Ok, I am currently at 12,000 miles and I am not scheduled for my maintenance until the end of June/early July. My countdown indicator at startup says "12,000" - I must be a conservative driver.

Can anyone beat that?

 

mine was due at 16K, but if I'm understanding you yours will be at 24k - that's unbelievable

 

My SA has seen 19k before the computer says time for first oil change.

I did an in between at 3k and again at 8k and now at 16k, thinking i should do another, before my free one.

What i think that sucks is that in the manual says 15k or one year, but the service people will not do it until the computer says its time.

 

That is insane...you would think they would have some common sense about it and not let the computer tell them how to do their job.

Whoa...gotta run. The fry dinger is going off.

 

Given my average milage, I think will be at about 16k a well. Once the 1 year anniversary comes around I can get the service and not worry about the countdown clock thingy.

 

That's not the case at the Pittsburgh dealer, they said to schedule it at the 1 year anniversary regardless of what the clock says.

 

My obc had it as a hair over 19K, the SA said it wasn't uncommon. My miles are about 90% freeway.

However coming up for the 2nd change it was significantly less. It says I've got 2K before the change and the odo is at 27.

Car is less than 1yr old.

 

I'm getting mine changed (oild/filter) after the break-in (but not gonna reset the computer)

My opinion is that BWM/MINI makes the oil-change interval ridiculously long because:
(1) they want to reduce $ during their "we pay for it" period, and
(2) they don't care if the engine blows up after the warranty period is over; as a matter of fact, that would be good for the service dept.

I plan to keep my car for a long time, so I'm going to take care of it my way, not their way

 

I've been reading a lot of posts regarding the break in oil change and I'm not sure which way to go on it. My husband and I have never heard of doing this. I even talked to MA about it, he said he had never heard of it either [of course, I realize that he is probably just saying that].

I drive a lot. I've had Lucy for 5 days and have over 400 miles, the majority of it is freeway. I see both sides, but we are still on the fence.

 

I have 17,200 miles on mine... just scheduled an appt @ East Bay Mini which actually isn't for another month..

 

Mine says 15k miles or 12/2008...

Here is an incredibly lame question...if I have an INDY shop change the oil prior to the scheduled service...does that void my warranty???

 

Not sure what an INDY shop is, but plenty of members have changed their oil prior to the scheduled maintenance, and no warranty is voided. Just don't reset your OBC, that way you will still get your free service @ end of year.

 

oh, and

(3) they can claim a really low annual/per mile maintenance cost.

 

INDY = independant shop...not dealer.

Hope yall are checking the oil level at regular intervals.

 

WOW, I thought waiting until 1100 miles was way TOO long, I really wanted to do it at 500 or less. It's a pretty easy DIY, and I would never leave any break-in oil in a new motor for 10-15K miles. Just asking for wear and tear that is not necessary. I'm old school, the next oil will come out at 5K and no more than 4 to 5K every time after that.

 

The OBC service mileage remaining number is a bit erratic in the period before it gets to zero. Mine went up to 19,000, when I had about 4,000 miles on the car, then dropped rapidly to 10,000. I have about 6,850 miles on it now. I hear that it is like the gas gauge -- optimistic at first, but rapidly drops near the end.

I changed my oil shortly after break-in (around 1,500 miles). I changed it again two days ago and just send a sample off to Blackstone Labs for analysis. They will do a standard analysis and a check on additive levels. That should give an idea of how much life was left on this oil.

I've been using MINI branded synthetic 5W-30, which was blended specifically for BMW by Castrol. I should have results by the end of next week.

 

You can change the oil and filter too often (when it's not really necessary), but there is no reason to "go long" other than saving money today.

I plan to use a good synthetic (Castrol Syntec since that's what my dealer uses), and change more often than the on-board computer says. Discussed with my MA at delivery (he's a real car guy with a upgraded 300HP WRX), he said he'd change after break-in as well (off the record, hehe )

Realistically, with modern synthetic, the molecular structure of the oil will not break down even with turbo-induced temps, so you can wait a long time before changing. But ,that doesn't account for contaminants inside the engine (bits of metal, dirt, etc). They will produce wear. Changing the oil/filter gets them out of the engine. To me, that's a good thing.

Enjoy your motoring !

 

Back in the days when "synthetic" motor oil was really synthetic (not "highly refined" dino-based stock) I would routinely run all my vehicles 20K between changes (with 10K filter changes and top-off). NEVER had an issue. In fact, there are MANY engineering studies and papers that validate a true synthetic's ability to go 25K and beyond.

That said, most of today's "synthetics" are class III, Dino-based, oils. A few, like Amsoil and Redline are still Class IV, FULL synthetics.

In my opinion, only a complete moron would go beyond 15K with a class III "synthetic" UNLESS they do routine oil sample testing and track the results.

 

Mine was done at 15500 since I took it in for a funny melty smell that turned out to be a plastic bag burned to the engine. They rotated tires, changed filters, etc, while they were at it. And I've only had the car since the end of Sept.

 

Mine says I'm 112 miles past due, and i'm at a little over 20,000. Going in Monday to the dealer. By the way this is NOT the first oil change , It will be the third, but the first one on the dealer. Using MINI synthetic oil, also. My MINI will be one year old the last week of this month.

 

You guys are out of your mind if you're waiting 12k+ miles to change your factory oil. We ran up a rebuilt motor for about 30 minutes and drove it all of about 300 feet and after changing the oil the filter housing had tons of metal flakes in it.

Have fun rebuilding your motors at 65k miles!

 

That's not true at all. Run an oil analysis. There are people here that found that their oil was so far gone after 10k miles that they would have been stupid not to change it.

I recall a post that someone made about their oil being contaminated with fuel, the additive package was nearly gone, and the flashpoint had dropped to about 300 degrees (I see 280-290 degree oil temps on the track). This was after 9-10k miles IIRC.

Change your oil, it's a car, maintain it properly and it will last. Skimping on $50 oil changes is stupid.

Especially in the R56 guys, Direct Injection is a real issue with fuel contamination in the oil. This dramatically lowers oil flashpoint, and eventually causes the oil to "Coke up" at the hot points (will eventually cause your turbo to fail, and probably assist in the premature wear of your engine bearings).

 

The MINI service guys tell me they will not change the oil until the countdown service mileage is with in 1000 miles of 0.

But I also think it is required for warranty to have it changed once a year no matter the miles.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Blake

 

That's why getting it analyzed is a good idea until you have found what the a good interval is for your driving and conditions.

There isn't a Castrol Syntec 5W-30 (other than the MINI & BMW branded oil) available in the USA that meets the European ACEA A3/B3 standards recommended in the UK version of the owners manual. The USA manual switches to a USA standard that is much broader. IMO, they have just lowered the standards to avoid complaints from MINI owners about the oil being hard to locate.

If you want to stay with off-the-shelf Castrol SYNTEC, look for 0W–30 European Formula or 10W-40. There are other brands that meet ACEA A3, such as Mobil 1 0W-40, but most Mobil 1 does not. Most brands have one or two oils that do, and many that don't.

Because of the direct injection system, MINIs seem to have a lot of fuel contamination in the oil earlier than the factory recommended intervals.

 

The computer told me to change oil at 23000 miles. I'm out west in a rural area and don't do any stop and go driving to speak of. I changed the oil and filter three times myself before I took it in.