Hello all... So my 07 S came up with an engine malfunction light about a week ago. I took it immediately to the dealer and they are coming back that it is the turbo and it will not be covered under warranty. Their explanation is that the I delayed the first oil change by 2000 miles from when the light came on. The car now has 28k miles and I find it hard to believe that the turbo will malfunction after so many miles due to this first oil change. Has anyone else had this problem with problems with the turbo? My advisor told me to call MIni USA to complain with them. What do you all recommend out there? Any help or info appreciated. Thanks

 

Did you wait 2000 miles after the light came on to change your oil? Was that the first change then, at what, 17K or more?

Do you not think you have some complicity in paying for the repairs?

Most of us think 7,500 miles is stretching it a bit for an oil change, let alone 17K. Was it low on oil when you finally did change it?

I think this repair is on you, however you might consider it an opportunity to get an upgraded turbo...... Specially since they probably will also deny any internal engine repairs under the same reason....might as well go for some HP!

 

^ What he said!! +1213872498364 on a new turbo kit!!

 

I took it 2k miles after the recommended first service and it was not 17k miles. So if your saying 7500 is when the first service should be done, then it was around 9000k when I took it in. I personally do not think I should pay for the repair. I find it hard to believe that 2000 miles should not cause such problems on the turbo esp. 20k miles later. If you tell me the turbo started having problems around the time the oil was changed or shortly after then I would agreee. But 20k miles later, that just does not add up. I am looking at my manuals and do not see exactly the maintenance schedule. Is it listed somewhere? Also to add to my message, I pretty much took it about a week after the light came on to service the car. I was not following the mileage, but following when the car requested for the service.

 

There is no "Schdeule". You just have to get it done when the OBC tells you too. I see your point, about the problem not appearing after 20k. How many miles did you do between the light and the oild chainge? What was the total miles. When the light came on did you wait a week to schedule or did the deal make you wait a week?

Not a good siuation. How many miles do you have now?

 

The car has 28k. I do not know the exact mileage when I took it in since I do not have the repair papers with me. It was 2 years ago when this service was done, so I am not sure on the timeframe about scheduling, but I usually schedule the service couple of days after appearing. Also we do not drive 1k per month. Very frustrating... Let me ask this, how does the dealer determine that the oil change went 2000 miles over if there is no set maintenance schedule? Also in looking at my service report, the dealer put 3 quarts of oil in the car. This leads me to believe that in reality the car/turbo for whatever reason is consuming oil which in turn caused the turbo to be damanged. Consuming oil, or the dealer did not put the right amount the last time the car was in service. Never did we received a light about low oil in the car.

 

Good point!

Actually, I thought you were supposed to change the oil at one year or whenever the light came on? The 7,500 I mentioned is just what a lot of us use as a guidline for how often we change ours, regardless of when the light comes on. And we either pay for the extra oil changes or do them ourselves.

My guess is that it stored the info of when the light came on on the key, it's pretty easy to do the math from there......

If you only drove 9K before the first change, then I definitely see your point. Most cars get pretty close to the 15K point before the service light comes on....unless it was low on oil. It is your responsibility to check it periodically...

I don't understand the 3 quarts of oil comment. Did they change the oil or just top it up? If you ran it 3 quarts low on oil that could definitely do damage to the turbo, and other internal parts as well. Clarify this if you would, please.

I'm guessing that they decided the late service damaged the bearings and it just took this long before it showed up as damage.....still, I think I'd be talking to MINI USA on this one, what do you have to lose, right?

How much do they want to charge you for the turbo repair?

 

As far as I know, your key-fob stores all of this info.
Also you mentioned that this was approx 2 years ago. Your on board computer gives you a mileage, and a date to get your oil changed by, whichever you pass first. I'm not siding with the dealer on this one, just pointing out the facts that the dealer will use and that you failed to follow the scheduled maintenance required for the vehicle. This alone gives the dealership ammunition for fighting this case. While I am in complete agreement that your turbo should not malfunction with 28k on the car, you might have a hard time making your case. Have you tried taking it to another dealership?
However this turns out, and I'm just making suggestions here, when you first start your vehicle, you get a mileage counter for your oil change. When this reaches around 1200 miles (depending on your commute) call and make an appt. to get your oil changed this way you will be under instead of over. Almost every dealership will do the scheduled maintenance for oil change if it is within 1000 miles of being due, no questions asked.
Good luck to you!

 

They did not do an oil change. They just topped it off. There was no estimate given to me, just that the repair was not covered. The service adjuster told me straight out since this car is a lease and it expires in March, to drive it as is and if the turbo blows then to take it up with Mini USA. If turbo does not blow, then to just turn it in. I know this is not the right thing to do since once turned in, it will just come back to me. I know they are just finding something to blame and are blaming it on the fact of the first oil change. Our Mini's have been filled with long lasting synthetic oil from the factory if I recall correctly. You are right about calling Mini. I am trying to get a history report of all service so I can have all facts straight before calling anyone. Trying to get it from the dealer... I see this as a long battle. In regards to looking at the mileage counters, since I am not this car's daily driver it makes it hard. The%2

 

Your first oil change CAN be at a year if you want that (but that's not required). Otherwise it's when the light goes on (that's required). In my case that was at about 22,000 miles (when it went on for the very first time). When they change the oil/filter they use 5 qts of oil (even though that overfills it by a little bit-they say it's fine). So the 3 quart question is a good one. I'm not sure the car will notify you if it's low on oil, maybe someone else can chime in. So if you first got it serviced a couple years ago and the turbo just blew now I agree: that has nothing to do with it. Now if the car was 3 qts low on oil when the turbo blew that's an entirely different thing. Running a car low on oil might be your nickel. A better question is: why is the car 3 quarts low? That's a problem imo. There's a reason for that and it probably has to do with something seriously wrong with the car, like an oil leak. Finally if I were you I'd consider a different dealer. When the dealer accusses you of causing the problem right off the bat it's not good. The classic is the clutch malfuncion. If they right off the bat say you abused it move on.

 

The car was first serviced for the first oil change 2 years ago. The last service which included an oil change was in February of 09.

 

So the first oil change couldn't have been late because the car's probably not even 3 years old. It's not due yet because the last one was less than a year ago. You've had 2 oil changes in less than 3 years, which is more often than the car's sensor requires, for sure. So the question remains: why was the car devoid of 3 (out of 5) quarts of oil, thus ruining the turbocharger? That's the question o'day.

 

I'm confused. What was the total mileage on the car when the first oil change was done?

 

OK all I stand corrected, I think... I was finally able to get the service report history and the oil changed was performed in Feb 2009 @ 20,202 miles. I had another previous check engine light @ 11k miles and it was for a brake problem so I had things mixed up. I recall this particular service and the lights on where several, about three (brakes malfunction was one). So it has been almost 11 months since the oil change and 8k miles later. To me if turbo would malfunction due to going over on oil change, it would not happen one year later. Again I think they are just blaming this. I am still wondering as to why the 3 quarts of oil consumed, which is not normal. I am going to speak again to the service manager tomorrow if I have luck since it is such a mission to speak to the guy. If not then his GM to see what can be resolved. To me it just does not make sense. If the car can handle 18k miles, it can handle 20k.

 

Sounds like the car was due for an oil change at ~ 18k but you waited until 20k. Dealership is claiming that extra 2k miles from when scheduled maintenance should have been performed to when it actually was performed was sufficient to damage the turbo. Just didn't manifest itself until 28k. Perhaps some damage due to the late oil change is also causing an oil leak?

Sounds like technically dealership is correct. I find it a little hard to believe missing the oil change by 2k miles was sufficient to cause damage. Doesn't seem like much of a tolerance for error. Caveat would be if it were low at that point as well.

 

Here are my thoughts:
1. The service light means "Service Engine Soon", not "Service Engine Soon".
2. When I booked my appointment, the dealer did not tell me not to drive the car because that would result in void of warranty.
3. How can the mechnic determine that by delaying the oil change by 2k, would cause turbo problems?
4. Also car drove fine for almost one year and 8k miles. If delaying the oil change would cause turbo failure, it would have appeared sooner esp. with the demand the car places on the turbo.

Hopefully I am able to talk tomorrow to the service manager and will post back their feedback. Thanks again

 

To add to my issue, my biggest complain was engine chatter at startup and the engine failure light coming on. Now I am reading all over the internet that the engine chatter might be the timing belt or chain tension. Now the chatter goes away once the car warms up and is driven. I will record this chatter tomorrow morning and post the video to see what you guys think. Whats the best way to determine if the chatter is coming from the turbo, valves, timing belt, etc...? Thanks again

 

You got lucky and had turbo failure, it could have been a valve, a piston, cam shaft anything or nothing engine related. But because you went over by 2K they can blame it on that as they should. I can imagine what the oil looked like at that point, maple syrup? Just complain to Mini USA, they might let you off this time...

 

To go with what benibiker said, it could have been your vacuum pump that locked up, causing your exhaust cam to stop, breaking the cam sprocket bolt in the cam and allowing your valves to hit the pistons, also breaking the timing chain, all in all thats alot more money than a turbo; Most likely a motor if you end up footing the bill. A cylinder head and timing chain at the very least.

Now to be ON your side, I've had several turbo's that were locked up due to oil coking of the feed line that were a few miles over their last oil change, BMW denied to give me permission to replace it on the basis that it was customer abuse (going xxxxmiles over on an oil change) I continued to argue the issue with PUMA and have gotten every turbo that I needed replaced, replaced. It kind of sounds like the tech that diagnosed your turbo failure has the proverbial lack of sack and isn't up to arguing with them.

I cannot speak for your dealer, but if you're only 2k miles overdue on your oil service doesn't sound that excessive and I would argue the issue into the ground and at very least try and get you goodwill assistance.

Now let me climb up on my soapbox for a few seconds....r56 CooperS owners of the internet, you need to check your oil, regularly; either you, the clown at Schucks, or take it to the dealer, it doesn't matter, just get it checked and/or topped up. They do use oil, its just life, not uncommon in an engine.

If you are really super concerned about turbo life, inspect the bolt on the top of the turbo for leaking. That is the reason the turbo are failing. The oil becomes solid and doesn’t cool and lubricate the bearings.

 

Thanks all. I have finally spoken to the Mini Service Manager after 6-7 calls and messages left for the guy. Felt as if I was being ignored. In speaking with the guy, they didn't even look at the engine malfunction light. They mainly went by the noise that was occurring at cold startups. I told him that was insane since my main complain was the engine service light. I explained that the large noise at startup as gone away, but the engine malfunction light was still on. He asked that I take the car back to read the codes and see what is going on. What a waste of time. If the car was already there, you would think the tech would be proactive and read the codes instead of just resetting the computer. 56rfixr, I see you point and glad to hear that there are still techs out there that would go the extra mile and argue to try to help the customer. Even if the oil was maple syrup as benibiker said, it is the mileage that Mini allows for these engine to go before needing an oil change. There has to be some overage mileage allowed by the time the service request lamp comes on. As I said, the light says Service engine soon, not service engine now. Either way, taking it back now to see what the codes read... Will post back. Thanks

 

I have no problem arguing to get a car fixed under warr when its a known issue,Not sure what is wrong with the dealers in your area but I dont get paid to tell you no, I get paid to fix your car, period (or at least try)

 

Please identify the sackless (and clueless) dealer.

 

Sounds like you are kinda screwed.....but you at least took part in it. Lets face it, you were pretty darn late getting the oil changed...not so excessive that it is crazy....but close to the edge. In addition to this it sounds like you were not checking your oil like you should have been. To me it sounds like when the dealer "topped off my oil" it was so low they made a note in the service history of the car to watch for oil starvation related issues. Then you took the car in 2000 miles late....oil might have been very low then too...perhaps enough that they recorded it again. So when you turbo started having issues....the dealer looked at the history and said..NO COVERAGE, Warranty VOIDED due to driver failing to check the oil and late oil changes Sounds to me like most drivers could have seen this coming!! Sorry, but time for a turbo upgrade or replacement.....hope the rest of the motor is OK....... I do feel for ya....but you drove 2000 miles with the light/dispaly saying maintenance required...that is about 2 months....plus the countdown leading to the due time (when the dealer would have done it)....about 2 weeks plus...so you had a 3 month time that you ignored an issues with your car...under Warranty!! Perhaps the dealer will split the cost with ya.....but I doubt they will pay 100%.......

 

I don't think the average Mini owner is car-savvy enough to check the oil level between the "scheduled" changes. It's a wonder low-oil related problems aren't more common.

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that's what happened in this case.

 

Just got back to the dealer. The manager clarified why the oil was used since the previous advisor failed to do so. It was not that the car was low on oil, but they actually used three quarts to run it through the turbo to clean out the lines. With that said, he took the car to the tech area to read what the engine malfunction light was all about. He came back 30 minutes later with the car and said the error was cleared and it was due to a cold start misfire from the car. I told him I was not convinced... As I drove away, the car had no pickup/power. I drove it a bit more and the light came back on. Made a U turn and took it back and just left it there for them to further research why this light is coming on. Regarding the mileage driven, I can easily drive 1k miles in one week visiting two county ports. Dealer is South Motors in Miami, Fl...