I searched for an answer to my question and couldn't find one, so sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere. My Mini is getting close to the maintenance period recommended by the OBC. My dealer is 200 miles away, so scheduling maintenance is a little difficult in order to get a day off for the trip. Currently the computer says I have about 1800 miles left before maintenance is due. My question is, do I have to run that down to zero before they will change the oil, or would they give me a little leeway? If it is within about 100 miles of what the computer says, would they go ahead and take care of that for me? Thanks in advance.

 

I am sure the correct answer is "it depends on the dealer, call and ask." I am in almost the exact same situation as you, I live 196 miles away from the closest dealer (Jackie Cooper in OKC) and am needing my first oil change. I had a couple of days off of work at the end of December and as I was within 1000 miles of 15,000 I called my dealer to set up a appointment and was told that unless I was at 1 year, 15,000 or the computer told to bring it in, I would be charged for the service. I didn't make the appointment and now I am right at 15,000 but I have no time for the next couple of weeks to take a day and drive to Oklahoma City. I really wish MINI would allow BMW dealers to perform warranty work and this type of routine maintenance. We have a BMW dealer in town and they normally have a few used MINIs' on the lot.

Good Luck
tim

 

Just call. If it's within a week of your anniversary or within a couple thousand miles they should honor your request. I had 4300 miles left on mine and a few days off from my 1 year of purchase and my dealer did my oil change.

 

Just let it go over 15,000 miles and then schedule the appointment, if you let it go all the way to 15,000 another couple of hundred miles over won't make any difference to your engine.

 

I think most dealers will perform the required maintenance (15,000) mile service within 1500 miles, so you still have some time, but of course call your dealer now and see what their count down is, couldn't hurt, and that way they know you're going to be scheduling it soon.

 

I just took mine in for service yesterday and I asked the service about this very thing. They only want to take the car in if the OBC is telling you to bring it in for service but they can be persuaded to take it if there are other issues or extenuating circumstances.

I'm right under 17k and my "miles to service" didn't get down to under 1k, and thus asking for service, until about 16.5k. I wasn't too worried though as I changed my oil around 7k and this is the only really big thing they do at the first service anyway.

Curiously, my "miles to service" is now set at 7k.

 

My local dealer requires it to be under 500 miles, but with a short (100 mile) drive I found one that will do it within 1k. That was a plus considering my warranty was going to expire in a week.

 

i went over my 2nd check up by nearly 1000 miles (I changed my oil between). Made a call to the dealership and explained we were on the road a lot due to an impending death in the family and couldn't stop to get it done.
The dealership said "do what you got to do, we will be here when you are able".
Service was completed late without issues.

I can appreciate a dealer who knows it is more than just numbers.