I have an early '05 MCS w/o the wiring harness and want a rear fog light. I'm not bothered by a blank in my switch bank and if it's foggy enough to have my front fogs on, I'd like to have the rear on also, so unless it was a legal issue, I don't need an additional switch. (I don't drive in clear weather w/ the fogs on, anyway.)

Couldn't I just power the rear fog by running a wire up to the front of the car and splicing into the power wire going to front ones? It almost seems too simple. The only issue I could think of is some kind of computer problem, perhaps sensing too much power draw.

Has anybody tried this?

 

It is polite (in England at least) to switch off your rear fog light when someone is following behind you, to reduce their dazzle - but you might still want your front fogs on so that you can see.

Over here in USA, politeness with fogs (especially front fogs on Subarus, SUVs, etc) seems non-existent so maybe the above point is irrelevant!


My concern would be possibly overloading the circuit - the extra rear fog bulb will increase the load by 50% (unless you used a low power LED bulb).

 

Would it be as much as 50% load increase? I thought the front fog bulbs were 55 watts each, and the rear fog nowhere near that high.

 

The rear fogs are 21w. It's still going to be a fairly heavy load on the front light assembly. What would happen if you get a relay that draws power directly from the + lead on the fuse box, then just tapped the front foglight power as a turn on lead? That's what I did with my Hella fog lights. I'm sure you can do something simmilar and then run it back to the rear.

 

The *official* front fogs are not 55W - that is the rating of driving lights and I guess might be the bulb size used by aftermarket people if they don't mind blinding everyone!

The OEM front fogs will be the same 21W as the brake lights, rear fog, flashers, etc.

 

Huh? What is the rear fog used for then?

 

Well the point is to be visible at a longer distance so someone does not run up on you at a much higher rate of speed. Once someone is following you and maintaining visual contact there is no point to leave the fogs on!

Of course fog light use in the USA is primarily just so the driver can think he looks cool....So, here the logic would indicate that you would leave your lights on thinking drivers behind you will be impressed that you have more lights on than he does

 

if you use a 12v relay to trigger the rear foglight, you wont run into any draw issues. (at least none that I can see)

I can walk you through this if you are unaware of the procedure.

 

Following that logic, there are a lot of us so called "cool looking" people with annoying tail light mods... I suppose my flashing CHMSL and quad LED brake lamps fit in that catagory...right Or maybe I just prefer to keep my butt from being rammed by dips with cell phone shoved up their a$$ while sucking their latte in their 10 ton SUV

 

Not sure how you think that the importance of the guy following you seeing your brake lights (important!) equates with a need to dazzle people following you safely ...
Do you drive with high beams on permanently at the front end to dazzle the other folks too? I hope not!

 

Yes they do....I seriously doubt that you do those things for safety, they may be safer but I am sure there was a cool factor involved. you showed your friends ...etc....Thats ok, we shouldn't round people up in traincars for it....but we should be honest about why we do things. Furthermore, the cellphone blinded driver will rear end you wheter you have 7 tailights and a scrolling led listing your mods or not....

For the record I had rear fogs installed as soon as they became available as a retrofit for my 03 (after petitioning MINIUSA) To date I have turned them on a total of two times! There is not much fog in kansas!

 

I don't have rear fogs and I turn off my front fogs in the dark when the head lamp is on. But my point is that I'd rather the "other" guy sees me than me annoying them You may be the 1/10000th person out there who actually pays attention while driving and I do regret annoying you with my brighter than usual lamps But unfortunately I do this because our licensing system allows blind people to drive and I have to protect myself from them :impatient

 

Sorry...research shows otherwise. Mercedes has demonstrated that a pulsating LED brake lamps equates to nearly 20 feet extra stopping distance feet in reaction time at 60mph and may become standard feature on their brand. Motorcyclist have known this for years...tell them they don't know about blind people with SUVs. Every heard of a head lamp modulator? With all due respect, you can think that I'm just being cool (well... I actually am so I don't have to try )...but in reality, I'm too busy keeping me and my MINI in one piece to be worried about other people's sensitivities...my apologies

 

The rear brake mod where the extra light comes on with the brakes is excellent. I did mine when I first got the car.

It really increases rear visibility when braking.

I have no idea if it can be done with the newer rear light sets, but it is more practical the a rear fog light, and used ever day.

 

Huh? Front fogs are either 55w H7 (for '02) or H11. It's only the rear one that is only 21w.

 

Really! Whoops - I'd better get smarter in my knowledge ... luckily I've never changed one

 

OK. Setting aside the issue of whether or not the rear fog light should be on with the front fogs....

Wiring the rear to come on with the fronts should be the quick and dirty solution. The circuit might have enough capacity to handle the extra 21 watts, but using a relay and using the power from the fronts to trigger it would be the best way to go about doing this.

This sounds like a viable solution and sure beats the (reported) $600 for the dealer to do the work.

 

OK. Setting aside the issue of whether or not the rear fog light should be on with the front fogs....

Wiring the rear to come on with the fronts should be the quick and dirty solution. The circuit might have enough capacity to handle the extra 21 watts, but using a relay and using the power from the fronts to trigger it would be the best way to go about doing this.

This sounds like a viable solution and sure beats the (reported) $600 for the dealer to do the work.

 

If only it were that way here.
I followed someone the other night - a string of cars nose to tail - with his rear fog 'dazzling' me. I tried flashing my lights, to no avail.

In Europe if you drive with your rear fog on inappropriately, you'll be flashed mercilessly by all until you turn it off.

 

Luckily, in the States, not many cars have rear fogs. Unfortunately, half of the cars do have front fogs that are on whenever the low beams are on. The worst are those SUV's who's factory fogs are ginormous and 2x as bright as the low beams. They have them set up so they shine up right into oncoming traffic.

 

Super Coop,
Here's my take on this ...
It seems you plan to do your own wiring to save giving $$$ to the dealership.
However you do already have a BC1 in your car that *can* drive the rear fogs. And my guess is that there is probably lots of the wiring needed to get the rear fogs to the back of the car.
I know there was a period when the wiring to the rear fogs was omitted from USA cars - but I can't believe they would omit the full wiring from the harness; I guess there is just some partial harness to get the rear fog signal from the boot area down to the bumper.

Maybe I'm wrong - but it would be worth finding out what work is really needed.
If you are prepared to run wires from front of car to back, you could easily run them from BC1 or wherever to back instead, get the toggle switch and have the proper job installed ...

 

On the question of whether connecting the rear fog might be too much load on the circuit... This may not be sufficient to give an answer but there is a circuit diagram in the front fog retrofit instructions. See page 14 in this document: http://www.motoringfile.com/howto/Fog%20Lights.PDF

I'm getting into dangerous territory with my limited knowledge and experience in this area. It seems to me that the circuit shown would be fine for connecting the rear fog. The critical question is what additional circuitry might be upstream from the F10 fuse in the diagram, which might be sensitive to load. I would guess that there would be only relays and no electronics, but I am only speculating.

 

Okay, after reading through this thread I feel embarrassed to admit that I purchased a front fog retrofit kit from Classic MINI (not yet installed). Anyway, I also received the installation instructions, and it describes both the front and rear fogs, including the early MY2005 that had no rear fog harness.

What the instructions show is that for 07/2004 to 11/2004 builds, a completely new harness is added to go from the rear fog lamp to BC1, at 2.5 hours estimated dealer installation time. Really it is one wire, to be connected to one pin at the BC1 connector. Of course, the toggle switch and programming are also required.

 

Excellent information!
If you can provide Super Coop with the pin connection(s) at the BC1, that provides a different choice ...
The 2-1/2 hours to run a wire from BC1 to rear bumper is a bit unrealistic, and it also no more work than Super Coop was considering to run a wire from the front fogs to the rear bumper.

 

I uploaded the MINI front & rear fog light retrofit installation instructions. It is the MINI PDF document that Classic MINI sent to me.