Mini Cooper Oil Change Warning Light

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I am considering buying a 2011 Mini Cooper. One of the issues I’m wondering about is that I have been told that the Oil Change Warning Light has to be re-set by a dealership. I don’t need the light because I always change oil at 3 K regardless of what anyone or thing says, but I don’t want to have to pay the dealer to re-set an annoying light. Right now I’m driving an '06 Civic and I can reset that myself (it’s not a light, just shows percentage of usage).

The other issue, b/t/w is what to do about a spare tire since I don’t plan to pay for new run-flats.

2

I seriously doubt that you need the dealer to reset the oil change light. There should be a right-up in your owners manual on how to do this.

3

You can either throw an extra tire and wheel in the car or just replace the run-flats with similar tires. Or never get a flat.

4

Phone up a Mini dealer service dept and ask them if you can reset it by yourself. I expect they’ll be happy to help you with this, provided you don’t ask at 4 pm on a Friday. Call up early in the day on a Monday.

5

Many of these small european “fun” cars tend to be high maintenance. And a lot of them aren’t even very reliable

Hope you know what you’re getting yourself into

6

Directions to reset the Bi-annual, brake or oil service.

7

Great! Thanks for that video knfenimore!

8

I checked and the video above and also another one on same topic are on Youtube, which is convenient, because I have a Youtube video downloader. So I now have both on a thumbdrive.

9

It would t be cheaper if u paid for dealer oil changes only when change oil light told you to do it vs your 3k mile routine.

10

Might be cheaper in the short run, but I don’t trust that long oil change business. I think it’s driven by the desire to please customers w/ less maintenance, not by the desire to take the best care of the engine. When I buy a car I want it to last 250 k.

11

Oils have improved greatly since 3000 miles was the norm (I remember when it was less than 3000!)
Consider 5000 miles.
It’s still pretty conservative compared to the 10,000 miles BMW would probably suggest without the OLM system.