should my new clubman s have some miles on her before all new mods are added? if so what mileage. (mods being a cold air intake, exhaust, larger intercooler, lighter pulleys etc...)

 

also, will any and all of these these mods void any warranty?

 

Consider driving it through the break in period to make sure the engine runs properly before touching it.

2 cents

 

I agree with SuperModsquad, be patient. This will also give you some time to compare and contrast the differnet brands of mods.
I believe the break-in period is about 1000 mi, but is should say in your owners manual.

As far as warranty, you are generally ok for bolt on mods like CAI, intercooler, exhaust, etc. There are already some great threads on this subject, so you may want to try the search function to get more information.

Enjoy the new Clubman!

 

Your break in period "ends" at 1250 miles. During that time you should avoid revving the engine over 4,500 RPM, driving the car at constant speeds (Over 90 MPH) and go easy on the brakes and tires for the first 300 miles.

Experience the car "stock" for a little while. See and evaluate what you like and what you will prefer to improve on the car via mods.

Some dealers are more "tolerant" towards mods than others. Talk to your service advisor and find out. Dealers often use mods as a scapegoat to deny service and/or warranty coverage. In some cases this is warranted in others, it may not be.

I am a 100% stock believer, so I have never had to deal with the modding dilemma.

 

My Clubman arrives in New York this weekend. When is the first oil change due? I think the dealer said 10,000 miles, but that seems awfully long for an engine breaking in.

 

The computer adjusts the service and oil intervals according to your driving style and miles driven. The MINI uses synthetic oil, hence the long factory service intervals.

Some people like to change the oil and filter every 5K miles or in between the "free" dealer oil changes. Others follow the computer recommendation, etc.

I have owned 4 MINIs and have had intervals between 10K-15K miles with no problems.

It is up to you, really

 

Since the Clubman has the same engine as the R56 MC/MCS I assume the oil change is the same. There is a digital readout on the tach that appears when you first start the car. It displays the date and time of the next service (oil change included). It typically starts at 15,000 miles. Mine went up to 19,000 miles because I do a lot of hwy driving. It is now down to 10,000. I have about 6,500 miles on my MCS. The date readout on mine shows two years from delivery date. However, MINI will do an oil change at your one-year anniversary even if your readout has more miles/time to go.

Many here on NAM are not comfortable waiting that long between oil changes. There are a number of threads in the Coupe Talk (2207+) forum on when and how to change the oil. IMO, the important thing is to go with an oil equivalent to what the car was designed for. That is a fully-synthetic 5W-30 ACEA A3/B3 rated oil. This is what is recommended in the UK version of the owner's manual. However, because ACEA is a European standard, the USA owner's manual only requires the less stringent API SH spec. My guess is that MINI/BMW doesn't want to annoy patriotic USA customers by making them deal with European standards. It also may be because ACEA A3/A5 rated oils are not common here in the 5W-30 weight. It is easier to find it in 1W-40, but still not common. Most USA oils are ACEA A1/A5 which has a lower viscosity at operating temps -- regardless of weight.

MINI dealers carry a MINI branded Castrol that was specifically formulated for BMW and meets the ACEA A3/B3 spec. I found this to be the most economical solution for my area. My dealer sells it for $5.40 qt.

As for break-in and mods, IIRC, the break-in period is 1,200 miles. You need to keep the revs below 4,500 and speed below 90 mph. I believe that the OBC records max rpm and speed. So, if you exceed them, and there is an engine problem during break-in, the dealer can find out that you exceeded recommendations.

I agree that some dealers are more eager to find reasons to not honor the warranty. Others more tolerant of mods. However, the final word seems to come from MINIUSA. Also, there are some laws governing warranties in the USA. The general opinion on NAM seems to be that the dealer would have to show that the mod was involved in causing the problem. For example, a CAI would not void the warranty on the brakes. Whether a CAI voided the engine warranty is unknown to me and would probably depend on what went wrong.

The warranty issue is why some people stick to the Stage I JCW tuning kit, even though you get more bang for the buck from things from Alta and others.

One thing that I found interesting is that MINI felt it necessary to modify the pistons, clutch, and transmission to handle the extra boost and power of the Factory JCW (Stage II) car in spite of its modest power increases. There is a quote somewhere from a MINI spokesman saying that they felt it necessary to insure that the car maintain a 100K mile like span.

 

Thanks for the considered responses. While I have no problem following the computers recommendation for standard oil changes (I think most people are scammed into changing oil every 3000 miles), I do worry about that first change, when the real "wearing in" takes place. I guess the computer is reading break down of the oil, but I am not sure if it monitors all the machined particles floating around. I will probably change the oil at 2000 miles, then follow the computer.

 

I work for truck engine manufacturer but the processes we use are the same and even more highly refined in a high volume automotive engine factory.

In the past parts were developed with a very broad tolerance range. Today to boost performance, keep weight down, and control costs the stress tolerance range of parts has been significantly lowered.

With a few sample runs and strain gage measurements on a base part you can simulate with extreme accuracy how a part with material taken of here or there or with a thinner piston wall will react. So if you go up in HP and Torque you can quickly exceed the design spec of a part.

Particles from wear in. If you have any in a modern engine I would be surprised. The machining techniques and the automated parts washers today ensure a near clean room level of particles prior to engine assembly and with the exact tolerances of todays machines you should not see any significant metal particulates in the oil above normal wear. Each engine is cold tested (electric motor is hooked up to the output and rotates the engine parts through a series of tests) if any parts are not working exactly to spec the engine is pulled out and the issue is corrected.

There are always exceptions but with a near six sigma accuracy an engine from BMW should be spot on.

 

Actually no! The equipment needed to read the break down of oil would needed to be pulled behind the car in a trailer... No car not even F-1 can analyze the oil in real time.

Mini uses a simple formula based upon the number of tanks of gas that have been used. They had a more "sophisticated" formula or algorithm but wasn't any better than just using number of tanks of gas used so that is what they went with. More highway driving better fuel usage therefore long period between oil changes, lots of stop and go worse fuel economy thus oil change sooner...

There are threads on this either here or Bob the oil guys site. I can't recall which site, a simple search on either one should find it.


hope that helps,
~joe

 

I think people cling a little too much to old school thinking.

 

I would also recommend doing the break in period.

 

The best way may be to do a couple of MINI runs with a club in your area. I received my Clubman on the 28th of February and am over 1300 miles already

 

Damn, I got ours on Feb 27th and have only 500 miles so far

 

I got mine last week and have over 500 miles

I hope nothing goes wrong cause if the black box tells all they will see my motor has uhhhhhhhh maybe been over 4500rpm once or twice.

 

You'll be happy to know that there are no black boxes on MINIs or BMWs for that matter.

 

ClubmanS, are you sure about that? I heard that all US vehicles were supposed to have them but I also thought that meant any vehicle sold in the US. I was pretty good and only approached 4,500 a few times but I never went over. I was at about 1250 miles before I did a full throttle up the gears. I was impressed with the118 little ponies.

 

4500rpm's for the first 1200 miles? You've got to be kidding. Everything I've read is any engine should be slowly run up to redline several times during the first 1,000 miles. That way you will maximise the stretch of the connecting rods and get the most compression available from the engine, resulting in the most power over the life of the engine. I've purchased several vehicles before and done this to all of them. None have shown any negative effects of it and most have over 250k on them. Also if there is anything that could go wrong with the engine, it shoud come out in the first 1,000 miles. I bet I see near redline during the 400 mile trip home from the dealer when I pickup my clubman S.

 

Does anyone know what information is recorded in the key fob (either stored there permanently or updated as you drive the car)?

I know that the "key reader" the Service Advisors use can pull up static information like the car's VIN, and I seem to recall him getting my car's total mileage from the key fob the last time I went in for service, but does is record anything else, like top speed, or maximum engine RPMs?

 

bmw ecus do record over revs, but not necessarily max rpm, however, even if they did, there is no time stamp so it could have been done at anytimes. bmw ecus will also record what is called race condition, it triggers this when the car stay above 120mph(not sure on exact speed) for more than x seconds in a given period of time.

 

Whew,,,,, you guys had me nervous for a minute that big brother BMW was gonna know how hard I flogged the car. LOL