I am coming up on my 4th ann. with my mcs. I am going to change coolant, any body got any preferences? What about using Redline water wetter/

 

im going to let my dealer take care next year... so dealer fluid in mine.

 

If you do it yourself, I would advise using distilled water to keep the calcium out of the system. I also like conventional green stuff and keeping it flushed and changed every two years. I realize that doing early maintenance and preventative maintenance on Minis is not a popular subject on this site, sorry.

YD

 

I flushed mine last year and used Prestone All Makes All Models. It's phosphate/silicate free just like the OEM fluid. If your worried about brand, just buy some at the dealer. Adding some Water Wetter in the mix is just fine. Several of us run it without issues.

 

I agree.....use a name brand coolant with the water wetter. I have used water wetter for years in all of my cars with no problems at all. I also flush all of my cars every two years.

Don't know why you would say early and preventative maintanence is frowned on around here YD?

 

I certainly didn't mean to cause any hard feelings, I suppose I should refrain from letting my personal comments out, but my comments were caused by all the posts that I read that say:

Reagarding oil changes, "the BMW engineers surely know what they are doing and anyone who changes their oil sooner than the service counter indicates is wasting their money". This just flies all over me. How can anyone spend 20K or more and not do the one maintenance item that is the most important thing I feel will bring them a long service life is beyond me.

I suppose I just answered my own question. It appears a lot of people are really not concerned with long service life. If you don't keep a car past 60-70K miles, I guess it doesn't matter. Just drive it and if it fails, well that is the way it is... go buy another one. Just not my way of thinking.

I'm an old dude and have taken apart far too many engines and have see the crud and the sludge and the grit and grime and the damage that could have been so easily prevented. I'm going out on a limb here and don't say this to cause a rage of comments, but I wonder how many people who say they only change their oil every 10K or 15K or whatever have ever looked inside and engine of any sort, let alone seen the damage from those wonderful extended oil change intervals.

OK, I said it, I guess now I should brace for the onslaught of opposing comments. I'm ready, I'm holding my oil drain pan up as a shield, please don't aim low, hehe.

YD

 

LOL

I am with you YD. Change my oil with Mobil 1 every six months regardless of mileage (I average about 4 to 6K between changes). Have been doing that for over 20 years, and don't regret a moment of it.

The onslaught may come, but we have the defense of knowing that we don't consider it a "waste".

 

Yeah, those of us who want to keep the MINI for a while tend to keep up with those other maintenance items. I also change my oil every 9 months (usually 6-8k miles) with Mobil 1. Since I do quite a bit of highway driving and the oil always gets a chance to warm up, I feel more comfortable with longer intervals. I'll also be putting in some Redline MTL in as well. Coolant and brake fluid are the other two that need to be kept up with.

 

May be in the minority but I agree with you 100%. (I know this is an old topic)

BTW: in case you have not heard it before..."A CAR IS THE WORST INVESTMENT YOU WILL EVER MAKE IN YOUR LIFE" ...not considering the fun factor!

People only think about the oil breaking down...ever looked at the crud in the filter? I usually do not keep a car that long...but still do my oil every 3-4000 mi. or at 6 months, whichever comes 1st..cheap insurance! After 50,000 mi...does Mini or the other manufacturer's with these extended "free" services even care...NOT!!! They are off the hook!

 

I'm relatively new on this forum, but I'm not new to maintenence. I was confused when I first started reading posts in here about how people would intentionally wait till the factory specified oil change period. I'm 24 and my Father instilled "maintanence on-time, every time!" into me at a young age. we still have a 1992 Chevy Blazer that he used for years to do work in. It's seen nothing but Mobil-1 it's whole life, and the engine has 396,000 miles on it currently. It fires up and runs strong with no smoking. Its long since been retired as the "work horse" vehicle, but it's still dependable as always.
That being said I will change MY oil at ~5k miles with Synthetic only. I have rebuilt engines (BMW mainly) and there is a distinct difference between engines that have had their oil changed at the quickie-lube shops, and ones that have had good oil put in them (especially notable on the valve train). Just wanted to say "your not the only one who thinks this way".

Josh F.

 

Back to coolant changes, the factory coolant has stop leak in it. It smacks of GM design team, but I will probably stick with the BMW leak plugging junk.

There has to be a reason the factory puts it in there.

 

If you have ever rebuilt and engine and when you finally get ready to fire it up.... you fill it will all the fluids. Invariably, you will will find some sort of small coolant leak somewhere, maybe just a seep from a hose clamp or fitting that is small.

Consider that every manufacturer assembles and starts up 1000s of new engines every day on the assembly line. They all add some sort of stop leak to the coolant so they don't have to deal with hundreds of tiny drips and seeps.

The GM Dexcool has been a large disaster. Apparently, the chemistry of Dex doesn't like any Oxygen in the system. There are class actions suits about the sludge and corrosion caused by Dexcool. Many trace the problem back to ill fitting and malfunctioning radiator caps that let Oxygen into the system and mix with the coolant when the engine cools. Reportedly, Dexcool has solved the Oxygen incompatability issue... don't know for sure.

Five year coolant is just another way manufacturers are meeting the EPA Live Cycle Pollution Regulations. Less coolant dumed into the environment. Too bad that Dexcool has caused a bunch of radiators and intake manifolds and engines to be dumped into the landfills long before they otherwise would have been..

Same for the extended oil change intervals. Less used oil going into the waste oil system gains manufacturers EPA brownie points.

YD

 

If the coolant is orange, drain it yesterday. It is the biggest scourge on the planet, it eats aluminum engine parts and will destroy your engine. GM has been using this crap under the trade name DexCool for years and their problems are endemic but they are too bull-headed to admit they screwed up.
Type in "DexCool" in Dogpile Search and see how many thousands of negative posts come up. Drain out the garbage, put in the green and change it every 2 yrs, your MINI will thank you profusely. My Cobalt , purchased brand new, had it too and I flushed it all the first chance I had.

 

Not being argumentative, but I must say I have seen more posts slagging on the inadequacy of the Scheduled Service Intervals than anything else. I get the impression many around here change their oil every 5000 miles.

 

Y'all may want to look at the OP's date. This thread is 5 years old :D

 

Tee hee.

Five years later and antifreeze/coolant is still being debated.

The OP's MINI was totaled in '07, but he bought another.