We have a lovely 2008 Mini S Hatchback

My wife just called . . . she does not want to wait for the 15-18K between dealer paid for oil changes. I work on my own Harley, so I figure I can do an oil change . . .

Just want to keep it simple . . . been through some search threads . . . a little confused, but . . . it looks like I need a wrench, oil, filter, and a filter gasket--

I figure . . . why not order from Amazon, or get at the local parts store . . .

Is this the right stuff?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

http://www.amazon.com/Mann-Filter-HU...2008&carId=001

That oil filter looks a little sketchy for me.

Just don't want to start on it and find out I have the wrong socket and the wrong filter.\

Thanks all!

 

http://www.waymotorworks.com/oem-oil...5-r56-r57.html
Can't remember what size socket for filter cover... But my oil pan drain bolt is 8mm Allen. Heard some people have torx (6point star) heads though

 

there are some diy posts here that should assist you. good luck.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...il-change.html

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

 

Your wife is pretty smart - lucky guy. Can't say for sure, but that looks correct, at least on the surface. I'd check with Moss Motors, Mini Mania or some of the other NAM advertisers. Many offer a package of filter, and socket or several filters for discounted pricing. That way you are sure you are getting an OEM filter. Filter will come with the O ring gasket and with the crush washer for the drain plug. It's a pretty straight forward procedure. Just disconnect the coolant overflow tank from the car (not the hoses to it) and move it out of the way to access the filter holder. I found it very helpful to have a swivel attached to the socket with a 5-10" extension.

I have only 9K on the clock now, but plan to change oil and filter every 5K. The MINI recommended 15K interval is ridiculous and anyone that follows it is begging for at least, accelerated wear & tear and at worst, some type of oil related failure. It is also good to check the oil level perodically as there are some reports of high (1 qt/1000 miles) oil consumption, especially with the "S" varient.

 

And anyone not following it may as well take some of their money and throw it in a burning fire.

 

Good wife.

I do mine every 3-4k with AMS OIL or the new Castrol GTX.

I can justify spending ~$60 every two months to make sure my car is in good health.

 

Oil changes done more often than recommended by MINI may be costing me a little extra money but I look at it as insurance. An oil change cost me ~$50 to do myself. I change my oil every 7500 miles so that's $50 extra every 15000 miles. If you consider that you have to top off your oil if you go the recommended interval, my extra cost is even less, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than a new motor - I call that CHEAP insurance!

 

yep, don't trust those silly and trying to rip you off engineers.

Also change your brake pads every 10,000 miles and tires every 12,000 miles. Don't forget the engine air filter every 500 miles; brake fluid every year . . . .

Dig around and find the quote from the president of Jiffy Lube: extended change oils present the greatest challenge our industry has ever seen . . .

all those extra changes hurt is your pocketbook and the environment.

I drove my 02 for close to 100,000 miles ... changed oil by the computer. MPG was better when sold then when new. Buyer never asked how often the oil had been changed. In 35 years of selling cars no buyer has asked how often I changed the oil . . .

but if it don't hurt ... sure, continue to do it.

p.s. In my 02, and now in my 7, I have yet to add one drop of oil between changes . . . and I check it regularly.

If you don't trust that technology has changed in the last 20 or 30 years then go for it. But see what happens to your car if you fail to respect their requirement to use synthetic oil . . . .

 

I fall somewhere in the middle between "every three thousand miles" and "whenever the car's computer says to". The reason is, I've frequently had the car's computer extend the oil change interval out past 20k miles (once it was 23k miles).

I know that you're also supposed to change the oil at least once a year regardless of how many miles you've racked up, but until the past two years, I was putting 25k miles or so per year on the car, so the computer-recommended oil change intervals were shorter than one year anyway.

Based on the oil analyses I had done on the MINI oil, it was pretty well knackered by 10k miles, so I had no intention of going 23k miles on it. That's not to say that the engine would have imploded had I done it anyway, but I wasn't going to take the chance.

Now I do oil changes when the OBC countdown reaches 7500 miles and again when it reaches 0 miles. The computer is still extending my intervals a little bit beyond the standard 15,500 miles, so my interval ends up being closer to 8500 miles or so. No problems after 80k miles.

 

I totally agree. I do mine every 3000 with mobil one. When the car has 200,000 and no sludge buildup all those changes will pay off.

 

Ah, but there's the rub - when you reach that goal, how can you know that 5,000- or 7,500- or even 10,000-mile intervals wouldn't have gotten you there just the same?

Unless you have a large fleet of identical cars all driven in nearly the same manner, you really can't do the necessary experimentation to make any accurate judgements on how often is "often enough".

You may well reach 200k miles and still have a clean, high-compression engine using 3,000-mile oil change intervals, but even if it happens, that's not evidence that the 3,000-mile intervals were a necessary part of achieving that milestone.

 

If you don't trust that technology has changed in the last 20 or 30 years then go for it. But see what happens to your car if you fail to respect their requirement to use synthetic oil . . . .[/QUOTE]

I agree that technology has changed over the last 30 years, for the better. Engines from the 60's and 70's would rarely go 200K miles like current engines, but the stresses on the new motors are higher also. 30 years ago we didn't run superchargers and turbo's on daily drivers. Engines displacing 1.6L would be making 75 HP instead of 170 - 200 HP, so I choose to be conservative and change my oil every 7500 miles because I do mostly short trips (1.5 miles to work). If I was doing mostly highway driving I would probably go longer. I know the synthetic oil is still fine and would easily go the 15K but really think the little oil filter should be changed more often so why not change the oil too. This is my opinion and I respect yours, hell it's your car not mine. By the way I am a mechanical engineer with a Masters Degree and have been working on cars from daily drivers to NHRA national record holders for 40 years. LOL

 

I owned a large repair facility where we serviced around 160 cars per week. I saw what the inside of engines looked like on cars that had different oil change intervals both with synthetic and conventional oils. Cars that exceeded 5000 miles, had sludge buildup, even with synthetic. Oil is a cleaner and the longer oil stays in the more particulates settle to on surfaces within the engine. They simply can't stay suspended in the oil indefinitely. The oil doesn't break down, its the contaminants to create the problems. Seeing what I saw, 3000 miles is what I live by. My 2004 Toyota Sienna on conventional oil at 140,000 miles has oil come out that is almost as clean as what goes in. That is even when the interval stretches to 4500 miles because of life issues. There is simply no buildup in that motor. I have seen VW turbos with 8500 miles intervals or 10000 mile intervals with synthetic oil, lock up the camshafts due to sludge buildup on the sump screens. I feel personally and professionally, that this constant debate is crazy if you own the vehicle. Leasing, you do what they say, you own it, why would you even risk falling short on your investment. Why chance engine failure by skimping on a few hundred dollars a year on oil changes? People in this forum see what the cost of replacing and engine on these cars turns out to be. Why even risk it? The only reason manufacturers extend these oil change intervals is to make their vehicles look like they have less maintenance costs and to reduce their costs when they offer free maintenance. Remember, they are setting these numbers and what happens when these Minis fail outside of warranty....Too bad, its on you. I don't understand those who listen to these companies, and do what goes against a standard in the industry. That standard hasn't come out of thin air. Millions of professionals see the damage caused by these extended intervals. Listen to them.

 

I agree with you in principle (I'm the one using 8000-mile intervals when the car's computer is telling me to wait 20k, 22k, or 23k). I also realize that there are certain engines that are particularly hard on oil (the BMW twin-turbo I6 in the 135/335/535 comes to mind).

But if you look at the MINI owners that have had to replace engines, it's usually not oil-related (unless they've run the car a few quarts low and catastrophically damaged the engine.) The MINI has been around for almost ten years and there are a lot of high-mileage examples out there. Oil sludging and varnish buildup simply haven't been an endemic problem with these cars.

As you said, it's up to the owner to decide what to do, but there's not enough evidence that even the recommended change intervals are harming MINI engines, so to assert that going all the way down to 3,000 miles is somehow a necessity is a bit of a stretch.

 

And I completely agree with you. It is definitely up to the owner. Going with your 8000 mile intervals is a huge improvement over 15000 miles. My 08 is easy enough to swap out filters in between, which would improve things as well. I wonder if some of the tensioner related issues have been linked to the longer intervals with buildup inside the tensioner. Simply seeing inside the valve cover is and accurate view of any buildup in the motor. It will sludge in the recessions of the head just as much as anywhere else. If recessions of the head are clean, there won't be any significant buildup anywhere else.

 

From what I understand, three things are bad for your oil. Contaminants, age, and heat. Oil doesn't wear out, but it does get dirty, mostly by the ingested air, major source, and engine wear.
The first two are easy to fix, good filters, more frequent changes.
You can probably go a little longer with a Justa ( I truly dislike that term) than you may wish with an "S".
Turbos = heat which breaks down oil sooner.
Synthetics are of course better than dino oils, better resistance to coking, and they are a bit slipperier, and is why BMW says if you like your warranty, use them.
That being said, the BMW engineers being smarter than me by a factor of about a billion, I find it absolutely ludicrous to wait 15 to 20K to change oil, and I don't care how much technology has changed, oil still gets contaminated, gets old, and in turbos, gets hotter than normal engines.
Me, I'll change it a little more often, after all it's only money.
I've had a couple of vehicles over 250k before I gave them to my children, just wanted to make sure they were broke in. Good luck.

 

Well said, and I am in complete agreement !

 

I guess I opened a can of worms with my personal thoughts on oil change intervals. I didn't expect my post to be so controversial. As they say, opinons are like (insert body part of your choice), everyone has one. That said, we do have a bit of an unscientific experiment going on at our house. I will stick to an every 5K oil change interval on my 11 MCS, while my son has tended to rely on the the MINI recommendation and the computer readout when it comes to maintenance and oil changes on his 09 MCCS. I guess in time we may see which is the better course of action. Of course, my hope is both engines go 150K plus. In the mean time, I change my own oil and don't mind doing it, and the extra few bucks a year it costs is pretty insignificant, especially if it possibly extends the life of my engine.

 

I'm glad you did, these discussions need to come out. It gives everyone food for thought and reinforces beliefs for some and enlightens others. It is always a good topic.

 

There are oil analysis posted on NAM done on MINI's that have followed the CBS from day 1 - high mileage MINI's with 250,000 to over 400,000 miles on them. These are not your Grandpa's engines and oils dudes. Nothing wrong with following the CBS, although 10,000 mile OCI's is my personal comfort level on any rig.

Had the 1st annual done yesterday at 10,000 miles and I was thinking see you in another year - Nope - SA explained they do NOT reset the CBS at the year mark - So they will see me in about 6 months or 5,000 miles per what the CBS still reads. From what I have read here that is because of the other services the CBS tracks. Kinda dumb.

At any rate, did the first real oil change myself at 5,000 miles. Since they are doing 10K and 15K changes, guess I don't have to crawl under myself until 20K in another year.

And I do swear by Rhino ramps, even use them to get the rigs up for other work so you don't have to stoop over. Like shocks and fuel filter changes on my truck, spark plugs on the kid's Mazda etc.

 

It does seem strange at first that the dealer won't reset the CBS when they do an annual "low mileage" oil change, but it actually makes sense. In the case of someone that only drives a few thousand miles a year, if you were to reset the countdown every year, you'd move onto the later service events too soon and end up performing some of the maintenance services early, possibly *ridiculously* early. So in the end, it's better to treat the low-mileage oil changes as "extra" services and not reset the CBS so as to not mess with the schedule for all the other services.

 

I don't crawl any more... I got a lift in the garage... Way easier...

 

It's interesting to see all the differences of opinions about oil change intervals.

I have two thoughts on this:
First: Oil is cheap, engines are expensive.
Second: When you offer to pay for my engine repairs, THEN you get the right to tell me what my oil change interval ought to be.

Having owned a lot of cars over the past 45 years, being an automotive engineer, having been an engine development engineer, and having used synthetic oils since before they were even on the market, I know what intervals to use.
And what I use is significantly shorter oil change intervals than Mini recommends.

 

+1

Can't wait to add one. Still trying to decide which way to go, ramp or frame. Also, there are some interesting frame lifts that are portable and don't require 10' of ceiling height. MaxLift or something like that.

 

When I bought my 08 MCS a few weeks ago, I had mini check it out first. There was still 10,000 miles left on the oil according to the obd. Mini recommended I change it anyway because it was pretty darn dirty. I will be changing it every 7500 miles, not 15000 or the 17000 the obd is telling me now. I don't care how good synthetic is, black gritty oil is bad.