Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 13 Nov 2013 16:21

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Tom Mini

Has anyone else been shocked by the cost of keeping a Mini?

Thanks to the coiled dipstick that makes it impossible, and I do mean impossible to read, I overfilled the oil tank to a tune of 14 litres. This was drained by Cooper Sevenoaks in April 2013, at which time they found it necessary to also replace spark plugs, and fit two new ignition coils, obviously at cost to me.

Since then, and again as a result of the oil issues, I have required a new alternator, (June) a header tank thermostat (11 th October) and now on 7 th November, I have been told the car needs new vacuum pipes, to the tune of £445 (ex. VAT). None of these issues have been reasonably priced. This latest issue was not discovered, despite being serviced under the TLC pack, on September 19th (at 33, 760 miles).

The serving agent agreed with me, saying that the dipstick is hard to read (while not quite admitting ill-fit for purpose)

Since i mentioned this to John Scholey, the Customer Service executive, the man at sevenoaks denies saying this, despite my parents witnessing it noth times and him even demonstrating the only way in which it is posible to get an oil reading form it it - by laying it on some kitchen roll.

does anyone have any further advice, or similar experiences?

many thanks

Tom

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 16:29

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - veryoldbear

14 litres? Blimey!

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 16:33

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Tom Mini

or 12, yes I was convinced it was emptying itself somehow. And the dip stick kept telling me it wasn't full

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 16:38

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - skidpan

I presume this is another joke post by someone with too much time on their hands and no idea how much oil a car engine really holds. But just in case it is a genuine poster.

A typical 1.6 will hold about 5 litres, if you overfilled by 14 litres it would mean you had bought 3 x 5 litre cans at least for the top up. If you read the manual it will tell you what the capacity is, only a total fool will add 3 times the actual capacity.

Dipsticks can be hard to read when the oil is clean, in modern petrols the oil rarely discolours. Laying the dipstick on kitchen roll is a good way of seeing where it come to.

With 14 litres too much in it would be so high up the distick it would not be obvious where the oil came to, you would be looking in the wrong place.

Overfilling with oil to a small degree can have fatal consequences on engines, you have been very lucky.

I presume your car is now out of warranty, all cars sometimes require repairs, if you are not happy with the quote form the garage try another garage.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 16:54

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - madf

14litres!!! who holds 3-4 cans holding 4 liters of oil at home ready to fill an engine with?

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 17:08

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - A3 A4

Never mind the cost of servicing, did the OP never at anytime stop to consider the cost of the oil he was putting in? Will the block and sump actually hold 14 litres?

Edited by A3 A4 on 13/11/2013 at 17:10

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 17:24

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - thunderbird

So the OP bought 3 or 4 cans of very expensive fully synthetic BMWLL04 oil at about £50 a can, total £150 to £200. But since he has clearly not read the manual its probably not the correct oil but £10 for 5 litres supermarket 20w 50 mineral he used. That should knacker up the engine.

He then pays the dealer to drain this and throw it away.

No wonder the dealer thinks he can charge the OP as much as he thinks he will pay, most garages would love to have such a knowledgeable customer.

But personally i think its yet another hoax post. And its not even April 1st.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 18:10

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Collos25

Its a wind up, if its not the OP should not be charge of a car or a wallet.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 18:29

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Tom Mini

well cheers for all the support. its not a wind up, why the hell would i bother posting on here if it wasnt true?

I was topping up, about 1/4 litres at a time, and yes, I've been a total idiot, and yes it cost £15 a litre and i was wondering what the hell was going on. But I WAS warned that mini coopers require a lot of topping up in their engine oil, although obviously not that much. I was only doing so because the dipstick showed it as low,

thanks again for all the support, I was hoping for a little more helpful input, what has happened to this world?! The internet appears full of people only too willing to be unpleasant.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 18:37

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - veryoldbear

Ah, this is all starting to make sense. How often were you topping it up and over what sort of period?

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 19:20

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - bazza

To comment on your actual question, the BMW Mini is not really an econo-car. When you take into account the average to poor reliability, average to poor fuel economy ,the price of BMW parts and BMW main dealer labour rates, it amounts to an expensive means of transport, particularly the S. I would love a JCW Cooper S to blat around in but doing the maths always brings me round to sanity again!

Presumably the vacuum pipes are gummed up with the remnants of the oil deluge you fed it. I'm not sure why you need a new alternator though. Don't forget a main dealer will just swap parts out rather than stripping and cleaning/fettling, therefore it might be worth sorting it all out at an independent Mini specialist, it should be cheaper.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 19:16

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Collos25

When you only put part of the story and keep the important bits to yourself what do you expect the people on this forum have seen and heard al the storys before many times.My advice is tell the truth and all the tale and you might get some helpful advice.

As it stands as stated before you should not be charge of a vehicle and certainly not a wallet.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 19:24

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - skidpan

It gets better, 14 litres @ £15 a litre, thats by my maths is £210.

Can you read, if you can why did you not check capacities in the manual.

If you thought it was running out of the engine where did you think it was going.

Sorry to tell you but your next expense will probably be a new exhaust system and catalyst along with new oxygen sensors. It may well have damaged the turbo as well.

If it has keep us updated, could do with another laugh.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 19:36

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - DrippingSump

I have never seen a dipstick that uses 14 litres, but I guess I met one today.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 20:18

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - A3 A4

Some poor soul will be buying this second hand. I'm guessing the trade in won't be too good at his local dealership.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 20:48

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Tom Mini

Cheers mate, nore unecessary unpleasantness. It's ok, you doubtlessly have the life such vindictiveness deserves (although you probably always blame other people). Why would you want me to have to shell out more money? You donlt even know me. And even take 5 minutes out of your day to spread such bad vibes.

I hope you wake up to some bad news in return,

As to the other more helpful feedback thank you. Perhaps it is time to call it quits.

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 20:26

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Doc

I was topping up, about 1/4 litres at a time, and yes, I've been a total idiot, and yes it cost £15 a litre and i was wondering what the hell was going on. But I WAS warned that mini coopers require a lot of topping up in their engine oil, although obviously not that much. I was only doing so because the dipstick showed it as low,

Did you happen to have 14 litres, or did you have to make several trips to the stockist?

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Wed 13 Nov 2013 21:40

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - madf

This has to be a classic..

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 08:46

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - skidpan

To follow on from my previous post, if there really was 14 litres plus possibly a full 5 litre sump full the oil would have been a good way up the inside of the engine. At that level the crank and rods would have been rotating in the oil, they are not designed to do that and extra stresses would have been placed on them, if the level was high enough for the pistons to hit the oil at the bottom of the downstroke it will have placed enormous strsses on the little ends and pistons. These components may well fail prematurely due to this.

When cranks hit or rotate in oil due to overfilling air is introduced into the oil. This raised the level even higher but the main issue is the fact that air gets pumped around the engine with the oil but air is not a good lubricant, this will cause rapid wears on bearings, crank journals, cams etc.

My main concern is what costs the next owner of this used gem will incurr due to your foolish act. Trust you will tell any garage/private buyer what you have done before taking their money.

To say that Mini maintenance costs are high when the extra work needed was of your own making is a joke as is the whole topic.

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 08:54

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - dan86

I once see a young lady lift the bonet of her car at a petrol station and undo the oil cap and pump some petrol in to her vauxhall tigra. I thought I should say something to her but then I thought she might learn from her mistake.

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 09:15

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - veryoldbear

Just trying to get my head round this. OP says he was putting maybe 1/4 litre in at a time, so presumably he was doing this over a period of some time. Even topping up this amount once a week it would have taken him a year to get through 14 litres.

I don't think that there would ever have been anything like 5+14 litres in the engine. I doubt if there's even room for that much. Some was getting burned off, some was probably getting out through the dipstick hole, Probably a lot of blue smoke. I don't know. But enough was swilling around to blugger the engine throughly. It's a shame OP didn't get some advice earlier. Maybe his family had a history of older tanks which really did need a 1/4 litre a week. It did happen.

I do have some sympathy for the poor bloke (?). Dipsticks can be very difficult to read particularly with fresh (!) oil. On the plus side at least it wasn't a diesel which would have self-destructed in a most satisfactory manner with that much oil ...

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 09:32

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - bazza

BMW Minis have a history of oil burning it seems from the forums- the S in particular. PLus the dipstick reading issue is well known. There are many modern cars (particularly VAG) burning a litre every 1000 miles as routine-and a lot of unhappy owners. I can understand how over-filling could happen. Everyone makes mistakes, I have several very expensive ones to my credit- not all car-related! Some members have been a bit harsh and a little bit personal on this thread in my opinion, it reminds me of the Monty Python sketch "Is this the 5 minute argument or the full one hour?!"

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 12:58

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Snakey

I'd agree the dipstick on Minis is very hard to read, and with the 1.6 having a reputation for using oil it would make the problem worse.

Although the self righteous guff spouted on here is starting to get annoying.

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 12:59

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Tom Mini

Thanks very much for this KIND feedback. Please don't think that I literally poured 12 litres of oil into the sump at one time, it was over the space of about 6 months - in 1/4 litre increments, and very much off the back of family advice and the S reputation for using a lot of oil. I'm obviously an idiot and have learnt the hard way, but there's no need for some of vicious comments on here. They doubtlessly have the face they deserve and clearly have such empty lives that they have to post on here with no reason,

So thanks for some of the comments. I hope that due to it being over a period of time that the oil burnt off. In hindsight I must have bought 6 to 8 litres (I know it's going down), but Ive really had a think about it. It was from about January to July this year.

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Thu 14 Nov 2013 14:40

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - skidpan

I'm obviously an idiot and have learnt the hard way,

In his own words. Not many on here will admit to that.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 00:34

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Avant

Tom - I'm sorry you've had some blunt replies, but there are some plain speakers on here. As moderator I try to be fair but even I read your first para:

Thanks to the coiled dipstick that makes it impossible, and I do mean impossible to read, I overfilled the oil tank to a tune of 14 litres. This was drained by Cooper Sevenoaks in April 2013 ..

....to mean that you put in 14 litres at once and this was then drained all at once in April. If you'd made it clear that this was over a period from January to July (and that what you put in during May to July wasn't drained in April !!) you'd have got more moderate and hopedully constructive replies.

SWMBO is on her fifth Mini (a One and four Coopers) and I've never had a problem reading the dipstick. Maybe the Cooper S has a different one.

Edited by Avant on 15/11/2013 at 00:36

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 08:27

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Soichiro

I'm sorry Avant, regardless how Tom put it in his post, he didn't doesn't deserve some of the self righteous nonsense from other members.

Posts such as these are just vindictive:

To say that Mini maintenance costs are high when the extra work needed was of your own making is a joke as is the whole topic.

If it has keep us updated, could do with another laugh

As it stands as stated before you should not be charge of a vehicle and certainly not a wallet.

As usual posted by the same empty souled, holier than thou people.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 13:03

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - dixgas

Well said Soichiro.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 13:10

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - alan1302

Well said Soichiro.

Most posters picked up on what the op said first that they had put 14 litres of oil into the car and then had to have it drained. Based on that anyone who did that would be a fool and he was called out on it.

Only afterwards did he clarify exactly what did happen.

I much prefer straigh, honet answers rather than pretending you think putting 14 litres of oil into the car was ok and a learning experience.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 13:27

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - galileo

The OP, like so many, perhaps deserves sympathy and understanding because he may be a victim of the 'dumbing down' of the education system which began in the 1960s.

Older backroomers may remember the days when even minor errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar in English homework would get a red pencil mark and a ticking off from the teacher. Written work that lacked clarity was also criticised, often with heavy sarcasm at my school, so we learned to 'proof read' work before submitting it and especially during exams.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 13:50

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - A3 A4

Certainly the practical aspects of education, not so sure correct punctuation would have helped here...

We all did practical stuff at school, wookwork, metalwork cookery etc even if only for a short while, thats what many young people are missing out on, I'm sure most of us left school knowing the principles of an internal combustion engine.

Is it not more likely the case that youngsters are going straight into decent cars, which are much cheaper in comparison (though far more complicated) to what was available to us as kids?

Having a new(er) first car can lead to expensive mistakes, but we made our mistakes and learnt on old Mini's, Escort Mk1's, Cortina's and Marina's etc which were more forgiving and easier and cheaper to fix.

A girlfreind of the time once borrowed my old Ford Escort and filled the brake fluid reservoir with screenwash, we didn't stay together for long!

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 13:34

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Collos25

I'm sorry Avant, regardless how Tom put it in his post, he didn't doesn't deserve some of the self righteous nonsense from other members. Posts such as these are just vindictive: To say that Mini maintenance costs are high when the extra work needed was of your own making is a joke as is the whole topic. If it has keep us updated, could do with another laugh As it stands as stated before you should not be charge of a vehicle and certainly not a wallet. As usual posted by the same empty souled, holier than thou people.

The OP deserves everything that was said not only does he tell porkies but the chain of events changes all the time.If he had told the truth maybe he would deserve some sympathy and as far as not being able to read the dipstick is beyond belief.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 14:27

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Andrew-T

< The OP deserves everything that was said not only does he tell porkies but the chain of events changes all the time.If he had told the truth maybe he would deserve some sympathy and as far as not being able to read the dipstick is beyond belief. >

Your beliefs may be too rigid. I may not have learnt many things in this life, but one of them is that most people only believe what they want to believe, regardless of any true facts. If necessary they 'discover' new ones.

Could apply to the OP, of course ....

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 17:01

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Ethan Edwards

People do dumb things. I know a bloke (not me) who put engine oil in his car because the light came on. Okaaaayyyyy - I'm thinking... Mondeo probably a ruined engine. Then he told me where he'd put the multigrade oil. In the Power steering system.

Whats more surprising is he kept it for three months then part exed it and it was still running fine. Next owner was going to get an shock.

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 17:26

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - bathtub tom

I know a guy who filled his Morris Minor with oil. He took off the oil filler cap and kept pouring until he couldn't get any more in!

Another bloke thought that engine oil was like oiling a door hinge and you had to add some every now and then. His Fiesta left enormous oil patches wherever it stopped. The poor car probablty vomitted some out every now and then. I just couldn't make him understand how a dipstick worked and as for servicing, well, he oiled it often.........................

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Fri 15 Nov 2013 17:31

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Soichiro

Edited by Soichiro on 15/11/2013 at 17:33

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Tue 19 Nov 2013 15:43

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Tom Mini

The OP deserves everything that was said not only does he tell porkies but the chain of events changes all the time.If he had told the truth maybe he would deserve some sympathy and as far as not being able to read the dipstick is beyond belief. Yep you're one of the usual idiots I was referring to.

\thanks for the support Scorchio. It's genuinely appreciated. I'm unsure why this bully thinks I'm changing my story, or why I'd be interested in doing that. I actually have better thigns to be doing with my time (like filling my engine with oil) than he clearly has. I guess the internet is a good place for lonely people to linger.

Amyway, the whole point is that the dip stick is IMPOSSIBLE to read. I'm not negating my own responsibility in all this, but it isn't fit for purpose. I ws told that the cooper engine needs a lot of oil - just not THAT much, The dipstick kept teling me that the oil was low...

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Tue 19 Nov 2013 16:15

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - Doc

. I'm unsure why this bully thinks I'm changing my story, or why I'd be interested in doing that. I actually have better thigns to be doing with my time (like filling my engine with oil) than he clearly has.

The trouble is you have changed your story, both on the timing and the quantity.

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Tue 19 Nov 2013 16:20

Mini cooper clubman S - Mini - servicing, cost. customer service - thunderbird

Amyway, the whole point is that the dip stick is IMPOSSIBLE to read. I'm not negating my own responsibility in all this, but it isn't fit for purpose. I ws told that the cooper engine needs a lot of oil - just not THAT much, The dipstick kept teling me that the oil was low...

Didn't put it my first post in this thread but my Mrs had a Cooper S for 2 1/2 years. In that time we never added any oil and never had a problem reading the dipstick.

You will have learned by now that one persons supposed fact is not necessarilly the truth i.e. the Cooper engine needs a lot of oil, some may do but many will not. That is a fact with all engines.

If the dipstick was not fit for purpose this forum and many others would be full of similar stories, never seen one before. The fact about the dipstick is you do not read it on the coiled bit, there will be a plastic or flat section that is marked for the purpose.

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