My GTI was the same way. VW told me how important it is to monitor your oil (make it a habit for once a month or something) after almost running out of oil my first few months owning it. I too had no idea. If you drive a turbo the way it was meant to be driven then this is completely normal.

(I haven't read all the other replies, sorry if I am repeating others.)

 

What was your oil level at when the light came on?

 

Sure, why not? I'm pulling just over 40 out of a 29/37/32 car over the first 3000 miles of ownership. It should get better as the engine wears in, too.

 

The dealer did an oil change on my 07 MCS about 2000 miles ago and I just checked my oil,it's only down a quater of the way between markers.

 

How many miles on the car total and do you drive it hard or easy?

 

It's got 46k miles on it and I do drive it pretty hard. The sport button and I are best friends. :^)

 

I was just curious. I run mine a little hard but not always and it doesn't seem to use oil like many. Mines at 64,129 as of today.
I was wondering if they use more oil with more miles but apparently not.
From what you said yours is down after 2K, that's not bad at all.
Keep Motoring

 

Disclaimer for all mileage posted.

"In case you didn't know this is the internet".

 

Hey PatM, haven't seen much of you out here since the gratuity issue thread that eventually got closed down.
How ya been?

 

drsimmons, doing very well my friend. That thread got closed eh? Wow what a wild one.

I have just been living the dream. Had a big snow and ice storm here in the Northwest. Lost power for 4 days then took a week long business trip to Texas. Been sort of busy.

Been absent from NAM for a bit but frankly I haven't seen a lot of threads that interest me. I didn't realize that "other" thread got closed. I just thought it died a slow death. Almost 5K on my Coupe now and nary a problem. It just keeps cruising along. I hope life is well for you.

I'll be cruising the threads and pop up now and again on subjects that interest me. Man I'm just glad to be alive.

Take care and happy Motoring!!

 

Yea, as long as I wake up breathing I'm ok.

 

doesn't burn/leak/lose whatever it so far with 22K miles and low milage MINI brand oil

 

our 2010 mini stalled out with low oil the warning lihgt went oil wife went to store bought oil had to drive to safe location but befreo could get there it stalled only 1.5 qrt left all the rest burned up said the dealer
why i ask that waht it does need to check it at every fueling say the woners manual yea right who does that. any i agree sonmethis wrong

 

Hope you're typing on a smart phone or something like that because your spelling sucks! I check my oil once a month and it's never low.

 

I went for a free check-up at the dealer with 10K miles and I think they said I was 1/2 quart low.

 

[QUOTE=JPMM;3443711]If your car is burning as much oil as mentioned here I would think your emissions would not be in compliance and would need to be fixed whether or not mini wants to. Get Uncle Sam behind you


I honestly would have thought so too... My 2001 Integra was burning a liter of oil every 1000Km!! It passed 2 emissions tests in that state AND Acura did tell me that it was still within tolerance... I didn't agree, so replaced the engine with a used unit. big waste of money! The "new" engine was ok for 10000Km or so then deteriorated quickly to 1l/1000Km again - in this state it passes the e-test I had to do to sell it!

Makes you wonder how bad it has to get to actually be caught!
E

 

I had that low oil light come on just the other day actually. It came on when I took a hard turn and went off when I straightened out. I checked the oil and ended up adding 1qt. That put the level halfway up the dipstick. I am at about 2500 since my last 710 change.

 

I needed to replace an engine about 15,000 miles ago. The motor before the one i have now would burn about a quart every 3000. When i changed the engine the buddy that helped me (engine builder) had a interesting method for me. After the engine was in we filled it up with oil, turned it over without the coils in about 5 seconds 3 times. Then we let it sit overnight. The next morning we fired it up. Let it get up to operating temp and shut it off. We did that again. Then he said drive it like your going to drive it all the time to seat the rings. So I ran it and pretty hard. After about 50 miles changed the oil. Then again at 300 miles. Since then I have changed it every 3000 for my own personal insurance. It has not used a drop of oil yet. Also is giving me outstanding gas mileage.

 

I have an Acura MDX with 420,000 kms on the original engine. I don't check the oil between changes because it doesn't use any. But my much newer Minis (2008 and 2009) must be checked every time you top up the gas tank. Hmmmm, normal? Not by any standard I've been exposed to but it is not uncommon for the type.

That said, I've owned two Honda Civic SI's over the last few years and they both burned oil in large quantities with only 120,000 miles on them. I chocked this up to the juveniles that had them before me and rode em like they were stolen. I replaced the engine in one with a JDM low miles replacement for only $400 CDN and the oil burning issue went away. I wish I could buy a Mini motor for than!

 

The N14 engine burns through oil not because it's normal but because it's a design oversight or laziness, the N18 engine hardy burns any oil between oil changes. Within the lifespan of the R56 there were two different engines, now how many engine redesign were there for the R50/R53 (2002-2006)?

Nobody has the intent to design an engine that burns through 1-2 quarts of oil between 5000 mile oil changes, for those that do, they have no business building and designing engines. Can you imagine how many quarts of oil you would go through with those insane original 15k mile oil change intervals? I'm sure it helps the oil companies sell more oil though.

That's the definition of insanity!

 

Sorry, the above supposition is completely groundless.

First, a few facts:
1). I am on my second N14 engine (first one blew exhaust valves at 56K miles). Given the above fact, I'm hardly an N14 fan-boy.
2). Both the first and the second engine oil consumption has been under 0.5 quarts between 7-10K mile oil changes. I had followed the new engine's break-in procedure to the letter, and it worked out perfect.
3). BMW has always disclaimed that its engines can consume upto 1 quart per 1K miles. On ///M performances engines, it's upto 1 quart per 600 miles. Pretty alarming, but true.
4). On 8 bimmers that I had owned, not one consumed more than 1 quart per 5K miles (and that one had 250+K miles on original drive train).

So, N14 advertised maximum oil consumption rates are on the very high end of what may be encountered.

Real world N14 oil consumption varies a lot.
The variance could be party build tolerances, party most owner's lack of follow-through on engine break-in instructions.

It is owner's responsibility to maintain proper amount of oil in the engine.
Monitor your engine's oil consumption rate, and add oil as necessary.

a

 

I am at 38K miles. I changed the oil at 1K miles and then let the dealership do them for a while and at 25K it is now getting the oil changed every 7K. The Mini has not burned any oil for all but one oil change. That is when my son had it and my wife and I had his car for 3 weeks (we took a vacation and his Fusion is a bit more comfortable on the road).

I reset an old Garmon GPS and threw it in the back seat of the Mini before the trip. The GPS told me the Mini has been to 128 MPH and the average speed while he had it was 78 mph in the 1100 miles he drove it (he usually averages about 150 miles per week). He lived in town so I know he took it out and thrashed it. It was 1.7 qts low. Other than then oil use has be negligible.

 

"I had that low oil light come on just the other day actually. It came on when I took a hard turn and went off when I straightened out. I checked the oil and ended up adding 1qt. That put the level halfway up the dipstick. I am at about 2500 since my last 710 change."


There is a low oil light? What year did they start doing that? My Wifes 2010 JCW clubman has been burning about a quart every 1000 miles since it had maybe 20K on the odometer. My 09 JCW just started consuming maybe 1 quart per 7k miles and it just turned 70K on the odo. I dont think it has much to do with wear more with tolerances. I think she got a Friday motor and I got maybe a Tuesday motor. It may have something to do with sitting in traffic too. She sits in way more traffic than I do.

 

There's a low oil pressure light. When it comes on, usually at least some damage has been done... If it flickers, that's not so bad--but if it comes on steadily, that's usually because something fairly catastrophic has happened already.

 

I personally know a Mini technician that has read the low oil pressure lights actual signals it sends to the ECU, he stated they were way too low for a true measure of protecting the engine from accelerated wear. They need to re-calibrate ECU to send these warning signals sooner, I'm shock Mini/BMW hasn't done anything about this! It shouldn't be too difficult for even some member's on NAM to be able to tweak a few things to get these warning out sooner.