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You can certainly do the battery swap yourself. No problem. I forgot to mention that I had to do that too. Luckily I have a friend who has computer software and could tell the computer about it for me... Still it took half a day to get it all done. I don't have one of those specific BMW/Mini apps yet myself as I'm still not sure what is the best one to get that isn't overkill. I highly suggest looking into that aspect for sure though.
1st purchase after th car should be a code reader. I just changed battery this week, my Schwaben took care of the replacement registration. This is about the 5th thing the code reader helped me deal with.
50 is when the warranty ran out, so 50 or 83 could hardly make a difference.
I bought ours at 50 and now about to 80-81 ironically. Mine is probably a better buy at 80+ than it was at 50 since I put in filters, fluids, plugs, battery, wheel bearings, rebuilt the CVs, thermostat, water pump, belts, and probably more.
Then get one with 40K that still has a warranty. Buying a car without a warranty is an unnecessary risk.
Got it home today, can't get a plate on it until Monday then I'll post up a picture. It was about 1.5hrs ride getting it home, I took the long way since I only have the title and can't drive it again until it's registered. No problems, everything seemed great. Maybe I thought the car was equipped with more than it is, and I'm learning that the info center is actually rather useless and annoying, but maybe I'll get it figured out in time. Fun to drive, now I have to worry the wife is going to claim it as her own.
Going off the goofy dipstick it looks like a quart low on oil right now. No oil pressure indicators or any signs of problems, but it is a little low once I learned how to read the stick. So my wish for today is to drain the oil and put something I know into it. It was just changed in November and has barely 1k on the oil in it now. So I was thinking leaving the filter in it and putting Mobil 1 in it. Right now I'm searching threads to find a suitable oil I can source locally.
I see a few others on here like Liqui Molly, which is all Rockauto.com seems to show for this car. This is my first venture into synthetic oils, all my previous vehicles have been/are strictly conventional.
For just topping up, I'm not too worried but I want to do it right when I change it. Mobil 1 has various lines of "Advanced Full Synthetic" oil. The one I grabbed for topping up says it is an improved fuel economy option. My local parts store also had what I'd call regular synthetic, high mileage/extended life synthetic, European Specification synthetic (which says approved for Porsche, Mercedes, something else). All these options were Mobil 1. Or if there's something particular I can/should order online I'm good with that.
Car shows 3100 miles to next oil change, which tells me the oil in it is 7k miles old knowing the owners trusting the 10k miles recommendation. I know choosing engine oil isn't rocket science, especially if changed at 3-5k, but I don't know these BMW motors. Fun fact, I come from a General Motors family who went black sheep to Jeep (Chrysler). I can't imagine what some of my uncles will say when they see I went foreign.
As far as oil filters, anything special? Store I was at had a Fram option only. They had K&N but not in stock. I've used both Fram and Purolator in the distant past.
FWIW, please don't think I'm being lazy. While I'm asking these questions, I'm also searching other threads for the same information.
I’ve been using Castrol edge 5w40. I’m lazy and take it to a local European auto shop for the oil changes. I was surprised how many oil change places don’t do mini’s.
0w 40 M1 European Full Syn is readily available at Wal Mart. Works great!
I just like the oil to be completely to the top of the plastic bit on the dipstick. Touching the wire. It’s slightly normal to lose some oil but not much.
Today I got to playing around with the settings. Kind of interesting for such an expensive vehicle made in 2013, and the original owners paid for a couple of good packages, how much the on board computer/big circle thing doesn't do.
I also noticed a bit of a shudder at idle when starting it up a couple of times, I chalked it up to time between the battery being kind of low and the alternator taking over. Then I noticed a bit of a hiss, under a plastic cover, just rear in the car of the big plastic intake cover. Didn't try getting in there but sure sounds like a vacuum leak and an intermittently rough idle would coincide. You can't hear the bit of a "miss" in the idle but you can feel it just sitting in the seat at idle, in Park. Curiosity made me pull the dipstick while it was running and she sure didn't like that. There must be a great deal of pressure and vacuum in different parts of this motor and she's very sensitive about having a leak (dipstick or oil fill cap removed). A Jeep wouldn't care if the oil fill plug was removed. I imagine this might have something to do with the direct injection.
The battery likes to sit at 12.5 volts when not running. 14.7 volts while running so alternator is working well. When off and I hold the high beam headlights on a minute, I'll get the warning for battery being depleted. Give it a couple of minutes and battery is back up to 12.5 volts.
I've seen a couple of links to preferred scanners, thanks to those that posted them in this thread. One contributor to this thread states his buddy had software to reset the battery and it took half a day. Any chance your buddy would share that software? I do controls engineering for production automotive machines, and have some software for talking to GM and Chrysler component boards with CAN, but have no idea what BMW would use. Looking into that now.
My friend used to work at BMW and hence has their proprietary software which will get you into more trouble than you'd like to be in if you don't know what you're doing. Regarding the oil, I put 5w-30 like it says right on the oil cap (Mobile 1) and a Fram filter. All come from Walmart.
2014 MC, that's ok, I ordered the unit in the link to ecstuning.com. I believe I'll go 0W-40 when I actually change it. For 2015 and 2016 when the previous owners got the oil changed, the stealership used 5w-30...but from then on used 0w-30. Not sure why they made that decision. Thoughts on using 0W-40, a few threads saying that 0W-40 is what MINI recommends if you can't get their proprietary stuff...Not sure why they feel as though the apples to apples comparison product is MINI 5W-30 = Mobil1 0W-40??? It gets cold here in Michigan, but not THAT cold, usually. The difference between 0w and 5W is very negligible for Michigan temps, but going from 30w to 40w I imagine would burden the engine and reduce fuel economy.
Got the plate on it today, her first journey to work with me will be tomorrow. Pics below. Kind of an odd duck in our Jeep family (there is one more Jeep out of frame that's going to a scrapyard this week). My Jeep, the Black one on the right, apparently doesn't like the newcomer. Today on my way home the Jeep threw a fit. Ironic that I bought a car to preserve the Jeep, and the Jeep rebels.
Last edited by jawilli6; 03-10-2020 at 06:08 AM.
Reason: Jeep pic had license plate in view, deleted.
2014 MC, that's ok, I ordered the unit in the link to ecstuning.com. I believe I'll go 0W-40 when I actually change it. For 2015 and 2016 when the previous owners got the oil changed, the stealership used 5w-30...but from then on used 0w-30. Not sure why they made that decision. Thoughts on using 0W-40, a few threads saying that 0W-40 is what MINI recommends if you can't get their proprietary stuff...Not sure why they feel as though the apples to apples comparison product is MINI 5W-30 = Mobil1 0W-40??? It gets cold here in Michigan, but not THAT cold, usually. The difference between 0w and 5W is very negligible for Michigan temps, but going from 30w to 40w I imagine would burden the engine and reduce fuel economy.
Got the plate on it today, her first journey to work with me will be tomorrow. Pics below. Kind of an odd duck in our Jeep family (there is one more Jeep out of frame that's going to a scrapyard this week). My Jeep, the Black one on the right, apparently doesn't like the newcomer. Today on my way home the Jeep threw a fit. Ironic that I bought a car to preserve the Jeep, and the Jeep rebels.
I totally get where you are coming from. I have been working on my mini and neglecting wives escape. So now I’m going to have to spend a weekend on the escape hoping the mini doesn’t get jealous.
I totally get where you are coming from. I have been working on my mini and neglecting wives escape. So now I’m going to have to spend a weekend on the escape hoping the mini doesn’t get jealous.
Yeah I mean you are not spending the $30K+ they costed new, so it certainly a lot of car.
To clarify before - nothing wrong with runflats, but youll probably ask yourself why you left them on if you ever replace them. One of those things where "you dont know what you dont know". Might as well live in ignorant bliss until the nice Pirellis wear out. I just carry a plug kit and a compressor. I figure if its worse than that, Ill make due or eat a tow. Id rather plug a regular tire and get going than be limited to 50 miles or 50 mph...whatever the runflat rules are. If I am lucky enough to plug it I could in theory make it hours home, vs. just to safety haha. Its all a crapshoot right?
Lastly....we see about 20-low 20's MPG out of our '13 All4S auto, but my wife drives it like she is in the Italian Job...so YMMV. Might see 30 cruising the freeway, but I wouldnt count on way high MPGs. It feels like we get gas a lot, but then it fills at less than 13 gallons (for us typically), so then it doesnt feel so so bad.
I'm Italian and I drive mine like I'm in the Italian Job too!
I liked my runflats...they were just heavy and I wanted to get 17" wheels to deal with the rough road stuff.
Its a fun car. These guys keep complaining about maintenance but it seems its not any worse than my 18 year old BMW e46. Just keep up the regular maintenance.
I just bought mine in Nov. 2019. I liked my run-flats except they were heavy and I wanted to change the rims to 17" for rough roads.
Cool fun car.
One would imagine the maintenance between the BMW and Mini might be similar. Their comments about maintenance might've been in reference to different car family manufacturers. Example, you won't need to replace a high pressure fuel pump on a gasoline Jeep because one doesn't exist.
I've only got a week on my new to me Mini and so far my only complaints are a lack of remote start and.....the ride quality, which I assume does come in part from the run flats. Well ok, and the antenna which stinks at keeping clear FM reception.
03-06-2020 | 01:26 PM
