I finally finished paying off my Mini this past year! Yay Now it's all mines. The sad part is my free maintenance is gone and want to ensure the best way to take of my mini avoiding the dealership as much as possible.

My scheduled maintenance I have so far are and I'm at 35400 miles right now:

1. OEM oil and OEM filter at every 5,000 mileage.

2. Change back brake pads soon.

3. Spark plugs?

4. Filter for AC, fuel, and transmission...

5. Chasis lube? I'm not too clear about what this is...

Any suggestion and correction would be great!

 

Depsite what some may say my poistion still stands that these cars can be problem free if you take a few simple actions. change your oil on a regular basis, 5k is what I recommend to my customers, and follow your scheduled maintenance. There are no lube locations on your car so thats not really needed, trans fluid is considered liftime and has no fluid exchange period. however if you are going to do it change it ASAP the rule of thumb is once a trans has gone to many miles with out the fluid being changed, just leave it alone. Your brakes will let you know with a light when it's time to change so don't worry to much about that. The only other procautionary step you can take is an oil catch can, a valve cleaning, and a weekly romping. carbon build up is a real problem with DI cars. so installing a catch can can really help avoid headaches, by getting the nasty oil out of the path of the turbo and valves.

hope this helps

 

oxspeed you highly recommend a OCC for people who drive hard ?? I maintain my car well and im very hands on with it and i have been reading about OCC, and thinkin about doing it as my next mod. just ordered shocks and springs so i need to save up but was thinking in order to protect my engine to get a catch can.

thanks,
vic

 

A rule of thumb is to change the coolant every two years. Might as well flush out that expensive blue BMW coolant and go with good ole yellow Prestone. I'd also change the transmission oil at 50,000.

 

Getting a Bentley manual would be a step in the right direction. From it I learned what sort of maintenance to expect. For example, I learned that the brake fluid should be replaced every two years.The spark plugs are supposed to last 100k miles. The radiator coolant does not need replacement. The accessory belt should last at least four years. The battery should last four years as well. I change my oil and filter every 7.5k miles and rotate my tires every 5k. That keeps me up to date on how much I have left on the brake pads and rotors. I change the cabin and air filter every year. There really isn't much to do on a Mini Cooper until something goes wrong.

 

I agree with brazenone, getting a Bentley manual is a good idea and you can get them at Amazon.com for a good price. See http://www.amazon.com/MINI-Cooper-R5...2048914&sr=8-3

 

Wow! Thank you everyone for the response. That was strange it was never send to my email until I signed in and check.

This is very helpful. I am a bit conflicted about the coolant flush. I don't think my mini service ever did it and just a few days ago bulk order oil, filters for cabin and engine from Bimmerspecialist.

It seem easy for me to change my own engine air filter I reasearch oil and dry air filter. I bought the Mann OEM filter and it's dry. Does that matter?

I am going to change my rear brakes in the next few months and eventually get new rear tires. I love my mini trying the best to take care of it!

 

I use Blackstone labs to anaylse oil samples. Based on the trends for my car 7,500-8,500 miles between oil and filter changes is about perfect. While changing at 5,000 mile won't hurt anything, except for your wallet. (eventually). BMW/MINI's free maintenance really should be called "very little to no maintenance". Or We'll do as little as possible to get the car out of warranty without a major failure. It sure isn't designed for long term reliablility.

BMW/MINI is backing away from lifetime fluids.

Brake fluid (for me) is a yearly thing. It's sort of a zen, spring, yearly renewal thing. If you track the car, then it's a before every event thing.

Air filters are interesting. If you choose a oiled filter be sure you don't over oil it. I've got an AFE dry filter.

 

Yeah catch cans are a good idea, I would strongly suggest purchasing one. the fact of the matter is boosted cars spew oil. adding a can keeps the gunk out of the engine bay.