I have a new 2013 R56S that just hit 2,700 miles today. I still always think of oil changes in terms of every 3,000 miles, so I feel like it's due, however MINI recommends 9,000. I want this car to last a long time....I'd love to give it to my daughter when she's old enough to drive (she's only 9 months old), so I'm fine with doing any PM necessary. Is it crazy to have an oil change done at 3,000 miles on this car? I know the dealers charge about $90, and I'd normally do it myself, although disposing of waste oil nowadays is a pain, so it's probably worth paying for. Any advice is appreciated!

 

There's gotta be a slug of independent shops near where you live. Check with local MINI folk and find one that is the kind of shop you'd want to work on your daughter's car and make good friends with them. Let him know you intend to keep that MINI forevah and he'll do all he can to help you do so. Our guy says there's cracker jacks falling from the sky, you don't have to go look. With synthetic oils, 5K is about right and also the right time to rotate the tires. Besides having the car on the lift to drain the sump he can also eyeball all the other fiddly bits to make sure all is tip top. Warranty work can still be left to the dealership.

 

I change my oil every 3-4k miles and it isn't a hard process to do. You can DIY it for ~50 or you can have a shop do it and charge you over $80+

 

I have mine changed at the dealer every 5k miles. I pay for every other one. The other is covered under the maintenance plan.

My dealer usual runs a special for $59 or $69. At that price I'd rather not do it myself.

 

this topic seems to pop up now and then

i too have plans to keep and maintain my mini long term. did my first oil change at 500 miles. waste or not i've been taking UoAs and the wear pattern has been great so far, even with all the autocross i've been doing.

oil disposal is no problem. take it to advanced auto or autozone and they will dispose of it for free. very simple change too.

 

Doing your first oil change is a bit different than your regular oil change, usually you break-in the engine after driving a 1000 miles or so then change the oil every 5000 miles. When you break-in an engine you're conditioning the engines metal parts (rings, pistons, all moving parts), there will be tiny flakes of metal in the oil which is why the first oil change is usually done within the first 1000 miles. Good quality Synthetic oils do last beyond 5000 miles, but the problem is it gets contaminated because of blowby gases that slip past the piston rings.

If you don't drive it hard you can easily get away with 7500 miles, the oil that I use lasts 12,000 miles. Thing is by then you can leave behind sludge in the oil feed line to the turbo because after you shut off your engine the oil just bakes itself onto the inside of the oil feed line, this usually happens near the end of the oils life which is why most change their oils every 5000-7500 miles.

Hope this helps.

 

Doing 5k oil changes myself, using 0w40 Mobil One and BMW filters. As I am on a 6-year finance, I figure it is cheap insurance. I do have the remainder of the factory warranty until Jan 2015, and bought the extended Hendrick warranty, but I plan on having HUGE fun with my MINI far beyond that. A little PM service goes a LONG way towards longevity. Will my son get this MINI someday? Maybe. But his focus is on my 67 Chevelle. Maybe he will be a lucky dude, and get both? Time will tell.

 

3K mile oil change intervals with synthetic oil is excessive, but all performance car manufacturers recommend changing all oils after the initial (1,200 mile) break in period. BMW used to recommend doing so on all of its cars, until it started selling pre-paid (aka free) maintenance plan on new cars. Now 1.2K engine and diff oil changes are reserved only for ///M cars

On my MINI, I changed my oil engine oil after the first 1.2K miles to Mobile 1 0W-40. Then I ran Blackstone labs tests after next 5K miles to find out that the oil can go longer. Since then I've been changing it ever 7.5K miles (and Blackstone labs reports are still all clear).
www.blackstone-labs.com

I follow the same strategy on all my cars, though oil weight changes to match OEM engine recommendation for a particular car.


I find it WAY quicker to DIY oil changes.
About $25 for a 5-quart of Mobile 1, another $8 for the filter (or less if you buy from Amazon.com in bulk), and 30 minutes of your time. It takes me about that long to drive to a dealer, never mind waiting and driving back.

You can drain used oil into the newly emptied 5-quart jug, then return it for free disposal at most auto stores.

BTW, my local BMW dealer charges $90 to change the oil, but the MINI dealers asks for $160. Go figure !

a

 

modern synthetics can effectively run up to 12K+........there is no NEED to change it every 3K........its not going to hurt anything by doing it early (other than your wallet)...but its hardly necessary.

i do mine every 9K.......im sitting at 40K now, not burning any oil, and ive yet to have an issue with the car.

 

@afadeev Inbetwen each oil change, how many additional bottles do you usually pour in?

My 07 MCS consume 1q every 1k miles so I have lots of extra bottles lying around and I check pretty frequenty making sure it is within the dip stick.

 

My 2007 MCS also consumes oil even though my piston rings are in excellent shape, MINI should have manufactured a better PCV system, like the improved one in the N18 engines. The consumtion rates are drastically reduced if most of my miles are on the freeway!

 

ZERO extra oil added between 7.5K mile oil changes.
I put a full 5 quart jug in during the change, check oil level intermittently between the oil changes and it never drops below the lowest mark on the deep stick. A little over 3.5 quarts come out of the oil drain plug, a bit more from oil filter change and spillage. So I probably consume about 1 quart between 7.5K oil changes, but not enough to require additional oil to be added in-between.

a

 

Any of you 12K people actually TEST the oil to see if any life is left ? I plan to send a oil sample in with 5K miles on it and have it tested to see how much farther it can go. NO way I'm going 12K unless I can prove it's possible.

 

one member had their oil evaluated at Blackstone with 23K on it, and they said it looked fine...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...85-post48.html

 

I did, repeatedly.

At 5K miles, the Mobile 1 was still fresh.
One time I had accidentally missed an oil change and went 12K miles. The viscosity had dropped significantly, the anti-wear supplements were nearly gone, and there was an increased amount of metal traces in the oil from the timing chain slapping around on the silicone guides. That was how I found it that I had a serious timing chain issues, and got it replaced while still under warranty.

I would say you can go longer than 5K (with the way I drive and autoX, YMMV), but not as long as 12K miles. At least not if you intend to lubricate the engine optimally and keep the car beyond the term of the lease.

a

 

This. From what I have found (just ordered my Mini, but used them for analysis on my Jeep), Blackstone seems to recommend a 7-10k interval for the Justa motor, depending on the oil and age of the engine. After the first few changes have occurred and the bulk of the wear-in is completed, longer intervals on synthetic oil will be fine. Just keep up with your UoA, and rest easy knowing that you have science on your side. No sense in wasting money, time or oil!

Here's a sample from an early change from an S motor: