How Good Are The R56 OEM Driving Lights?

[MINIMel]

I have read a lot about the price of the OEM Driving Lights and a lot about how to install them. My question is: how do the OEM Driving Lights perform at night when coupled with the optional Bi Xenon Headlights on highbeam as intended? What is the improved visibility on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best)? Do you also agree that flashing both together helps others to see you more quickly, therefore, improving our safety?

Thanks for your input.

09 JCW Hardtop, 27th week, Pepper White, Black Roof & Mirrors

[Robin Casady]

Why would you need driving lights with Xenon high beams? The Xenons are already too bright.

[Joey D]

I had the driving lamps installed when I bought the car and I ordered it with the xenons. Defiantly turns night into day on dark back roads and helps illuminate the side of the car a bit better. The xenons are bright but the driving lamps really add that extra boost of light to make spotting deer easier.

I drive a lot of back roads which is why I got them, although I am thinking about replacing the bulbs with yellow ones to help out in poor weather conditions on back roads.

[Optimum CableGuy]

Ah.... Robin Ya say that , but here in the NE them driving lights come in handy, fills in the spot right in front of the car..... and at night or the right time of night the deer are just WAITING to step/jump out.........

[MINIMel]

Joey D,
Your reply is helpful and convinces me that they perform well enough to add them to my accessory list. The OEM inside light switch is also well placed and looks great. Thanks.

[jw34]

Remember that when you order your lights you have the option of chrome or black. It's not on the MINI site, but your MA should know.

[Joey D]

Originally Posted by MINIMel

Joey D,
Your reply is helpful and convinces me that they perform well enough to add them to my accessory list. The OEM inside light switch is also well placed and looks great. Thanks.

Next time I'm out at night, which should be tonight, I'll attempt to get a photo for you of how the light out put compares with the lights on and off. I know I was a bit skeptical when I ordered them but it's probably one of the best additions to the car save for the heated seats. Also it's good to keep them covered unless you plan on doing night driving so they don't get cracked.

[MINIMel]

Can't wait for the night photos! I expect delivery in mid August and I'm getting excited. I had a 06 & an 07 Dark Silver MCS without the lights. The new color for me is Pepper White with Black roof & mirrors. I am leaning toward the black vs the chrome. I think it will fit in against the black grill and add to my black & white theme.

[jw34]

Originally Posted by MINIMel

I am leaning toward the black vs the chrome. I think it will fit in against the black grill and add to my black & white theme.

Good choice! I changed out my justacooper grill for the JCW and although I don't have the OEM lights, black goes with the color scheme pretty well and doesn't stand out light chrome would.
Also the OEM black lights (below) have black around the front lip which looks even better IMO.


Here's mine:

[PepperSClubman]

Originally Posted by MINIMel

Do you also agree that flashing both together helps others to see you more quickly, therefore, improving our safety?

Is this a joke? You're gonna drive someone off the road. They may or may not crash the car but they'll certainly have burned out retinas. Safety would demand never using driving lamps in the presence of oncoming traffic. I'm not sure it's even legal to use driving lamps on public roads. I used mine once and it nearly scared me to death making night into day.

[Joey D]

You can use them on public roads, you just have to use common sense with them and not turn them on when others are around. They are just like high beams.

[Robin Casady]

Originally Posted by Optimum CableGuy

Ah.... Robin Ya say that , but here in the NE them driving lights come in handy, fills in the spot right in front of the car..... and at night or the right time of night the deer are just WAITING to step/jump out.........

I live in a place with twisty country roads and very dark skies. I do amateur astronomy, which needs dark skies. We do not have street lights, and the deer are plentiful. Saw a mountain lion on my driveway a couple of months ago. I very much doubt that your NE is darker and wilder.

I can't imagine needing more light than the Xenons put out. Do you guys wear dark glasses at night, or something? Or, do you just need to eat more carrots.

I look forward to the photos.

A friend, who hit a deer sometime ago believes that the deer was stunned by his high beams. He thought that if he had lowered the lights, the deer might have not have been the preverbial "deer in headlights". That's his theory, anyway. We decided not to test it.

[TheBigNewt]

I doubt you can have both the DLs and the highbeams on at the same time. You can't operate the front fogs and highbeams simultaneously I don't think. The fogs go off if the highs go on.

[Bruce/Fl]

Originally Posted by TheBigNewt

I doubt you can have both the DLs and the highbeams on at the same time. You can't operate the front fogs and highbeams simultaneously I don't think. The fogs go off if the highs go on.

I think I've read on here numerous times that that is indeed the way that they are *supposed* to be wired in.............for use *with* the high beams.

[MINIMel]

[quote=jw34;2359559] black goes with the color scheme pretty well and doesn't stand out light chrome would.
Also the OEM black lights (below) have black around the front lip which looks even better IMO.

Your picture really looks great! That's what I'm gonna get.

[Optimum CableGuy]

Originally Posted by TheBigNewt

I doubt you can have both the DLs and the highbeams on at the same time. You can't operate the front fogs and highbeams simultaneously I don't think. The fogs go off if the highs go on.

This is not the case, since the addition of the IPOD interface(dealer installed) the high beams, driving lights and fogs are all on(in high beam mode)with the Xenons. And Robin I like the description of the "deer in the headlight" theory. As far as the driving light thing on the back twisty roads, I find them a help on the rural roads I take to/from work, they don't throw the light further down the road, but do light up the dark area directly in front of the car.

[Performance Angst]

Originally Posted by jw34

Good choice! I changed out my justacooper grill for the JCW and although I don't have the OEM lights, black goes with the color scheme pretty well and doesn't stand out light chrome would.
Also the OEM black lights (below) have black around the front lip which looks even better IMO.


Here's mine:

The black housings look great. Thanks forposting. I didn't realize that was an option. I like that much better than the chrome plus it seems it's be easier to take care of versus chrome as well.

[Minidrivr]

My DLs were installed at the VDC. I have Xenons as well. I find the driving lights do a great job of lighting up where the Xenon stops, specifically out to the sides of the road (helps for spotting wildlife). Even with the Xenon's on high beam, the driving light's beam is cast even higher. This helps on dark twisty back roads with a lot of elevation change. In my neighborhood there are pine tress about 70' tall. The driving lights cast a beam that fills them up from about 300-400 feet. They seem like a "flood" type lamp compared to a more directional lamp, like a spot light.

Originally Posted by TheBigNewt

I doubt you can have both the DLs and the highbeams on at the same time.

They only operate with the high beams. There is a separate switch that you turn on and then they work whenever you turn on the highbeams. But they won't turn on without the high beam on.

[LOP]

Same opinion as all of the above posts...well worth the money to us.

[jgarner53]

Originally Posted by jw34

Remember that when you order your lights you have the option of chrome or black. It's not on the MINI site, but your MA should know.

What??? I guess when my MINI gets to the VDC, I'll have to make sure to let my MA know that I want the chrome ones! (He already knows I want black covers).

[jw34]

I would imagine chrome is the default choice. I wonder if you can get black covers with chrome lights. I think the chrome lights have white covers. Let us know what the MA says.

[Joey D]

This is the best I could come up with with my camera. It's really hard to take good photos in the dark but you can sort of see the different the driving lights make. I did it a few different ways so it would be easier to make comparisons.

Set 1, on the road. Yes I was stopped while doing this and there weren't any other cars around.

Low Beams


High Beams


High Beams with Driving Lamps


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Set 2, in a parking lot from drivers position.

Low Beams


High Beams


High Beams with Driving Lamps


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Set three, taken from the roof of the Cooper on the driver side.

Low Beams


High Beams


High Beams with Driving Lamps

[MINIMel]

Hey Joey D,
You did a fantastic job with the pictures! Thanks for taking the time to give me a demo of their performance. I can't wait for my MINI to arrive at the dealer.

[Joey D]

No problem, happy to help out a future Cooper owner.

[JudgeS]

To me, in the pictures at least, the DL dont seem to add any visibility, they just make the lit area brighter, unnecessarily brighter at that.