Chances are, if the filter was left on, the oil will get dirty VERY quickly. Look at the filter (which, I realize is not as easy as on other cars) and see if it's new. Of course, the oil being dirty after you drive a while will not get any action from the dealer. Obviously, this advice is intended for the future. As a matter of habit, I check before leaving the place where I had the car serviced. I have had a place intentionally not change the filter, although they charged me for it (not a Mini).

 

where is the filter located and can i see it without having to lift up the car? i want to be able to check right at my dealer after a change.

BTW the leak im having is coming from the front right (from the point of view as if you were sitting in the car looking out) side about 1-1/2 feet in from the wheel and 1-1/2 feet in from the front. i can actually see the oil dripping off of what looks like a stainless steel box.

 

They couldnt change the oil right how do you think they'll do with an engine swap ! Have a nice day .
The SA said they have a kit for each car with the right amount of oil ,so either they left the old filter on or they didnt drain all the old oil out , both would suck .

 

Not to mention, if it needs a new engine because the dealer screwed up the oil change, I doubt Mini would reimburse the dealer for warranty work on it. How dedicated do you suppose they would be to taking the time to do it right?

 

My guess none dedicated .

 

"where is the filter located and can i see it without having to lift up the car? i want to be able to check right at my dealer after a change."

 

The filter is located under your radiator water resevoir. Right in front.

 

wow i'm really sorry that so many mini owners have had such horrible experiences with their service departments.

as a mini tech, i try my hardest to repair a car properlly and quickly, always remembering that i have been on the other side of the service counter and have been treated very badly many times before.

i take great care when working on minis and there will always be accidents, the only thing is how you go about taking care of those issues and keeping the customers satisfaction as the primary goal. i even drove 25min. out of my way after work, to drop off a ladies purse that i had removed from the boot of a r53 while looking for a battery draw... she was really happy that i saved her the 1 1/2 hours to drive back, she even gave me a soda.

but it was my mistake and i took the responsibility and did what i had to do...
hopefully everyone here can find an honest shop that will do the same for them, either dealer or independent.

 

In the case of Crevier Mini I do not feel it is their technicians fault because it seems the dealership has a policy of it sounds normal, or it should do that. It is also not the techs fault my car got dented. If you take your car in for a repair and they don't even start on it for 3 days and it takes them 2 weeks to fix the car the likely hood of denting the car increases.

Before my R56 I had an R53. I had a major mechanical issue and Crevier Mini had it in 2 times and said could not duplicate and they had the car for a total of 2 weeks but they only worked on it when they had time because I would call daily and they would say we have not worked on it today. I picked it up and took it to Long Beach Mini. They fixed it by the following day installing a new steering rack and the problem went away.

DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR TO CREVIER MINI IN SANTA ANA IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVE.

 

Irvine Mini is closer to me I'll try them next time .

 

about 3 months ago a new Manager took over the Mini department and brought in a new team. I just know that many of my club members SCMM did not like Irvine and would not go there but when the new team came in they have given Irvine another try and all have been happy so far. No promises from me but I don't see how it could be worse.

 

as a former vw, porsche and bmw owner - i'll chime in here

1. believe it or not - i had great experiences with vw service - go figure (also really never had any probs with either of my vw's (02 Jetta, 03 NB)

2. porsche - kinda got a taste of what it's like to own an expensive car and get pampered (although the real pampering was reserved for the carerra owners!). in the 4 short months that i owned a brand new P987 I had it in P-service at least 6 or 7 times! In the last 6 weeks i owned it, it was at 2 different dealers 4 times for the same issue (the very un-resolved issue that translated into my trading it in and getting my bmw)

interestingly enough - when taking it to dealer where i bought it (Hoen -Carlsbad) i actually had to pay for a loaner (a mazda - can you f*&king! believe that!). but if i took it to my local dealer (Walter's - Riverside) i'd get a free rental car (usually a maxima with opportunity to upgrade to mercedes for 15/day).

here's the thing - porsche service just as shitty as any1 else. i had one dumbsh!t who probably owned a 92 chevy astro that he shared with his 14 other couZins and 42 kids who actually asked me on a service drive if i had ever owned a porsche before because the vibration that i was describing was the "subtle nuance of a hand built car!" i was surprised he could say all that in english! i laughed at him and then asked if it was built into the car, why didn't it come with the car for the first 3000 miles and how did they plan to compensate me for that "hand built" experience that i missed for the first 3000 miles of ownership - he called me as ***!

on a second occassion, after determining that 3 of my 4 original $450 tires were "defective" simultaneously (again the car had barely 3000 miles on it) - i was told the car must've just got a bad batch of tires at production. when i laughed and said that i don't think that happens with 3 tires (maybe 1 tire) and further requested them to look more closely at the suspension as a cause of my pesky vibration and now defective tires - i was told that would waste the dealer's time and that i should be happy that they're willing to replace the tires for me. this kind of crap went on for a while - so rather than lose my appreciation for porsche - i got rid of the car (it still hurts, tho)

3. bmw - ok - car had 100,000 mile warranty and maintenance. bought in newport (to far to go for routine maintenance!) so went to riverside most of the time. always had to pay for loaner car (who made the frickin rule that b/c you didn't buy here....blah blah blah). so, this car was a dealer exec car with only 13k miles - never titled, so technically i was first owner. got it on a friday night. driving home i found out that one of the xenon's was out (low and high beams). so, saturday morning drove back to newport and was told that service couldn't fix part that day (so i get to drive car for a week or so with headlight out and possible risk of ticket!). the following monday i take it to riverside b/c it's closer and this is obviously a warranty issue (xenon's should last a hell of a long time!).

after sitting in service lounge for an hour, the manager comes out and says we can't fix part cuz you didn't buy car here. i was like - it has factory warranty and maintenance. manager says headlight is not working cuz it's missing the xenon bulb/housing unit. WHAT!? so, i get car back, and immediately head for newport - on the phone to the sales manager and service manager.

get to newport and i actually get accused of stealing the bulb/housing unit and get the runaround about maybe they won't cover this under warranty. i'd owned the car for 3 days at this point. i was (perhaps a little inappropriately) like - uh, why don't you talk to one of your vato service techs who probably stole it to buy new exhaust bomb for his 91 sentra sports machine! sometimes being an ******* actually gets you what you want - although one shouldn't have to be like that when you buy a new car (and, it shouldn't matter if it's a $15k civic or a $45k lexus!). at least i got a free rental for the next week while they ordered and replaced the parts!

ive heard lexus has the best service - too bad they don't make a bitchin little sports car!

after reading this thread it makes me wonder if it's worth it to purchase the extended warranty on my MCS before the factory 4yr/50k warrantly expires

 

If you've read my posts you'll see I don't even take my car in for warranty repairs. I just pay for it out of pocket. I don't have time to deal with the dealer BS.

An extended warranty sounds like more headache than it's worth .

 

I had the same problem. The dealer thought that it might be the water pump pulley, replaced the pump and the noise went away!

 

was wondering, if you did your first oil change by yourself, can you still get the 2nd one under warranty?

or does warranty expire if you do it yourself? wait... can you even change your oil under warranty? (new guys to cars.) read somewhere in the owners guide that it was covered or something... hm..

 

Pretty offensive, amigo.

 

You can do as many "do it yourself" oil changes as you wish. Just don't reset the service interval counter. That way, you'll still get the "free" dealer services when they come due.

A lot of owners change their oil themselves right in the middle of the computer-recommended interval.

 

only offensive if you're a vato or if you stole the headlight unit outta my bmw - amigo!

 

It's too bad that you feel that disparaging an entire culture of people with such comments are both appropriate and welcome here. It really takes away from the story you were attempting to tell and paints another picture altogether.

 

Your racist period/ this is a gen 2 thread and I'm prejudice so go back to your Gen 1 forum where you belong.

 

ok - it's a gen 1 car world anyway...

 

Can we get this thread back to hating Mini service ? Thank you .

 

Precious! I love to hear the crap dealers come up with to explain things away. I, too, have owned numerous BMWs and found their SAs were the most "creative" at explaining away problems.

Still, my wildest experience was with my Toyota LandCruiser, where the dealer spent 2 months (!?!) trying to isolate a vibration in the front end. Turned out it was nothing but a bad wheel, which Toyota quickly replaced under warranty. Why they played around trying to find other reasons is beyond me...

 

Crevier BMW is in my neck of the woods, but my Mini is from Irvine BMW. Talk about a horrible trip. I took my car in for the first service ever. I was the second owner but it was still under warranty. The first owner was my neighbor so it was always kept up very well.

I took it into IRVINE Mini/BMW and i requested to get the seat fixed since it had disengaged from the recliner mechanism.

They decided hey! while your here lets change the oil and all other fluids since its under warranty. I said ok. Well i pick it up same day later on and im driving home through the 241 toll lanes and all of a sudden i see my engine is over heated. So I pull over and im in the middle of no where. As i stop my engine is steaming and being a young driver at the time i thought it was on fire! I call mini irvine right away and tell them i am 20 min away from your dealership where you just worked on my car and it over heated. So they tell me ok well you have to call road side assistance and have them come pick it up. 2 hrs later i get a tow.

So i get it towed into the dealership and of course the MINI service person is on lunch !!!!! and i sit there for ever waiting for her to come back. Well I am told they will call me too see what happened. They had the nerve to tell me did you work on the engine between the time i left and when it was serviced. I ask for a ride to the local mall to wait for my parents to come pick me up. 1 hr and 30 min later my parents show up to the dealership because the shuttle never came to take me anywhere!

4 days later the car was fixed due to the coolant screw not being replaced after it had been worked on. I get it back and look at the engine and its still full of coolant all over the engine so i tell them to clean it and they refuse to. After this i never took it back and never will go back to that dealership.

So far i have done all the work myself on it with the help with good ole Bentley manual. Does anyone know of a non-dealership service shop around orange county riverside area?? In case i need major work done.

 

One of the problem is that the customers view techs in such a degrading manner. You guys EXPECT that the techs are bunch of uneducated grease monkeys who don't know how to fix anything. Think about this:

Techs work on about avg of 8-15cars a day(depending on what type of jobs). It's alot of cars, and techs do not get paid per hour, they get paid PER job(flat rate system which is the main culprit for such shoddy service IMHO). So basically faster you work, more $ you make. And at times you will have cars that will not cooperate and will take forever to figure out.

Trust me, when you have a car that has strange problems, that is hard to duplicate and pinpoint, its not that the techs don't want to repair it. Techs actually want to repair a car and get it out as fast as possible. Problem is that there's alot involved with repair of a vehicle. Some parts require authorization by BMW/MINI to replace, and that process can take a few days, sometimes even up to a week or more. In the meantime they might have other cars with insane problems, that need their attention.

Any car that takes more than an hr or so to diagnose, its eating away at their pay. Techs generally lose money the longer they keep the car. Imagine clocking a 50hr week, but only getting paid for 30hrs. Yes, that happens. Perhaps too often. But also on the flipside, some may clock 50hrs, but get paid for 80hrs. So it depends, and that's where I find fault with the flat rate system that pushes techs to care more about quantity than quality in order to pay the bills.

I've known alot of techs personally, and know all the MINI techs at Crevier personally. They're good guys, and good techs. Yes, they do make mistakes here and there, as they're human. Dealing with the pressures of trying to make $, keeping deadlines, making customers happy, is not an easy task. It's a high stress job, that most people don't give them enough credit for.

So don't disregard them as mere "grease monkeys" who don't know what they're doing or talking about. They are properly trained and skilled and can fix it better than you can.

There are different types of customers who respond differenty to situations. Some may flip out over overfilled oil, while some may not see it as a huge deal, and just have them drain a bit out. Some may flip over a rattle, and some may not even care. It really depends on the person. MINI owners tend to be a bit on the **** side, and more picky so there tends to be more difficult problems that are harder to diagnose and duplicate.

I'm not excusing Crevier, or techs for the mistakes they make. They make a mistake, they should fix it. I do not condone denying anyone their factory warranty, as that is against BMW policy. What you have to realize is that there are actual PEOPLE fixing those cars, and not little elves working with magic wrenches. These people have bills to pay, they get angry, disappointed, and are very aware of the comments you guys make.

Before you launch into a tirade condemning all techs to hell for screwing up your car, think about what you're doing. Put yourself in their shoes and see how it feels. And CSI scores DO hurt the techs alot, and means a great deal. There's nothing worse than having a perfect or close to perfect CSI score for the whole month and at the very end, some guy decides to give all 4's or 3's because he thought the service was "okay". That ruins it.

Above all, best way to get good service is to be patient and understand that they're people. Screaming at your advisor or swearing at the techs stating how incompetent they are will only alienate them and will make them not want to work with you and your car. Be nice, be patient, and give them a chance to fix their mistake.