convince the Nissan dealership that they're idiots and need to read the owners manual on vehicles before they start doing routine maintenance! aaarrrggg

 

Good lesson here.

Dealers, almost without fail, will just toss in something like 10w-30 standard oil, in their used cars.

 

And if they gassed it up, 87 octane.....fortunately, neither will will really hurt anything, at least not before it's changed out by the new owner.

 

Welcome to NAM, MiniMarki. Do you live in San Diego?

 

just do an oil change let it drip for a good 1hr to get as much
out.

put new syn in and change again in about 3k miles.
you should be fine.

 

Yup, I live in SD... Spring Valley to be exact. I am moving in about one month though.

 

You're MINI will be fine. No real problem occurs when the oil is mixed with something of a slightly different weight / formula. Just change it and your filter.

Remember that Castrol R (racing oil from the 1960s) was vegetable and not petroleum based. Never seemed to hurt Porsche's chances at LeMans that they were using cooking oil in their race cars.

 

Cooking oil, eh? lol Maybe I need to take a trip to my local McDonalds and have a chit-chat with the fryer operator!

 

Nyaah - go to the local greasy spoon - better quality grease!

Ever been near one of those vegetable-oil (used fryer oil) diesel conversions? They smell like smoky french fries.

No issues mixing dino oil and synth, all good advice above. I'd just drain it, replace with synth, go to the next 10k interval on the odo, then change with synth every 10k (normal service interval) or 5k (if you're hard on the car or **** about oil changes).

 

If I take it to MINI, do you think the fact that there is the incorrect oil will void the remainder of my warranty?

With that in mind, which sounds like the smarter option: Take it to the dealer where I bought it and demand that the oil be changed with the correct kind at no charge OR pay and take it to MINI?

 

well, if there is, sue the nissan bastards!!! Muhahahahahaha... nissan must die!

I should probably get over that grudge [mumbles something about penguins and underwear]

 

Cut the Nissan dealer out of the deal. It's less aggravation to change it yourself. I'd leave the MINI dealer out of it for now as well to avoid any future questions about it. My dealer is really cool, but others are... not.

The oil & filter you need can be acquired from NAM Vendors or from your MINI Service Dept if you want to buy locally.