I only drive about 5K miles a year also. I usually change the oil at the end of May on the anniversary of my buying the MINI.
I change my MINI's oil every 2000 miles. I never rotate the tires. Install new tires on the rear, move the rears to the front.
Is there anyone using non-synthetic oil in their MINI? Or are we all at least doing that? Yeah, I've heard the arguments that dino-juice is fine and you don't really need to go with synthetic - after all millions of cars still run on the stuff. But I'm not that brave (or foolish).
The non-synthetic oils won't handle the high temperatures seen in the turbo bearings as well as the synthetics do..
Heh Heh Heh.... Good one... On my very first oil change on my new engine I did it a 804,672 meters... and the second was at 3,218,688 meters and then I settled in at your figure for all the rest...
Granted I.m in a just-a but I have pretty much been on the "when computer tells me to plan" for 156,000 miles or so now. Still running fine and within a couple of mpg of the best it has ever gotten.
I change my oil next week, then again in a year or so. Don't drive it enough to bother with intervals measured in distance driven.
Glad I found this thread. When the dealer said 10K I squenched up my face and gave him a funny look. That just seems WAYYYY to long. I never went more than 4k on my Passat, but it has the 1.8L turbo engine that they had a sludging class action over. Full synth and an oversized filter. I don't think I'll go over 5k on my justa.
I pretty much only do mine once a year also. It's not driven everyday and I periodically check the oil to make sure #kcco.