Eleven months. That's how long we drove the Cooper S before the service light popped on for the first time. At just over 17,000 miles.
Service was free under MINI's 3 year/36,000-mile maintenance plan. So when we pulled into Long Beach MINI we also decided to replace the cracked windshield. The service tech seemed to feel bad for us when he drew up the $1,400 estimate.
We'd have walked out and ordered aftermarket glass if we owned the car. But since it's on loan to us the best move was to replace the glass at the dealership. MINI required the vehicle sit at their garage overnight, and charged us $1231.67 for the repair ($725 of that for labor).
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Coordinator @ 17,386 miles
subytrojan says:
11:30 AM, 07/ 3/08
What caused the crack, Mike?
If it's a stress crack, it should be a warranty matter.
If a piece of road debris caused it, it shouldn't be.
sgude says:
11:45 AM, 07/ 3/08
I'm not looking forward to replacing the windshield on my 325i. The crack starts right in front of the sensor for the wipers. Yikes.
sgude says:
11:47 AM, 07/ 3/08
By the way, how did the oil look? Did you see it when they changed it? Does the car run differently now with the old oil out?
vacagrande says:
11:49 AM, 07/ 3/08
Sweet jeebus.... I'm guessing Cali isn't one of those states in which windshields are covered at no charge to the driver by insurance.
firstwagon says:
11:52 AM, 07/ 3/08
Shouldn't it be covered by insurance (minus the deductible)?
Mike Magrath says:
11:52 AM, 07/ 3/08
sgude: I checked the oil just a few days before this; surprisingly it looked pretty good. It didn't look as burnt as the oil in the M3 looks after only a few weeks of use.
-mike
desmolicious says:
12:52 PM, 07/ 3/08
It's 6 hours labour to change a windshield? eh?
removal will take about 2-3 minutes after downing a few beers and swinging a ball peen hammer...
johnmarco says:
01:00 PM, 07/ 3/08
That's incredible: 17k miles?! Makes me wonder if I'm being overly cautious by doing 5k interval tune-ups, driving like a grandma.
equ says:
05:09 AM, 07/ 5/08
I've done a couple of oil analysis reports on a couple of cars that I have. One was at 5k and the other at 7k. In both reports, they recommended that I go no longer. Both cars have 12-20k intervals... Humbug, I'll never go that long on any car I own (or even lease for that matter).
clarkma5 says:
11:17 AM, 07/ 5/08
What does the owner's manual suggest for maintenance intervals? Does it actually reccomend to just go until the service light comes on? 17,000 miles is a long damned time to go, the longest maintenance intervals I've heard of are 15,000 miles. Especially when it's the first one (I follow the belief that it's worth changing the oil after the break-in period to get whatever higher metallic content that might be there out of the engine).
karjunkie says:
07:09 AM, 07/ 6/08
You should have kept a sample of the oil to test. I would love to know what a lab would say about the condition of the oil is after 17K miles! It would resolve this long running dispute about how frequently you should change oils, especially synthetics.
blueguydotcom says:
07:59 PM, 07/ 6/08
BMW's been running cars until the service light for nearly 10 years. No reports of problems with US or euro engines.
It's not that big of a deal. The junk about changing your oil every 3k miles is perpetrated by the oil companies and it's not related to today's BMW engines that use synthetic oils.
bimmerjay says:
03:56 PM, 07/ 7/08
+1, blueguy.