just past 1000 miles...should i change the oil, ie, because its a new engine? or wait the recommended 10000 miles? thanks in advance.

 

1000 miles is too soon in my opinion but 10,000 miles is too long. I plan on changing mine at around 5K miles or so. I'm about halfway there.

Just my opinion though.....

 

interesting question...i've always changed my oil on a new car within the first 1500 miles. i was able to get my 5 qts of mini oil & filter for 65$. i figured why not.

plus i do not follow the manual break in specs. the mini manual tells you baby your car for like the first 1000 miles. i don't drive the **** out of it, but i do drive fairly agressively.

 

I guess it comes down to how long you are planning to keep the car. I changed the oil and filter at 1500 miles and then every 7500 miles. Oil analysis from Blackstone labs thinks that safe, but if you are going by the CBS interval, I wouldn't keep the car past the warranty period.

 

I would say no, you do not need to change it.

 

I changed mine at 500 miles and still think I waited too long. Filter was black and had noticable particles. If you plan on keeping your MINI, it's cheap insurance. Oh, I also changed it at 1500. This is just my opinion, I know others will disagree, but I also think they wish they would have done the same. Good luck.

 

I followed the recommended change and did not change it early. You can't tell a thing about the oil by color so it is best to just forget about that and a filter with particles is just doing its job.

I have had my oil tested in the past at 15K and it always came back fine. So, really the choice is yours. I decided to save my coin but then again, my is an SC, not a turbo and I might think differently if I owned the turbo. The wife's Forester turbo gets changed every 5K.

 

Just for peace of mind, I changed the oil in my new 2011 MCS after break-in, at 1,200 miles. Because my driving is mostly short, city trips, I plan to change oil every 5,000 miles, plus the "free" dealer changes.

With my 2007 MCS I did the computer-indicated oil changes, with the first one coming at 18,000(!) miles, and thought it was insane; decided not to have misgivings this time.

I am using the MINI oil and MINI filters, but a local European-auto shop instead of the dealership.

 

To use oldsbear's phrase, "... for peace of mind ..." seems to be the guiding principle for oil change intervals. This topic has probably been discussed for a hundred years; except 50 years ago the intervals discussed were much shorter.

The first oil change has probably been debated even more. On new cars I change at about 2k miles the first time. I don't actually know whether that's too early or too late, but it gives me peace of mind, so I'm comfortable with that.

I'm convinced that 15k or 18k-mile intervals are too long for subsequent oil changes, however. Even 10k miles would be a stretch for my comfort level, in spite of assurances from some experts that fully synthetic oils can protect for 10k miles or more of normal driving. For some reason, about 7.5k miles would seem like a reasonable compromise for my own peace of mind. I change oil annually anyway because none of my cars get that far in a year. That works out to be about 6k miles between oil changes; well within my comfort zone.

 

Modern engines are manufactured with much closer tolerances than cars were 20 or thirty years ago. On the older cars, the break-in period was actually the final machining of the engine and it generated a lot of swarf (fine metal particles). The rings took a while to seat, so there was more blow by and contamination of the oil. New cars are so closely machined that the break-in period generates little or no swarf and the rings are seated in just a few miles.

I think that changing the oil after the first 1200 or 1500 miles is not necessary. That said, if it make you feel better to change the oil, do it, it won't hurt.

Dave

 

I agee with Dave, changing your synthetic oil every 3-5000 miles if it is less than one year is not necessary especially if you have a non turbo. You still have to check your oil, if it starts to get dark, it will need to be changed sooner than the recommended time frame. I did notice that the Mobil 1 extended life bottle states that the oil is good for up to 15k miles. Keep that in mind. I also plan on taking out the extended maintenance plan (6 yrs 100k) when I take delivery of my CM.

 

it only hurts the environment and the owner of Jiffy Lube who sees extended length oil changes as the greatest threat his industry has ever seen....

look for it .... the statement is on record

************

I concur

what was needed for an engine in 1956 is not the same as what is needed today.

on the other hand is the group that thinks BMW recommends extended length changes in order to get you to buy a new motor after failure

your choice

is extentended period a way to save you money

or a way to get you to buy a new engine?

 

You know I remember when BMW used to pay for the first oil change within the first 2k miles before their maintenance program. When the program came in, it became whatever the computer said, but it was a computer that the company programmed. Same car, same engine. Of by the way, They now have lifetime fluids as well. According to a roundel editor, it is the lifetime of the part and when it fails (prematurely or not), the fluid is no good anymore. Before the part fails, the fluid is good for lifetime. The marketers and accountants are starting to run many of these companies. Draw your own conclusions.

Fyi, I still do the break in oil change on all my cars.

 

and Jiffy loves you

 

I'm going to say it one more time, you can't determine a thing about engine oil based on the color. Soot from combustion alone can change the color to black, it does not indicate that the oil needs to be changed.

http://www.nordicgroup.us/oil.htm#Th...k%20Oil%20Myth

 

heat synthetic oil enuf

heck, heat ANY oil oil enuf

it changes color

any one here cook?

next question

 

Never been there. I do have a long position in the oil stocks.

Advanced Auto loves me. I may among the ones that has done the most oil changes for a 2008 MCS with 35K miles, so far 13 oil changes, once every two-four track days! Now what do I do with all those free Mobil1 oil filters from Advanced auto that do not fit any of my cars.

 

And I thought it was also the carbon from the gasoline combustion that also contaminates the oil as well.

 

I changed mine at 2500 miles, and will change it again at 5000. After that, I'll do it every 5k miles.

When I changed it at 2500, I also installed a magnetic oil drain plug (which also uses an o-ring instead of a crush ring), so it will be interesting to see if it picks up any metal from the last 2500 miles.

 

You're right! Discolored oil is due to products of combustion, not heat.

I work on large diesel engines that have the under piston space isolated from the crankcase. We clean the products of combustion, blow-by, from the scavenging space under the piston regularly. The pistons are cooled with lubricating oil from the crankcase, so it is exposed to the high temperatures of combustion. We have the lube oil tested regularly and continuously run it through a centrifugal purifier, to remove any water that condenses in the oil, we don't get much crud in the lube oil and it stays the same amber color as new oil, even though it has been heated. We run that oil for many thousands of hours, changing it only if the lab tells us we should. That rarely happens.

Dave

 

Since MINI does a "free" change at 12 months, it was ideal to do an early change at 6 months, which was 5,000 miles for our MINI.

Most MINI owners probably just go by the CBS and are fine - Oil reports posted on NAM prove the oil can make the crazy long OCI's.

25,000 Oil Report:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-analysis.html

 

Had the engine oil and gearbox oil done @ 1344 miles. Excessive, maybe, cheap insurance, absolutely. Less than $200 for both.

 

my concern is this. MINI is putting in extremely high grade of Synthetic Motor Oil from the factory. Synthetic does not experience the breakdown in it's structure that conventional motor oil does . It is known to last, in many cases, up to 3 times longer than conventional. If I was using conventional oil in my MINI I would change the oil every 3 to 5 K . To change synthetic every 3 to 5k, unless you are beating the heck out of the car, is a total waste of $$$ and harmful to the environment I do know that on my parent's RV with a cummins diesel the recommended oil change was every 25k.

 

i was more worried about about metal filings in the engine and gearbox than the synthetic oil "breaking down." i figure you've got one chance to do this. i keep my cars a lonnnnnnnnnng time and do not intend to rebuild or replace an engine or gearbox.

 

Point well taken.