I'd like to read more about this. Can you point me to info on it? The one thing I did see, that claimed something similar, had flawed logic. They were not taking into account that sludge might be left in the engine after an oil change and coming to conclusions based on the oil being pristine immediately after the change.

 

+1

 

Searching this topic on line I was (not) surprised to find a press release from a meeting of the "oil change companies". {there's a convention for everything} {get creative with your search engine....}

Seems the keynote speaker was the CEO of a major player in this field, you see his signs every day probably. He was quoted as saying the most significant threat to their industry was the "extended change interval oils" which might convince the consumer that the 3000 mile oil change was not necessary thereby destroying all the advertising they'd done .....

There's a TON of information available on this topic .... one guy sent his oil to the lab for ****' every so often & he decided the 3k change requirement was a myth. And that was on DINO.

btw ... my 02 has almost 100,000 miles and the oil changes have been by the computer all the way. OTOH, the 79 gets a swap and a filter about every 3K...or once a year which ever comes first..

Bottom line: u want to change it early...go for it: if you take it to the dealer they giggle because as multiple dealers have told me "we don't make any money from selling cars; all our profit is in the service department." If you DIY @ shorter intervals all you hurt is the environment by generating additional petro waste; and put a few cents in the pocket of the filter company.

 

I agree. There is no one right answer. As long as you change the oil at or below the recommended interval, most owners on this forum will sell the car sooner than the engine will die. I know I will ditch mine when AWD MCS comes along.

 

I was told that Mini does a short break-in and initial full engine flush before sending the engines out of the factory.

 

Interesting, who told you this bit of info?

 

If I remember correctly My MA told me the same thing, of course that didn't stop me from doing my early change.

 

If they can do an early oil change, so can I.

 

Hey, you forgot to tell people to pack the muffler bearings and change the blinker fluid!

 

You should have your blinker fluid tested so you know whether it is worthwhile having it changed.

 

This subject has been beaten around the forum from here to eternity. Run OIL CHANGE on the search line, and get comfortable.
It's your car, treat it the way you want it treated. Have fun, motor on.

Your comment about "little pieces of metal"...these modern engine blocks are built under rather ANTISEPTIC conditions, from block boring and prep to the final outer bits. I DID change my oil/filter at 1800 miles, and will change again at seven, then twelve thousand. I drive a lot of short hops some weeks, and I pound the little beast on the backroads when I'm doing miles. That's what it's for. Same for air filters. They have some silly figure like 25k. I'd rather do it myself more often and have the peace of mind. I call it MINI LOVE. I've wasted enough money in my life (list your favorite wastes of money here...start with women) that this stuff is nickel dime. My choice.
LEARN to do these two jobs yourself. It's not hard, and it's fully documented by Robin Casady and there's my rundown on it too out there. Just look around. All the best...

 

You got it backwards...it's MUFFLE the PACK BEARINGS, and BLINK the CHANGER FLUID. Sheez!

 

You sure it's not Feed the blinking Packman?

 

Did Pac-Man ever blink? I thought it was just the ghosts that blinked.

(Pretty obvious that I was an adolescent during the 80's)

 

I plan on doing oil analysis on my MCS starting at about 5000 miles to find the best oil for the engine and see how oil life and protection compares to BMW's calculated change interval. I'm concerned because of reading this thread about one of Audi's RS4 direct injection engine and fuel dilution into the oil breaking down the oil prematurely:
http://theoildrop.server101.com/foru...0&fpart=1&vc=1

There's a little evidence this might also be happening to VW/Audi's 2.0T as well, so I want to make sure this isn't happening to our 1.6L Turbo.

 

I just had my initial oil/filter swap @ 1,100 smiles... I mean miles. My goal is to change the oil & filter every 7,500 since these engines have Turbo's and generate a great deal more external and internal heat than normally aspirated or supercharged engines.

Cheers

 

If you are really serious about wanting to know, send your oil sample to Terry Dyson http://dysonanalysis.com/ . His analysis goes well beyond Blackstone or other basic analyses and you can ask him about about what is the best oil and OIC for YOUR engine. All 3 of our cars use Dyson UOAs and when the MINI arrives it will too.

 

I had analyses done by Dyson Labs on the factory-fill oil on my MINI and my wife's MINI. Hers was first changed at about 11,500 miles, and mine was first changed at 12,500 miles. (Both were changed when the OBC said they were due).

In both cases, the oil was definitely nearing its end-of-life, but not yet depleted. Also, each of the cars had about a half-dozen autocross events on the factory oil, so all things considered, I think the factory oil held up pretty well for the recommended interval.

I've put about 8,000 miles on my car since that oil change, and the OBC is telling me I have about another 9,000 miles to go, so I'm probably going to send a sample off for analysis (no oil change - just pulling a few ounces for the sample), and I'll use the results of the analysis to decide if I really want to go another 9,000 miles on the oil.

 

This subject was beat to death in the past, and the final analysis was that the factory does an engine run RANDOMLY, not on every car. And they don't do an engine flush. Engine is built, oil goes in, car fires and goes through a test machine for electronics and it's gone. Please tell us where/by who you were told this information. Thank you.

 

This subject of oil life is interesting. It seems like we're talking percentage of additives and overall affectiveness in doing it's job as the miles roll by and the additives/affectiveness declines. Seems to me, if you can DIY, you end up with (percentagewise) more affective oil in your car by more frequent changes. Put it this way (IF THIS IS THE CASE) would you rather have oil that is 20% affective or 50% or better. Surely we can all accept that your oil's quality, hence it's lubrication and other qualities diminish as the miles rack up. Again, I did my initial change at 1800, will do again at 5k and 12k, or the dealer gets one in there at the one year mark, mileage allowing. That's my schedule. based my driving habits and style. I'll be changing the air filter more frequently than they recommend too. My choice, my money.
Again, your choice. I think this subject has been overworked and say "It's your car and to each his own." Let us motor!

 

Keep us posted on this future analysis, Scott. Thanks!

 

The turbo and the heat are what have me doing changes at 5k intervals after the initial 1800 mile change. It's possible with an non S car that oil life would be longer? Seems reasonable.

 

Surfblue is correct. One of this years early MC2 magazines had an article about the hams hall plant that builds the engines. They cold test every engine measuring vibration at low induced rpm. Fire about on in 50. Then once a week they pull one and run it hard, totally disassemble and inspect it.

 

Has anyone out there performed an oil analysis on oil that was left in the MINI until the computer indicated a change was necessary?

 

Yes - see my post (#43 in this thread).