So I broke down and changed the oil in the Mini Cooper about 900 km after the break-in period.

I got the filters and 27mm socket from Mini Mania, good guys to deal with, not fast, but good guys.

Castrol Synthetic 5w30 4.25 lts

And a T-50 rotax to remove the drain plug.

Everything went smooth, I did not have to move the coolant reserve out of the way. There is lots of room.

I drained the start of the oil into a clean margarine container, so I could see if there were any bits of metal in the oil.

Guess what, there was! Not a large amount, however, it is more than I have every seen in all my years of oil changes.

On the filter, there was lots of little bits stuck to the side of the filter.

Boy am I glad I changed it. It is good to know that some of the old habits, changing oil early to get out the metal, are still relevant.

One cool thing: after the change the oil sensor read 30,000 km until next oil change. It had been at 16,000 or 17,000 kms. So it either knew I changed the oil. Or it read the clean oil.

Either way, time well spent on a Sunday afternoon.

ps: none of the pictures turned out sorry.

 

hmmm i will change my oil after break in as well.

 

Thanks for letting me know. I changed mine at 1200 miles and now I have 4200 miles. Next one will be at 5K miles.

 

I did mine at 1200 as well, so it sounds like us Portlanders have our heads on strait! I'm also nearing the 5k mark and will be doing another change, so I'm curious to see what the outcome will be.

 

I changed mine at about 9000 miles. The computer still told me that I should change it at 15000. Now it says I should change it at 14000. I'm highly suspicious about the engine actually monitoring the condition of the oil. It is good news that someones computer seems to have paid attention.

 

Interesting. I changed mine at 2500 and the OCB now says 14K instead of 15K too.

 

What are signs of dirty oil when it comes to the way the car runs, as far as the driver's perspective goes?

 

Unless you go many many thousands of miles beyond the recommended interval, you will not be able to notice anything from the driver's seat.

 

Where is a good place to buy oil. My MCS is going to be stored in the garage for the winter. Should i change it now or wait till spring?

 

The price of MINI branded Castrol isn't bad at the MINI dealer. It was less than Mobil 1 was at an auto supply.

 

ok guys listen. for all of you wondering how your car knows when to change the oil. if its anything like a bmw which i assume it is. i am a bmw tech and know that bmws use whats called CBS ( conditioned based service) what this means is that depending on your driving habits and how hard you drive your car and what conditions like are weather wise and what not it can actually adjust your intervals of oil changes and oter things liek brakes and intake filters blah blag. there is a sensor that actually measures the coninuity of your engine oil from the metal and other contaminents in the oil from driving over time. as for the one whos mini reset the oil service interval itself well you got me there. hope that made something clear to you guys.

 

So you will change the engine oil in customers' BMWs and MINIs when they bring them in for service when the computer tells them. How often are you going to change the oil in your MINI?

 

haha... im probably gonna change my oil first at 500 miles and then drive it hard. no im lying im gonna drive it hard right when i get it.
and no alot of people will come in for low mileage oil services before their interval is up.

 

Any thoughts on putting non-synthetic in for the first 500 miles or so to aid with break-in, then returning to the proper full-synth ? I know with many modern engines, esp. sport bikes, the rings just won't seat properly with the factory synthetic fill.
cost really isn't a factor

 

yeah you could do that if you wanted too... but how do you know they dont put regular oil in there to begin with... hmmm something to ponder over

 

I think the clue is that they don't do the first oil change for a year, or approx 15,000 miles (depending on the OBC), whichever comes first. What do you think non-synthetic oil would look like in an MCS after that, and what about the engine?

 

I work at a Saab dealership, so I've got a hoist & several grades of oil on-hand. Saab started doing the 15k oil changes with the new turbo motors when they went full synthetic, but quickly changed back to a 5k recommended interval.
The oil might survive until 15k, but everyone then assumes "why not go until 20k", then the sludge has ruined the breather systems, coked up the turbo, and generally made a mess of the motor.
It's always a pleasure to work on the cars that are really taken care of, as the miles pile up you can really see the differences. It would be nice if auto-makers would go by the number of hours the engine's run (like most equipment) &/or the number of start/stop cycles, there are so many factors beyond sheer mileage that account for most of the wear.

 

The MINI seems to do something like that. Note when you start it up that the Tach digital readout will tell you the mileage to the next service. This number varies with driving conditions. It starts out at a default 15,000 miles. Mine is up to 17,000. My driving is mostly country roads at 45-65 mph. The OBC seems to be monitoring a number of factors to reach this recommendation.

 

I had mine changed at about 7k. Since then the comp has dropped to 12000! I dont drive all that hard. Almost all highway for me every day. I have to make an appointment soon for the scheduled change as I drive about 600 miles a week. By the way, before the 7k oil change the comp had climbed to 17000. Not sure why the big drop.

 

What oil did you use?

 

I changed the oil in my new S at 175 miles ( I always change oil in a new engine after a few drives-seems like cheap insurance ) and was glad I did as the oil looked like it had considerably higher mileage on it. I will, as always change my oil at around 5000 miles. I feel 15,000 miles per change, especially in a turbo car is too long an interval. My drain plug uses an 8mm hex, a T50 torx fits, but is not the proper tool for my drain plug. Are there different plugs?

 

I wouldn't recommend it. It's quite possible that the rings are seated at the factory with a pre-shipping break in. Who knows?

 

My SA says that as you get closer to the change level the counter drops much faster--especially at the end. I started at 18,000 (after the first month, that is), and am now down to 8,000, after 11000 on the odometer. I probably will be at the one-year-change point by February, anyway.

 

Robin..i had it done at the dealer, so it should have been the correct oil I hope.

 

That is strange. They didn't do a software upgrade at the same time did they?