My wife just purchased a new mini. We would like to know how often the oil should be changed. I believe the manufacturer's recommendation to the earlier of 10,000 miles or 12 months. My wife uses the car locally and in an average year drives 6,000 miles. Do you recommend sticking to the manufacturer's recommendation?

 

Actually it's 15k or yearly I change at 5k and if still in warranty let the dealer change the 3rd one

 

Actually according to my car's readout my first oil change was at about 20,000 miles. After I took it in (19,000 plus miles) and they updated the computer it looks like my oil changes will now be at about every 10,000 miles. By the way I did make my first oil change at 10,000 miles but did not reset the computer so maybe the oil monitor is smart enough to detect clean oil versus dirty oil.

 

I guess I need to start reading the owners manual!! 15K before changing the oil?? I know its synthetic, but I'm used to changing my Infinity every 3k or so. This is my daughters car but doing the Dad thing and getting involved and helping her with the mantainance.

 

Actually I have about 36,000 miles (one oil change so far) and the monitor says 4,000 to next oil change so if I go by the monitor the oil would be changed every 20,000 miles!

 

Confusion rules!