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Had my first 10,000 oil change- very pleasant experience
Went to Mini of Ramsey in New Jersey (https://www.miniramsey.com/) and had my first 10,000 mile oil change. Got in and out in 45 minutes flat. They changed the oil and did a full inspection and a interior/exterior wash too! I have had many new cars over the years and this brand along with this dealership has been my best experience by far. Two thumbs up!
Not sure if the 3rd gen minis have a dip stick, but 10k miles is too long for an inexpensive service. this is what primarily killed the first batch of 2nd gen minis with seized vacuum pumps and broken timing chains. Just my opinion and person experience flipping 2nd gens.
Please get the oil changed at 5000 miles if you plan on keeping this vehicle for an extended period. 10000 miles is too long an interval for an oil change.
Good deal. I've had nice experiences at my Mini dealer in Orlando too. My opinion, doing the factory recommended service intervals is just fine and proper. Unless you've tuned it and/or increased boost and run it at track-level temperatures, it'll be great. It's missing the service intervals that wears the internals too much.
Either it's been tuned, modified, or just completely stock, the dealer recommended service interval is a bit too long. I'll say for stock cars, change oil between 5k-7k miles, for modified or tuned cars, no more than 5k miles, and lastly for those monstrously modified, stick to the good old 3k miles oil change is the best bet. And please don't go to those conveniently located 5 minute or 8 minute oil change shops, their oil used are extremely questionable as one of my colleagues used work amongst those shops and he says there are recycled oil mixed into what they serve there. Best option is to do the oil change on your own and ensure proper oil is being replaced with.
BTW, 3rd gen mini's do not have dipstick, it's got an oil level sensor at the bottom of the oil pan.
My very trusted MINI tech recommends 6k miles. Also FYI-BMW oil is actually Pennzoil EURO-L 5w30 and can be purchased for a third of the BMW price at Walmart.
I was always a believer in more frequent oil changes (being a "boomer" and having my first in 1967) , but have since changed my opinion. New synthetic oils can and do last far longer than regular oils did/do. I have not heard of any car having an engine failure because the owner followed the recommended oil change interval. Car dealers have a vested interest in servicing and fixing cars as that is where they make most of their money (not on sale price of the new car -unless you include the add-ons they sell and the financing they offer). So convincing someone that coming in for more frequent services puts more money into the dealership's pockets. More frequent visits also allows them the opportunity to sell you new tries and other items that you can likely get cheaper somewhere else. Personally, I don't have a dog in this hunt. If someone wants to have their oil changed every 5K miles, go for it. If you want to run 93 octane in a car that only require 87 octane, that's fine too. It's your money, spend it how you choose.
Went to Mini of Ramsey in New Jersey (https://www.miniramsey.com/) and had my first 10,000 mile oil change. Got in and out in 45 minutes flat. They changed the oil and did a full inspection and a interior/exterior wash too! I have had many new cars over the years and this brand along with this dealership has been my best experience by far. Two thumbs up!
It's good to hear that you had a great experience. My interactions with my MINI dealership (MINI of Edison) have been great so far too. I'm pretty interested to see how their oil change process is (how fast).
I'm somewhat crazy since I already did a "break-in" oil change around 1500 miles. When I asked the salesperson about "break-in procedure", she looked at me like I was a fossil. I eventually saw that the MINI's break-in procedure is just "keep it under 100 mph and 6000 RPM" or something like that. Nothing about a break-in oil change, but I felt it was worth doing and somewhat fun to slide under my car.
I plan to do "mid-cycle" change around 6k (this time). I figure I'll get the free ones every 10k and add a "mid-cycle" around 5k. I'm heard that the oil timer is just based on miles so it should affect my free oil changes if I do my own.
Originally Posted by USA-RET
I was always a believer in more frequent oil changes (being a "boomer" and having my first in 1967) , but have since changed my opinion. New synthetic oils can and do last far longer than regular oils did/do. I have not heard of any car having an engine failure because the owner followed the recommended oil change interval. Car dealers have a vested interest in servicing and fixing cars as that is where they make most of their money (not on sale price of the new car -unless you include the add-ons they sell and the financing they offer). So convincing someone that coming in for more frequent services puts more money into the dealership's pockets. More frequent visits also allows them the opportunity to sell you new tries and other items that you can likely get cheaper somewhere else. Personally, I don't have a dog in this hunt. If someone wants to have their oil changed every 5K miles, go for it. If you want to run 93 octane in a car that only require 87 octane, that's fine too. It's your money, spend it how you choose.
The only rebuttal to your statement would be that the recommended maintenance is included on MINIs for the first X years. So if BMW is recommending 5k v 10k, that's a huge difference to the company.
Both my 2017 BMW M240i and 2019 Mini F56 have the same 10K or 1 yr oil change interval
I think I will err on the side of caution and get mine changed when I put 5,000 miles on it. Saving a little money, by waiting til 10,000 miles, isn’t worth it, to me.
I’ve always followed the recommendations in the owner's manual of every car I have owned and never had an issue. Of course the dealers are going to tell you to do it sooner 🙄
Far too many stories about problems following the manufacturer recommended 10,000 miles. It may be often enough. You won't be able to tell for a few years and likely until it is too late. Seems to me to be a small price for the added security.
We could all debate this till the cows come home, you can base it on 'feeling comfortable' or following the oil life monitor on the dash or if you want to do a more empirical method, send your oil out for analysis and based your changes on what the analysis says to do. While I am a general 'gearhead' most days, I am also a degree'd Engineer by day and have learned that you can generally trust numbers, so long as you don't look at them funny I have been following the engine oil analysis for my wife's and my own past 4 vehicles and each one of those has gone over 100K w/o any issues. I use Blackstone Labs for reference and use the TBN number that they report on for my main guidance. Each vehicle has been able to extend out to basically double what the 'conventional' thinking has always professed. I was certainly leery of this on the first vehicle, but went with it and haven't looked back since. Now that my F54 is out of its 3/36 free stuff, it will now get an analysis at its next oil change to see how well the oil life monitor matches to the lab results. From there the basic change interval will then be followed and monitored till I move onto another vehicle. YMMV.
Seriously though, oil change interval is such a minute topic to care about in comparison to what that oil does to build up your intake valves - Carbon Build-up is a much more serious issue that everyone should try to tackle between every 40k-60k miles. That gunk can actually limit your air flow and cause all sorts of weird idle issues. So instead of worrying about changing oil (which we should change it regularly anyways), we should really look into how often you need to walnut blast your valves and get that healthy motor going.
That gunk can actually limit your air flow and cause all sorts of weird idle issues.
Agree totally. Here are the before and after pics of the same cylinder on my 2008 R56 with 93,000 miles. I was the fourth owner. I did the walnut blast myself with the Harbour Freight media blaster. It made a big difference in performance. I hope my 2019 doesn't have that problem, but it seems like any direct injection car will have it, even with diligent oil changes. Hopefully not nearly this bad though.
Far too many stories about problems following the manufacturer recommended 10,000 miles. It may be often enough. You won't be able to tell for a few years and likely until it is too late. Seems to me to be a small price for the added security.
I'd be interested in reading some of those stories. Can you provide a link? All my searches have shown the opposite to be true.
The day I need to do a 'walnut blast' is the day I trade in my car and get a new one.
Yea...it was kind of comical. My vacuum attachment rig clogged up quite a bit and part of the time I just blasted without it. I had walnut material everywhere. It's not on my to-do list next time, that's for sure.
I have been following the engine oil analysis for my wife's and my own past 4 vehicles and each one of those has gone over 100K w/o any issues. I use Blackstone Labs for reference and use the TBN number that they report on for my main guidance. Each vehicle has been able to extend out to basically double what the 'conventional' thinking has always professed. I was certainly leery of this on the first vehicle, but went with it and haven't looked back since. Now that my F54 is out of its 3/36 free stuff, it will now get an analysis at its next oil change to see how well the oil life monitor matches to the lab results. From there the basic change interval will then be followed and monitored till I move onto another vehicle. YMMV.
