Regular Mini Cooper oil change is a must to prevent damaging your vehicle’s engine.
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Over time of use, the engine’s oil gets contaminated, and the engine’s filter gets clogged. If your Mini Cooper’s engine is running on low oil, the engine’s moving parts can wear out against each other, resulting in a lot of heat due to friction. The higher the heat, the higher your engine’s temperature, and thus, the higher the risk for engine damage.
This article provides you with all the information you need to perform a Mini Cooper oil change by yourself if you have the required mechanical skills. Furthermore, we provide information about expected costs for a Mini Cooper oil change when you do it yourself or if you had the job done at a repair shop.
Mini Cooper oil change
To perform a Mini Cooper oil change, you need to prepare certain tools, parts, follow specific steps for draining the oil, replace it with a new one, and reset the oil change light.
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Required tools
Before you get started with the oil change, you need to prepare the following
- Required parts for a Mini Cooper oil change
- An oil filter. Refer to the vehicle’s owner’s manual for more details about what filter you need to use.
- A drain plug one-time cooper crush washer OEM Gen2 R55-R61
- Appropriate engine oil for a Mini Cooper. Most dealerships use a Mini High-Performance Synthetic 5W engine oil in their oil change.
- Additional general parts for any oil change
- Your vehicle’s owner’s manual. If you don’t have a copy of the manual, you can download it from the web or request a hard copy from your local mechanic.
- A jack to jack up your vehicle, unless you are a professional mechanic and have access to a car lift
- A 12 mm socket. Deep sockets work better, but if you don’t have deep, you can still use a shallow one and get the job done.
- Gloves
- Towels
- Protective eyeglasses
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Mini Cooper oil change steps
Here are the steps you need to follow to change your Mini Cooper’s oil
- Put on all required safety tools like gloves, eyeglasses, etc.
- Jack up your Mini Cooper. The first step you need to do is to jack up the vehicle. It is recommended that you refer to your vehicle’s owner’s manual if you haven’t jacked up a Mini Cooper before.
- Drain the old oil
- Place your oil drain pan right under the location of where your oil container is located. Always refer to the vehicle’s owner’s manual for more information about where best to place the oil drain pan.
- Remove the oil drain plug and allow the oil to drain in the oil pan.
- As you remove the oil drain, make sure the washer got removed with it as well because you need to replace it
- It is important to note that the plugged drain in a Mini Cooper faces downward; thus, expect a lot of mess as you take out the plugged drain to drain the old oil
- As the oil is draining, you can go ahead and replace the oil filter
- After the oil finishes draining, install the new washer and close the drain plug.
- Usually, since the oil plug is facing downwards, the housing gets very messy; therefore, make sure to wipe down any vehicle component that got oil splashes.
- Replace the oil filter and the O-ring
- Locate your vehicle’s filter cap to remove it. To remove the cap, you need to use a 27 mm socket
- Pull out the oil filter cap and remove the old oil filter.
- Before installing the new oil filter, you need to compare the new part to the old one and confirm that they match exactly. Another way to check for your new oil filter is by reading through the vehicle’s owner’s manual.
- Usually, the new oil filter comes with its O-ring that you need to replace as well
- The O-ring must be installed on the cap right after you place the new oil filter. It would help if you pressed it a little firmly till you hear a click sound indicating the O-ring is properly installed.
- To prevent the new O-ring from bending in the oil housing, it is recommended to add a little oil on it to give it more flexibility.
- Put the oil filter back in the oil housing and secure it using the 27 mm socket. As we mentioned earlier, your socket doesn’t have to be as deep; however, the better socket.
- It is important to note that changing an oil filter can get a little messy with oil dripping and splashing on the other vehicle components. Therefore, you need to use a brake cleaner to clean any mess caused by changing the oil filter.
- It is very likely for the transmission to get a lot of old oil drip as it is located right under the Mini Cooper's oil housing. Therefore, you also need to clean the transmission surface from any oil mess.
- Put the vehicle down and add the required amount of new oil
- Using your vehicle’s jack, put the car to the ground level back
- Locate the oil filler under the hood by referring to the owner’s manual
- Install a funnel in preparation for oil pouring
- You might not find the exact amount of oil needed for your Mini Cooper engine in the vehicle’s owner’s manual; thus, you can monitor the dipstick and see how much is needed. Usually, the oil needed is around 4 quarts.
- Start the engine to get the cartage filled
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Resetting oil change check light on a Mini Cooper
Your change oil check light is not one of those that goes away after you change your oil. Unfortunately, you must reset the oil change light manually to get rid of it. Ignoring resetting the oil change button is critical because your vehicle will not know when it is due for another oil change.
Here is all that you need to do to reset a change oil light in a mini cooper:
- Insert the key in the ignition and push start without pressing the brake. We need to start the ignition but not the engine
- Locate the trip odometer button on your Mini Cooper’s dashboard. If you still can not find it, you can always refer to the vehicle’s owner’s manual
- Press and hold the trip odometer button until you see an oil-filter like symbol, then you can release the button.
- Locate the BC button located at the left side of your steering wheel, the same location where your high lights switch is located.
- Press and hold the BC button while monitoring the display on your dashboard.
- Once you see a “reset” word on your dashboard, release the BC button.
- Press and hold the BC button until you finish the reset process
- That’s it! You did it!
How much does it cost to perform a Mini Cooper oil change?
According to RepairPal.com, a Mini Cooper oil change costs between $116 and $145 on labor and parts costs. If you have the required mechanical skill sets, you can save almost half of the repair price by reducing the total price to $37 and $48.
Can I drive my Mini Cooper without an oil change?
Whether it’s a Mini Cooper or any other vehicle, it is never recommended to drive your vehicle without an oil change.
While you still can drive your vehicle if you are a couple of miles after passing the limit, you are still risking damaging your vehicle’s engine.
Therefore, when thinking about whether to change the Mini Cooper’s oil now or later, think about the time, effort, and money you will put to damage the engine.
Conclusion
To maintain your vehicle’s engine's lifetime and avoid any complicated damages, you must perform a regular Mini Cooper oil change.
As your engine’s oil gets older, it picks up lots of contaminations and causes the oil filter to clog. As a result, your engine will not operate at normal conditions. With very few oils getting to the engine, the engine’s moving parts wear out and cause heat due to friction. The higher your engine’s temperature, the higher the risk for engine failure.
To perform a Mini Cooper oil change, you need to prepare the required tools and parts, change the oil washer and the oil filter, drain the old oil and add the required amount of engine oil, according to Mini Cooper’s owner’s manual.