Today, the valve cover was pulled off my engine to replace a leaking valve cover gasket. The heat from the turbo apparently caused the valve cover gasket to fail over time and leak some oil at the valve cover corner right behind the turbo.

I was able to take a few pictures of my engine internals while the valve cover was off. It looks like my religious 3 to 4K oil change intervals paid off big time. The engine looks very clean inside. The technician working on my car was quite impressed. My car just had its 17th oil change at 50K miles!

Here are some pics:

 

Holy poop, Batman! Makes me want to do mine this weekend...

 

Just do it! Can't hurt anything!

 

Looks really clean. I thought change my oil often but you certainly have me beat.

 

I'm curious...you guys who are still under your service agreement time frame...do you still go in and let MINI do their changes at their time intervals?

What motor oil are you using for your own changes.

That is ONE CLEAN MOTOR!

 

I am letting my dealership do their 1 courtesy oil change per year... for the first three years and am using the MINI oil in my extra oil changes for the first 4 warranty years.

 

I change the oil myself every 3 to 4K miles. It is really easy to do it on your own. There are very good instructions available here on NAM. I have an extended maintenance plan (which I bought mostly for the JCW brakes service until 100K miles) so I go to the dealership when the time comes for a free oil change every 15K miles or so. I have been using Mobil 1 0W-40 and Castrol Syntec 0W-30 when I change my own oil. Dealer puts in their BMW/MINI 5W-30.

 

I don't have an "S" but I have Molly's Oil Changed at the Dealer every 6mo. regardless of Mileage!! Either I foot the Bill or they do, either way I WIN!!

BTW...You're engine L@@KS amazing!!

 

I've done exactly as you have done on my 05, my wifes 07, and will also continue to follow this schedule on the 10, especially after looking after your super clean pics. Thanks for sharing!

 

Getting my first oil change this weekend. I just have a 1000 miles but want to get the break in oil and filter out and put in the some new clean fluids and filter. Then it will be every 4k miles. I can't imagine waiting 15k miles between oil changes. When the dealer told me about their policy I asked him if that was a policy of "designed obsolescence"? Meaning did they want my car not to last very long. He just looked at me rather confusedly.

 

Yes it's very clean looking, but is it really necessary? There's nothing wrong with frequent oil changes, I think MINI's 15000 is too long, I'm thinking every 5000 might work for me.

 

Great pics. Gives me peace of mind. I've been doing two oil changes a year, the dealer freebie and then one myself. I put about 7000 a year in miles so I'm about your interval. Looking through the oil filler cap it looks pristine, so I'll continue.

In answer to the 5000 mile question, that shouldn't be a problem with Euro formulated Castrol Syntec (BMW/Mini brand or Euro blend 0w30).

 

I have been changing the oil on my BMWs every 7500 mile (half the recommended time of 15k miles). Roundel Magazine recommends every 5k mile due to the aluminum engines used. I am changing to 5k changes now.

I would think 5k changes would be great. My MINI in the future will be changed every 5k miles.

 

Beautiful!

 

Would be interesting to see another 2007 s engine side-by-side that follows the 15k standard schedule.

 

Well not a 07, but an 03. When this picture was taken it had about 168,000 miles, and the being used was Royal Purple - so its a little darker than the other brands. I follow the OBC ( so between 15k and 20k intervals) and am currently at 226,000 miles.


Nik

 

Hard to compare between the two because of your high miles. The OP's engine looks clearly cleaner and more crisp but because of your high mileage I really can't draw a conclusion except that I should be using royal purple and perhaps these cars may last a long time.

 

I have MINI dealers change my oil every 5k miles. One strange thing, I took mine in at 15k for just an oil/filter change and the SA asked me if I wanted my computer reset at that time so I told her to do what ever. When I got it back, they had flushed the brakes and put new wipers on in addition to the oil/filter change. I still had about 4k to go for the free maintenance per the computer but they counted that one since it was 23 months old I guess. Not a month later, I came in and spoke to my MA about a new MINI and during that time, I spoke again to my SA telling her I just wanted an oil change and didn't expect the free one at that time. I told her about my 5k interval and she told me that have it done that day to keep it in some type of warranty even though I told her MINI dealers had done the maintenance each time. I had them change the oil again with just a couple a hundred miles on that oil. She still could't explain the reason to me so I could understand. Anyone out there who can????

BTW, both engines above look like what I expect to see. It is scary seeing images of sludge buckets after they say they are taking care of their engines

 

If you had follwed the OP's program you could have bought a new engine with what you would have spent on oil changes every 3K. I like your approach better.

 

An oil change every 3,000 miles for 226,000 miles would cost about $3,000. Good luck finding an R56 engine for that.

A reasonable interval for an R56 would be around 5,000-8,000 miles. At that rate, oil changes would cost $500-800 per 100,000 miles.

 

Thanks Robin for doing the math. I'm doing the 5k or every six months. I just replaced my brake-in oil at 1000miles. I can't believe the dealer would have me driving 15k with all those metal bits in my engine.

 

I forgot to mention in my first post that the main reason for my 3 to 4K oil changes is because my car frequently sees track time (see my sig picture). On a street car that never sees track time, I believe 5 to 8K would be more than enough. Also, there are reports of turbos getting destroyed on cars that follow the factory recommended 15K to 20K interval.

 

Can you point these out to me. I would be interested in reading about them. Did a search and only came up with hood scoop melting issues and cool down questions.

 

Yes, it is very easy to do....I've got it down and can do a change in 10 min.

5k intervals for me....and mine gets 0W-40 as well, good stuff!

 

Here are a couple of threads:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ied-turbo.html

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-warranty.html

Also, there is a service information bulletin issued by BMW about this problem. See the following link:

http://www.minitis.net/tsb/bulletins...p/M110308g.htm