Hi...

My MINI R55 Cooper Clubman does not come with in-bumper fog lights.^^

I like to install OEM fog light housing. So I opened the front bumper and found driving lights, but no harnesses for fog lights. Is fog light cable separate from driving light cable?

I tried to find cables for fog light. I googled RealOEM.com for this. What cable do I need? Do I need relays or other parts, too? Installation manual for R53 shows a relay. R53 is 1st gen...mine is 2nd gen.

OEM fog light DIY seems complicated than I expected. I should have ordered them when buying my mini.....

Thanks,

They are controlled by the "Footwell Module" and thus there is no relay as what you are thinking of.

The 2nd Generation cars are much harder to add things to in some cases than many other cars you may have worked on.

In this case the wiring harness you have in the car probably does not have the wiring for the front fog lights as they were not ordered with the car. MIN seems to have started not installing wiring for option not in the car. Like those that want to add a factory alarm to a 2010 car can not do so unless it was ordered from the factory. If not ordered from the factory the car does not have the wiring harness for the alarm system. This is very stupid on MINI's part but that it seems is what they are doing.

Good luck with trying to add the wiring and how to hook it up. It will not be easy.

I'm looking to do this on my R56 (install OEM foglights). I would think (but I'm no expert) that manufacturers would be better off keeping their build process more consistent by pre-wiring the cars as much as possible. That gives the dealerships the opportunity for post-delivery sales of options and accessories (lights, audio, alarm, etc.), even years later into the CPO market. But what do I know?

In some cases there is still some pre-wiring. I'm having the alarm retrofitted into my '08 R56. Really got snakebit by the fogs. Saw lights in the bumper and assumed they were fogs because every CPO mini that I looked at previously had foglights. When I found out they were just parking lights, I figured I'd do a swap out, easy peezy. Apparently, it's not worth the effort.

So, I'm toying around with two options:

(1) replace the parking light housing with the fog light housing, and wire the parking light wires to the fogs and forget the parking lights. Not sure if I'd have fuse problems, though (fogs are 35W and parking lights are 5W).

(2) swap the housings as above, by wire separately, with relays etc. the fogs in a totally aftermarket way. Not really familiar with getting through the firewall on MINIs, so we'll see. That way I can place the switch somewhere else or try to run it to the center panel and skip that whole footwell (what does that mean anyway?) module.

you definitely would have problems running the 35w fogs on the 5w parking lights, AND they'd always be on. I'm sure you could find a good way to mount hella's or something down there with an aftermarket relay if you were going to skip the parking lights as is...

Check my post. I uploaded wiring diagram and pictures.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ct-doable.html

My fog is wired to the battery and a new swich behind the steering wheel was installed. I did not borther with the footwell module except rear fog light wiring.

Thanks,

your link brings you back to this thread. can you correct this please

Just fixed. thankx

I installed oem fogs on my R56 about a year ago. The wiring is pretty straightforward; just use a relay connected to the low beams and a cockpit switch on the knee bolster to the left of the steering wheel (in the oem driving light switch position). I got my power from the under hood fuse box. My Hella driving light switch controls both the fogs and the driving lights (fogs on with low beams and driving lights with high beams). Installing the fog light housings behind the bumper is a little tricky without removing the bumper but it can be done.

Thanks. That's what I was hoping, but I haven't looked behind the access hole to assess the level of difficulty. My plan was to swap the parking-light-only fixture with the dual fog/parking light OEM one. I think it runs about $125. I am hopeful this can be done without removing the bumper. I remember doing a Xenon swap on our X-5 years ago and my wife nearly had a stroke when she came into the garage and saw the entire grill and bumper removed from our nearly-new car.

It's a shame that the stock toggle bank is hardwired into the BCM/FRM. I'm used to installing fogs into a factory switch, but MINI insists on centrallizing control through the computer, hence the need for all this recoding for retrofits. I'm putting in the center arm rest next weekend and half-expected a recoding to be involved with that too

I bought my oem fogs used on eBay for about $50 each. The 1st step in physically installing the new lights is to remove both headlights. Then you can remove the oem parking lights by removing the torx screws holding them in place (an offset ratchet torx screwdriver will be very handy). To install my new fogs I first removed the foglight reflectors from their mounting brackets. On the right side I just inserted the fog reflector into the cavity below the headlight by passing it thru the access panel in the right fender well. Once the reflector was in place, I reassembled it to the mounting bracket and attached it to the car. The left side is more difficult because the washer fluid reservoir is in the way. I partially removed the left fender liner to access the bottom of the reservoir. I then removed the bolts holding the reservoir in place (including the plastic plug at the top under the hood). It was a struggle to push the reservoir up out of the way but then I managed to squeeze the fog reflector into the cavity below the left headlight, reattach it to its mounting bracket and bolt it to the car. I did all the necessary wiring and reattached the headlights, reservoir, fender lining, etc. I don't know how long it takes to remove the front bumper but my method took me about an hour just to physically install the fogs (15 min on the right and 45 min on the left). Good luck.

Thanks, this is extremely helpful information! Still not sure if it's worth the effort (especially working in the cold), but I think eventually, this will be the route I choose.

Hi Dave,


I also have a 2010 Justa that only came from the factory with parking lights. I want to install the factory fog lights that replace the parking light assembly, as you did. However, I want the fogs to be on all the time with the headlights, both high and low beam. I see you used the low beam circuit to trigger a relay to run power to the fog lights, but you also used an aftermarket switch. I am only interested in adding fogs (no driving lights).


If I wire mine as you did, but without the switch, do you think it would work without triggering an error message? (I assume this worked without causing error messages because of the minimal extra resistance added by the relay to the low beam circuit?) Would I also have to connect to the high beam circuit to get them to work on that as well?


Really appreciate any assistance.


Thanks!


DC

DOC, I sent you a PM. I believe this can be done by simply splicing the fog wire into the parking lamp circuit. If that causes a bulb warning you can just use the parking lamp voltage to trigger a relay and power your new fogs thru the relay. If you're not comfortable having your fogs tied to the parking lights (the fogs will be on anytime the parking lights are on even if the headlights aren't) you can use both the high and low beam voltage to trigger the relay but you'd also have to install a diode in each line to prevent feedback from the high beams to the low beams (doable but a little more complicated). Good luck.

What if the side marker lights and front parking lights were all changed out for 2W T10's, and then connect two 9W LED fog lights to the same circuit. This should avoid any errors, the only downside would be the fogs would always be on. Unless I'm missing something, I'm thinking this circuit is 30W?

Need help! Just replaced the fog/park lights on my 2011 Mini Cooper S with aftermarket assembly and upgraded the bulbs to leds. Both lights operate correctly but now I have light malfunction faults on the car.

The malfunction faults will be from the led bulbs. The ECU monitors the current draw, and leds just don’t draw enough current, so the ECU thinks the bulb is out. You’ll need to code out the bulb check, or just live with the error notification.

Hi everyone,

I have a similar question question on rear fog lights on my R55. I currently have front fogs, and don't have a rear fog. I swapped out my left side tail light with a UK one, and then jumpered the right side reverse light to the rear fog wire on the left side to get 2 backup lights.

But I drive in a lot of winter fog, and wanted to add rear fog lighting to my car as well. To make it more complicated, I also have a rear bike rack, so trying to add a little more visibility when the rack is on. I'm no electrical guru, so not sure if there's a way to make this work.

Here's my plan:

1. replace the rear reflectors with an actual light (
   Amazon
   Amazon
   ) which are LED turn, parking and brake lights.
   
   
2. Find a way to wire the Brake light to also function as a fog light
3. Trigger the rear fogs from the footwell via the front fog light

Questions:

1. Can I use a relay or some other way to trigger the new lights as a brake or fog to the brightest setting? I don't want feed double the voltage to the light when the fog is on and I hit the brakes
2. If I cut the fog wire going to the left tail light assembly to use that as my trigger from the footwell module and keep my jumper from the right side tail light, will this circuit still work? I wasn't sure if the ground connection comes from the tail light connector and if I cut the fog out of it I'll have a problem.
3. Anything I'm not thinking of?

Plan B would be to skip the brake lights and use them as fog only, and add another light perhaps in the grille below the bumper to function as a fog light, but haven't found any good solutions for that. Thanks in advance!