stupid mistakes: don't let them happen to you.
 

So today... my bf requested we go motoring in the mountains, hike, and get some pie after. Sounded good, so we headed out. We stopped and hiked at this place we hadn't been before, had a good time, and came back to the car to be on our way. We get in the car, battery's dead. Luckily I carry jumper cables and we were able to flag down a nice person who gave us a jump. We were still confused why the battery was dead, we hadn't left any doors open or anything. A few miles down the road my bf realized the switch for the driving lights was flipped. He had accidentally hit it with his backpack when we got out to hike. Sadly, I had the covers on and they are now misshaped and melted to the lights. Wish I could have used the flatter switch I picked out first.

RIP driving lights.

So... what stupid mistakes have you made in your mini?

Yeah I'll bet those covers did get a bit warm, what about the lights themselves, did they burnout?

I did this once back in the 80's. Had a set of Orange Flame Thrower fogs mounted below the bumper of a Toyota Starlet :) Hey no laughing out there, it had a Kamei airdam too :lol: .

My covers melted too.

I would make sure that you change the power supply from your switch to the relay. Right now, it is not hooked up correctly if the lights can stay on when ignition is off. Tap into a fuse which gains power only when ignition key is turned to pos 2, that way when you shut down your MINI, the lights go off automatically.

Lights themselves should have a separate fuse getting their power from the battery via the relay....

hopefully I can save the lights but when I tried to get the covers off it was no dice. I think the glass might break if I get the covers off. We will see, I have no time to fiddle with it in the next week cuz I'm going out of town =(

Do it again. Turn your lights on to soften the plastic enough to pull/scrape the plastic off the glass lights. You may lose the covers but save the lights.

good idea, hadn't thought of that, thanks :)

If your going to heat up the covers, might I suggest a heat gun instead of using the lights? I would think you have a better chance of burning out the bulb if you leave the lights on to generate heat.