Just took delivery of our 2015 Justa and love it! Very fun car. Not sure how BMW dialed in a bit of rotation into the chassis when going into a turn a little hot but there it is! Very nice for a front drive car!

Ok, my gripe is why do the halogen high beams suck so bad. The pattern is atrocious and they turn off the low beams. Every car I have owned prior leaves high and low on for ultimate night time viewing. Anyone aware of a wiring or software hack to keep both high and low on?

 

This is a big complaint of mine as well. All they need to do is leave the lows on.

I'll probably just install some auxiliary driving lights with a "road" pattern and run them all the time

 

This is why the LED's are a must...they are world's better, not to mention make the car look much better.

 

I am having some option regret. I regret not getting LEDs, navigation, and the automatic. 6 gears are too many to shift manually.

 

I decided against the LED option for the reason that if one fails out of warranty, it is $1K+ per side to replace.

 

Yeah unfortunately the halogens have always been worse than bad IMHO and you can't retro-fit the upgraded lights without spending some serious money.

Driving lights may help but of course they're illegal to run except in conjunction with high beams. But that seems to be your main complaint so it's an option.

 

The LEDs are one of the few things I envy about the F56 over my car. I saw my first F56 on the highway from Phoenix yesterday and they look great. Mine are xenon and I have the blackout option. They light the road great. Can you get the blackout option on the F56? It looks cool during the day.

 

I do agree - but ghastly replacement cost of $1100 per unit here in Canada. In case a tourist from Florida in a Ford Flex abruptly changes lanes that is.

 

When you can run driving lights depends on your state laws. In Texas, you must run low beams to run any auxiliary lighting.

 

LED with cornering lights are sort of blacked out.

Without Cornering:
http://s3.motoringfile.com.s3.amazon...1/DSC_0386.jpg

With Cornering:
http://www.ausmotive.com/pics/2013/M...ooper-S-47.jpg

Not the best comparison, but you can kind of see the difference.

 

Would get the rally lights if you have the halogen. You will need the black or chrome retrofit kit. Then the brackets, and the the button. You don't need the auxiliary kit as that for the LED headlight option.


http://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2014-Cooper-F56-S-3_Door-B48A20A/Lighting/Rally_Lights/








The Led headlights are so bright and with high beam on in LED its crazy bright.

Thanks

 

Huh, you learn something new everyday. Seems backwards to me, but there must be a reason for it.

 

Does anyone know where the headlight relays are located?

 

No, blackout isn't happening with the LEDs, the BiXenons are set way futher back in there. There's more to darken. On the early R56 people would actually open up the assembly and paint it. They'd bake the thing in the oven so they could pry it open. The so-called "Joey Mod". I never had the guts to try that lol. I had no idea it became an option, it was just on my car when I bought it.

 

Yeah that was a fun time, lol. My wife about killed me when she found headlights in the oven.

Never tried it with Xenons though, I'm not that gutsy.

 

That last part about the tranny has me cringing a bit ;-)

You can put LED bulbs in for about $100 give or take. I've read nothing but positive things about them and plan on getting them soon.

 

I think the aftermarket LED bulbs will look completely different from stock LED. The reflectors are going to be designed different, it might end up looking like a cheap HID mod. If I had a halogen, I'd just stick with what it came with.

I ordered my F56 with LED bulbs, and I'm glad I did after reading many posts about how good they are. Consumer reports also reported the same thing about dim halogens, and suggesting the LED upgrade.

Anyone know if stock LED lights are 4 year warranty items? I don't think it's a wear and tear item, as they are suppose to last the lifetime of the car.

 

I really don't know. Haven't come across anyone who has installed them on a Mini. From other cars I've seen, though, it appears you get about the same illumination area as the halogens, only brighter and with a more uniform coverage.

 

I'd be surprised if the retro-fit LEDs are even legal. They need to auto-level due to weight, as far as I know. It's part of the reason the stock fixtures are so expensive in the first place. Or maybe that only applies to lights with a certain brightness threshold. I know the Xenons in past models and the F56 LEDs all have an auto-leveling system in place.

 

Retrofit LEDs look reggae IMO. I see them on 10 year old slammed Corollas and cringe.

 

That's HID. They're just bulbs with a small cooling system on the back.

I have a feeling a lot of what people are referring to are the HID retrofit kits, which are admittedly cheesy.

 

Here is a question: Does anyone know if it is "normal" for the low beam filament to stay energized when you switch to hi beams in most other cars? Do both filaments energize or do they switch like in the Mini? I've never owned a car with H4 bulbs before, just cars with entirely separate hi and low bulbs.

Where I am going with this is that it might be a fairly simple to fix if there is just a relay somewhere that breaks the low beam circuit when Hi is engaged. In other words, find the signal to that relay and disable it so that the low beam never gets the signal to switch off when you engage hi. Just a thought...

 

Both my Elantra 2000 and 2007 switched high beam <-> low beam, only lighting one or the other, not both at the same time. My Mazda seems to do the same. I thought it might be electric current related. Single halogen bulbs were rated 55W. So if you keep both of them on, it'll be 110W probably on a shared wire. 110W would be close to 10 amps. I don't know the wire gauge, but if it's not built for the load, I don't think hacking it is a good idea.

 

Ah, I see. Thanks, that makes sense.

So, it sounds like the most practical solution (assuming still halogens) would be auxiliary driving lights. You could, for example, get some had a fog or "driving"-type pattern and just trigger them off the high beam signal. Then, you have some light ahead without losing foreground lighting. Just my thoughts.

 

I'm assuming two relays one for low and one for high beam. If the low beam relay can trigger on with the high beam that would be great. I bet if both are on the beam pattern would be pretty full from the road up. As it is now the up beams light up the sky and you can't see the road ahead very well. It's actually safer to just keep it on low beams all the time. But that means I have to slow down a bit and that puts me well below the posted speed limit which is unacceptable.