Well, shortly after i bought my mini back in april 08, i noticed that the car made a "diesel engine" type noise. I know its the cold chatter or whatever, so i didnt put much attention to this until the surfacing answers saying that it may be the belt tensioner.
I took my car to the dealer yesterday, because i thought it was the first service, aparently it wasnt... it currently has 15k kms.. and the guy said it was due until another 14k kms. So i was like ok, but il just leave it so you guys can take a look at the noise and see if you can fix it or w/e.
I told him that maybe my engine was making that cold chatter noise cuz it was missing oil; we checked the oil level and sure enough the marker showed almost no oil at all, (you know how the oil thingy is with 2 small ball looking markers) and the oil was way bellow that barely even noticable.

Strange thing is my car didnt say it was low on oil. (not sure if it even has a sensor).
So i just told them to do the oil change anyways.
BUT heres my question... i know a car uses up some oil with use, but my car is roughly 10 months old.. and for it to be so low on oil is probably not normal. Ive never had an oil change before this one, and i never see oil where the car sleeps.

SO i was thinking that maybe this oil that is missing should be covered by the warranty or something, because im 90% sure that the amount of oil left in the engine bay was not normal.

He called me today saying he wanted to have it in one more day so he could turn it on in the morning while its cold, i told him about what i had read here in NAM about the belt tensioner thing, and he concurred that it may be that, but he wasnt certain.

Im just hopeing i can get my car back for the weekend i love it. Also what are you guys thoughts about the amount of missing oil in my car?

btw, i live in mexico (monterrey) if that helps at all.
thanks ahead of time.

 

The only "sensor" is for low oil Pressure and by that time, damage has been done.

You are supposed to check your dip-stick for low oil level periodically and damage from low oil level would not be covered by warranty.

A properly broken-in MINI should consume no oil, check for a gasoline odor on dipstick oil as evidence of never-seated rings.

If rings were not 'seated' during early break-in, you could have an oil-burning MINI now.

 

well, so your saying that if my car was not properly broken in.. then its gona be going through liters of oil regularly?

so basically what your saying is that the warrant wont cover either the cost of the oil, or the damage to the engine (if there is in fact damage).

il check the odor of the dipstick tomorrow and hope it doesnt smell like gasoline...

thanks for the help

 

Depending on when the last time was you checked you oil, you may just be seeing the results of somewhat-normal heavy oil consumption from when the car was new.

My wife's MINI went through a little over a quart in the first 5,000 miles, but hasn't need any top-offs between oil changes since then. Mine was similar, burning through about a quart during the first 5,000 miles, but I've never needed to top mine off between oil changes since then, and I've got 50,000 miles on the car now.

 

well, it has roughly 15k kms (9.5k miles), and i havent done anything to the oil exept i checked it like 3 months ago and it seemed low, but i wasnt sure on how to read it, if it was supposed to be cold, or hot, or running or w/e.
so i just let it be, then when we checked it yesterday i left it standing for about 5 mins, i had just used it for 15mins, then we checked the oil and it was barely on the tip of the dipstick, not even on the minimum little marker.

i hope its not going to be a oil burner, or anything else.

 

I have never heard of normal oil consumption. Maybe in the seventies or earlier. Check for leaks underneath or white smoke out of the exhaust.

 

let the car sit longer, the turbo is still cooling down after you stop the engine for up to 5 minutes. it runs oil through it to cool it after you shut down . make sure the level is in between the two metal ***** on the stick.

 

Actually, oil consumption is not at all unusual. Most manufacturers have acceptable limits. For example, "burning" 1 quart of oil every 3,000 miles can be considered normal. Really not that unusual. Usually when I obtain a new (or nused car), I'll check oil levels weekly for a few weeks to gauge whether or not it is a significant oil "burner". Some do, some don't. I agree that more modern cars have fewer problems with this, making yours sound excessive. I'd ask what MINI considers "normal" oil consumption. Your problem makes the point that with people allowing their cars to go longer intervals between oil changes, they should keep a closer eye on it. Hoping they take good care of you and your car...
Greg

 

Yes that is exactly what he is saying. And it is the truth. You see when you have a new cylinder wall and the rings around the piston are trying to seat to them you will get some "blow by" until the rings seat. I will attempt to explain this to you. Most pistons have three rings, one is a compression ring, one is an oil ring, and the last is a scraper ring. The compression ring holds compression when the piston come up to compress the air and gasses during combustion, this is what forces the piston down (along with the eventual momentum of the crank shaft) and makes the power you feel when you press the throttle. This ring must "seat" to the cylinder wall. Meaning it must wear in such a way that nothing gets by it. Durning break in some oil will pass by this ring and get burned; it is normal. If the ring doesn't seat during break in it will always allow oil to get by and get burned every other time it comes up and goes down. And you figure RPMs is how many times this thing is going up and down that can equal to alot of oil being burned in a motor that has rings that have not seated. The next set of rings are the oil rings they oil down the cylinder wall to cool and lubricate the cylinder so that your pistons can go up and down with out excess friction. The last set of rings is the scraper, it scrapes excess oil back down the cylinder wall and drips back in the oil pan to ensure your cylinder walls are not over oiled. I can help break this down further if this makes no sense to you. I am not being a smart @ss I am just trying to help you under stand what is being told to you.

 

Engine58,

They've changed the dipstick since yours was built. There are no longer any metal *****...now it's orange plastic shaped somewhat like a bowling pin. The color was cleverly chosen to make any oil on the dipstick invisible.

 

I wouldn't worry too much yet. All we know is that after the first 9,500 miles, your oil is showing about a quart low, and we're not even 100% positive that the oil level was all the way up to the "full" mark when you took delivery.

Running a quart low isn't enough to cause damage, and you're now past the "break in" period when it's not uncommon for the MINI engine to burn up to a quart of oil, so I would just top the oil off to the "full" mark and keep an eye on it from now on.

 

Mine have not had to top up oil in 28,000 miles.
(3 oil changes, 1 by dealer, 1 by me)

I would keep an eye on this (as suggested above).

My personal opinion is that "BMWs" are not supposed to burn oil.
I've had a nice one that used zero oil at 130k miles, and a clunker
one, that didnt use as much as you have lost at 130k miles.
I have a honda with 250k miles that uses less oil than you describe.
(much less)

My opinion is also that the only modern cars that claim
a significant amount of oil use is "normal" are companies that
have yet to be able to build cars that don't use oil.
(VW in particular, I am sure there are others)

 

My '07 Cooper S has about 28k and it used about 3/4 quart of oil the first 15k and has not used a drop of oil since. I also have the 'cold start clatter' periodically but I really think oil usage was due to break-in. I've had 2 oil changes since ownership.

 

it actually circulates water, not oil.

 

My '06 325i pretty consistently went through a quart every 4,500 miles. I thought that was pretty odd, but the dealer indicated the manufacturer was not concerned until it went below about 2,500 miles. They offered to top it off for free, whenever it was needed.

There was an electronic dashboard test you could run at will which would display a graph, so there was an alternative to checking the dipstick. Plus as soon as it was a quart low, an idiot light would come on.

I just made sure a had a quart of Synthetic in my garage, as it wasn't worth a round trip fifteen mile drive to have a quart of oil put in. I could afford the $5 that it cost me at WalMart.

 

ok guys i get my car back today, thanks for the feedback.
but im stil uncertain if i should talk to the dealer and say the oil itself should be covered by warranty.

also like someone said, i also believe that my engine may have not been topped of correctly when i got it, so that also is not my problem but the dealers.

im going to try and talk with the dealer im not sure if he will make me pay the price of a full service (im not even sure if the service is free or not).
so what do i do?????

to pay or not to pay ?

 

Just as a reminder, from this point onward, you should check it often and make sure it not continuing to consume oil.

Not sure what kind of maintenance warranty you have in Mexico but you can always try to have it covered. You should read your manual so you know. It may be different from the US.

 

Well i went to the dealer today as planned (5 minute car ride from my house)
and the guy was being a good sport, i was talking about how all the NAM fellas helped me out and what not.
i told him about the cold chatter that it was the chain tensioner, and he said that they recorded a sound from the engine and sent it to idk where and they said the noise was "normal" so they didnt do anything about that.

turns out my car was missing 4L of oil..... so they did the first service, filter... oil, and idk what else.

it turned out to be 80 dlls for oil and 80 dlls for everything else, but i was like.."the amount of oiled the car 'drank' is too much especially since its new, and i think that the warranty should pay for this because its not fair to get a new car and have to pay whatever is bad with it"
he was being all cool, and said that they actually have a formula for determining if the car is wasting too much oil or not. he printed out a paper and it was something like

total oil (when new) - total oil after 1000kms x 0.86 (idk what)
______________________________________
i dont remeber what was over here.

point is that it is OK for a normal car to waste 0.7L of oil in 1000kms (which i think is too much.

in the end, i was like.. im not paying for oil that should be in my car in the first place, il pay for the rest of the service done to my car but not more, and he was rlly cool about it.

He even let me in on the DL, of what their policy is for cars with small problems that could turn into big ones. Basically he said, that if you take your car in for a simple thing like a pump noise, they will say its OK, if you take it again for the same thing cuz its doing more problems they say its still ok, UNTIL you either are stranded in the middle of no where, or your car wont turn on and is basically broken.

He was kinda upset they handeled it that way, but thats the way the warranty guys handle it.

all in all its good.

 

I'm really hoping you misunderstood them - if your car was really missing four liters of oil, then you only had half a liter left, which is dangerously low. In fact, it's basically empty. You should have gotten a low oil pressure warning light long before getting to that point.

And if your car really has burned or leaked 4l of oil in 9,500 miles, then you are *way* outside any acceptable definition of "normal" oil consumption.

I'd start checking your oil level every week from now on - something's wrong.

 

yea im gona check it every time when i refuel, every 500kms +-
but im not actually sure how to or when to check it.
from my understanding its:
1. a 15 minute drive at least
2. then 5-10 mins for it to cool off.
then you check it

am i correct?

btw i went to the dealer today and they lent me a JCW and WOW its just amazing the response, handling, sound everything is so much better.
i got back in my car and was like ... im not driving this thing, but then oliver (my car) reasoned with me and i decided to keep him.

 

number 2 but 10 minutes or longer. Let the oil flow back into the sump. I check mine every two - four weeks depending on whether I have the car.

Like Scott mentioned, hope it is only 1 QT down rather than 4 Qt down.

 

The dealer said mine was down a 1 quart, maybe the jerks just didnt top it off for me last change?
My Mini seems to use oil, but it doesnt smoke, not really sure where it goes.

 

well i think mine uses oil undoubtly because the tail pipes looked smoked in the lower part of the tip.
anyways i checked the oil today.
drove for like 20 mins, stoped and waited around 12 mins then i checked it. but im not sure of HOW to read it, i mean i know how to read other dipsticks but i dont understand the cooper one.

can anyone help and "read" this dipstick for me?

 

I'm pretty sure the top ferrule is "full", the middle ferrule is "one quart low", and the bottom pointed ferrule is just to guide the dipstick through the tube.

If you're having a hard time actually telling where the oil level is on the dipstick, the standard method is to lay the dipstick on a paper towel. The oil will transfer to the towel, and it will be easier to see that way.

 

...or you can just put your finger against the dipstick. That will quickly tell you where the oil level is. Anywhere between the two marks is good.