For those that bought their Clubmans early last year, I am just curious what your OBC say when to bring in your MINI to the dealer to have its first oil change. Mine is saying 20,000 miles.

Reason I'm asking is I've read a few threads (yes I searched first) on oil change and a few owners have stated that they've done theirs at 15,000 miles and some say a year after. My car is relatively new at 8 months with 15,000 miles already driven. Lately, my car performs rather sluggish. It drives heavy. It sounds different. It now has about a 375 mile range rather than 425 to 450 miles on a full tank (I use 93 Octane all the way). When I took a sample of the oil from the engine, it was black with a really thick and gooey texture. It's definitely sludge! The question is: Is it time for my car to get serviced?

I've read threads about the regular MINIs having oil change but I have not seen many for Clubmans. So if anyone can, please post your OBC Maintenance interval here so I can get a feel at what I should do with my car. Thanks.

 

I got mine done yesterday at 8400 miles...Just from what people have been saying, I just went ahead and did it...

 

Yikes!

Thick, gooey oil! Not what you want in your crankcase!

Forget the OBC, get that oil changed today!!!

With the pitiful state of your oil, and your engine's obvious symptoms of distress, you're risking serious engine damage if you don't get an oil change right away. If it were my MINI I'd change the oil, drive 100 miles, and change it again, to get all that built-up crud out once and for all!

 

my OBC is suggesting that I get it done at 10k, currently just under 6k, anyone doing it ahead of schedule?

 

The ODBC actually reads out how many MORE miles until the next oil change not the mileage that it should be done at.

There is not an oil on the market today that will last more than 10K miles. Infact even those that claim to last 10k-15k are so broken down by 6K that they actually doing harm to the engine after about 6K miles.

The above statements are all provable from many places that do oil testing. There are many threads on this subject and if read thru fully would get all of us to understand the reality of how often oil should be change in our cars.

I have no idea why BMW and other manufactures say to just change the oil when the car thinks it should be done. Mine for instance has 12,500 miles on it and according to the ODBC does not need an oil change for another 13,000 miles. That would be a total of 25,000+ miles on the oil. By that time the oil would have broken down so badly that it would probably be thicker than molasas and not even be able to travel up to the valves at the top of the engine. The posibiliy also existst that it would permently clog the oil passages ways thru the engine.

I would recommend that every one get the oil changed at least every 6k mile or less.

 

Yikes. Good thing I ran into this thread early in the game. I probably would've relied on ze Germans to tell me when to get the oil changed. On the other hand I never waited more than 5K in any vehicle to wait for an oil change.

 

Under the maintenance program - isn't the interval 15K ? My MA also stated that ALL MINI's/BMW's can get their oil changed as long as you are within 1K of the next interval - what are people paying for early oil changes?

 

I had read the threads that debated the oil changes and decided to do my own (with experienced help) around 4k. I have a "justa" and it is an easy oil change. I was shocked how black the oil was! Glad that I did it and will probably alternate between factory changes so that it is more frequent.

 

17K on the car, just getting it's first free service next week, glad I changed the oil myself at, 1200, 6000 and again at 10 or 12K miles. I cant imagine leaving the break-in oil in for all this time, YUCK!

 

When you all are changing your oil outside of the Mini dealership, are you going the full do-it-yourself route, or are you taking it to a Jiffy Lube type place?

I'm all for getting my free oil changes from the dealer, but I just can't get behind the idea of holding onto break-in oil that long.

 

I wouldn't touch a Jiffy Lube type place unless I personally knew the grease monkeys, so it looks like I'll be doing the full on DIY at about 2K miles - can't bring myself to waiting 12mo before first oil change...

 

Our Clubman S has 17k+ and shows 3800 more until service. I've changed it myself twice. I'll wait for the dealer to do the next one.
This time of year the range (mpg)will decrease due to the colder temps.

 

DIY it is then... My current ride is a '98 SS Camaro with filters and oil pan that are very easy to get to. Are the filter and plug easy to get to on the Clubman, or will I need special tools?

 

I did a DIY at 3000 The OBC says 16500 until service needed.
The job is simple, and the Oil "Looked" very dark. I ran it thru a cone shaped fine paint filter and Zero sediment but still feel better with fresh Oil even if it really needed it or not. I plan on keeping it for a very long time. and didn't want to play the odds.

 

changed the oil & filterat the Nashville dealer at 2000 miles. Service rep kept telling me I was wasting money and it's just not needed but they would do it fo me.
$110.00 taxes etc out the door. they did not reset the OBC so it thinks it still has the orginal oil.
got a free wash & dry with the oil. I' happier with newer oil and all the assembly stuff gone.
I expect to change again this summer. DIY.

 

Smart move, especially given the oil analysis results posted elsewhere for the 2nd Gen. "S" engines. I did mine at 1500. Now at 9100 miles, and the OBC still says 11,000 to service. If I get much past 11,500 and the OBC isn't indicating service, I'll do it again. I'm using the MINI oil, but I'm inclined that there are better full synthetic oils out there.

As to the original post: I wouldn't drive it any farther on the old oil than it takes to get it warmed up and drained. Seriously.

 

On all new BMW/Mini's the interval is 1 Year or "When the Car States it Needs It"

What Mini Specs is absolutely the top of the line for synthetic oils unless you go "bio synthetic"

What a rip off it should not even be half of that.

See Issue #1 of the Alliance Magazines here at NAM. It has a "How To" on Oil Changes for 1st Gen and 2nd Gen Mini's. Great article.

 

Thanks, all of you, for the great comments. Don't think I'm going to wait for the OBC to tell me when to change the oil!

 

soooooo, has anyone waited until the 1 year/obc blessed oil change...? any adverse impacts...?

has anyone exclusively followed the 1 year/obc blessed oil change for the entire warranty period? any adverse impacts...?

 

The question is who would actually admit waiting, right. Well I will admit to waiting for the factory service on my 2006 BMW 325i which will be traded in for my 09 MCCS when it arrives.

The 325i has 63,000 miles on it and I think the oil has only been changed 3 times....yikes I know but those service advisors can be quite convincing. In any case I never felt it was the best decision and I will be reading that article and changing the oil frequently in the new Mini as we are planning to keep that car for a while.

Think of all the leased BMW's etc that hit the road every year, you know almost none of those people are taking it for extra oil changes, makes you wonder about the engine quality on all those pre-owned cars.

 

I have always changed the oil on my cars at half the recommended mileage. My last car was a Subaru that I sold with 175k miles and never had any service done outside of routine maintenance. I am going to have my first oil change this week, as I am almost at 7500 miles. My OBC says I still have 12k miles to go before service. That is WAY too long to go. I'll have to pay for the service, and it won't be done at the dealer. I plan to put many miles on the GHOST and keeping good clean oil in it is cheap insurance.

 

In addition to my Mini I drive a SAAB-95 Aero. SAAB for a number of years started doing the extended oil change interval I recall it was a 10,000 mile duration. Now most if not all SAABs that went with the factory schedule are sludged up messes. The engine in the Mini is not immune to sludge. I can't believe the oil change interval recommended by the factory. One reason I went with a new Clubman was to avoid a used one with limited oil change history. Every 5000 miles my crankcase gets drained.

 

I go by the manual. So I guess I am in the minority. I'll do it once a year.

 

I had mine done at 1,300 (was on a road trip otherwise would have had it done at 1,000) and plan to have it done every 5,000-6,000. It might be a bit of overkill but I consider it cheap insurance (and I'm not left wondering what if) so it's worth the peace of mind to me.

 

I just got my Zuggy 800 miles ago. After reading many of the threads on NAM, I plan on doing a DIY oil/filter change in the next couple hundred miles. It's suggested to get out any metal shreds and foreign material that may be flying around inside the engine from the manufacturing process.

I plan to use RP, which I can get easily at my local AutoZone for under $8.00.

How many quarts are needed for a change anyway????