I just finished writing up experience putting on a curt hitch and wiring for my '09 MCS. Knowing very little about how to do these things, I forged on and with the help of some family got it done Plenty of pictures and info.

 

*

 

Nice Work!

 

Nice work, and I see you got the PDF up successfully, I've moved this tot he how to section so the next person looking for the info can find it better.

 

Thanks for the write up and pics, I plan on buying and installing a hitch on my '09 Clubman S when it warms up a bit.

 

good work Bruce, and nice write up!

Ive towed my boat thousands of miles with my 07 car. No issues to report at all.

best luck
e

 

Nice write-up. Thanks for posting.

I ran into some issues with my '08 and I believe it is because some cars have different tail light wiring that what your chart states in the .pdf.

After fiddling with the lights on my car for several hours (yes, hours!), I almost gave up in frustration. I'm pretty good at electrical wiring and automotive wiring, but nothing prepared me for what I found in my car....

I think this may be due to my car having Comfort Access (just speculation)....my tail lights have only single filament bulbs (2 for the tail/brake and 1 for the turn signal). Get this....the two bulbs for the tail light/brakes (single filament, mind you) work on dual voltage! They both act as tail lights and brake lights. When the brake pedal is depressed, the voltage goes up to 12v, but it is more in the neighborhood of 6v(?) when they operate as marker lights. Sometimes they both are on, sometimes not....it's all controlled by the computer. This makes it basically impossible to tap into the tail lights for anything but the turn blinkers. I nearly went insane testing the wiring since the two bulbs act differently depending on whether or not the ignition is on. I would test it and then test again and get a different reading...because sometimes I had the ignition on and sometimes off.

I ended up tapping into a solid blue wire that ultimately ran to the rear wheel arch marker light for the tail light trigger wire for the trailer converter. Not finding any other place to go for the brake light, I ended up taking a trigger wire all the way up to the top of the hatch and into the boot brake light wiring (3rd brake light). It all works great now, but lots of frustration and testing to get it that way.

I have never encountered this "dual voltage" business before this car. Like I said before, I believe it has something to do with my car having Comfort Access. For example, when I depress the lock/unlock button on my remote, the tail lights on the car slowly brighten and dim....I guess this is the only way that MINI could make this effect work.

So, be warned...if you have comfort access, your trailer wiring will be a bit more of an ordeal than an ordinary car....at least my assumption is that it is because of the comfort access. I can only guess that is the reason.

If you tun into the same issue as I had, give me a shout and I help the best I can. Learn from my mistakes!

Chris

 

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You will not live long enough to make them all yourself."

Are you a MINICCI member? Just joined a couple weeks ago, myself. I may give you a shout if I run into issues with my hitch install.

 

I am attempting to wire a Curt hitch to my '10 MCS, and am now totally confused. According to the instructions there is a combo wire for the "stop/tail",the dual power bulbs mentioned by Fastlane above. However, the wiring harness has separate brake and tail wires. I'm puzzled as to why and what to do with the separate wires????

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TAS

 

As I am reading FASTLANE, he took the trailer brake or stop wire to the brake light above the boot which is the "3rd brake light". The trailer tail light wire he took to the light that is located on the wheel well fender.

Curious that that his '08 and your '10 have wiring that seems to match, while my '09 is different. Must be that comfort lighting. I have to check to see if I have this comfort lighting feature.

Hope this helps, perahps FASTLANE with chime in.
Best of luck... What do you plan on towing?

 

I guess the question I have is do you have separate signal wires for the brakes and taillights coming from the car's harness? Or does yours have a single feed that controls both brake and tail lights?

I plan on towing a Honda CRF450X and getting a hitch mount for my mountain bike

Thx for your help.

TAS

 

As I recall (it's been a few months since I've done this, now....) my tail lights did have the separate colored wires which made it appear that there was a separate brake/tail light bulb, but that was not the case. Mine had the same wire layout as the diagram in the .pdf of the OP above...it's just that the wires did not function the same as OP stated that his functioned. Both wires functioned differently depending on if the car was on, brakes were pressed, lights were on, etc... That's where this dual-voltage stuff came into play. If you use a multimeter or voltage tester, you will see what I mean. If you pull out the two bulbs in the "red" section of your tail light assembly and look at them....and the two bulbs are just single filament bulbs, then you are probably in the same predicament that I was in.

You can probably tap into a brake light wire somewhere else in the fender wiring harness near one of the tail lights.....I chose not to dig any further into that bunch of wires and just run a lead up to the top of the boot hatch and tap into the 3rd brake light above since I knew which wire it was for sure.

Let me know if I can help. I remember being very frustrated while doing all of this until I figured out what the issue was. I've done trailer lighting on several cars in the past and have never run into this before!

 

Yes, I have been a MINICCI member for a couple of years. I've never attended the dinner/meetings before, but have gone on some of the drives and track days. Seems to be a nice group of people. Maybe I'll run into you one of these days. What side of town are you on?

 

Fastlane,

Thx that was what I suspected. My problem was the I have the converter that only has one wire for both brake and trailer. I think you have solved the riddle. I need to get a converter that has separate feeds for the brake and tail, and wire them as you suggested. And yes mine has the comfort access. (which I loved until now!)

Thx for the help!

TAS

 

When you get the correct trailer light converter, make sure you get a "powered" unit like this...

http://www.etrailer.com/Vehicle-Wiri...id=20081000104

You can't get the el-cheapo type from Walmart of Autozone that just takes the power from the car's lights themselves to power the lights on your trailer. The MINI's lighting system is controlled by the computer (like everything else) and things will go haywire. The car will think that a bulb is out or something. The powered converter uses the car's wiring as a "signal" to turn power on to the various trailer lights which are then powered by a separate lead to the battery (or wherever you tap it off of...i.e. outlet plug in the boot? fusebox? etc.). You can find these converters much cheaper than $80. Check around online. I think the one I bought recently was more like $40. You can also get them from Uhaul.

Curiously, there is an install video on the page I linked to showing how to install this box on the MINI. They make it looks so easy....but mine certainly didn't work like that car did! It had the same colored wires, however each wire behaved differently depending on whether the car was one, the lights were on/off, etc. It just about drove me to drink before I figured it out.

Good luck. Yell if you need any help.

 

Boy was I clueless, I've never encountered the "comfort access", and now that I know what it is... My MCS doesn't have it.

Glad you figured out the converter thing. Thanks for continuing to watch this thread Fastlane.

 

You'll find the converter install very straightforward without the "comfort access". Once all the parts are off your MINI, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to hook it up.

The change I made to my install was that I put the converter in the driver's side taillight well. The pigtail for the trailer comes out in the tool kit area and is stored under the floor of the boot, rather than have it hanging underneath the car. I can just run it out the bottom of the hatch when I need it.

 

Thx for all the tips! I'll have it done for this weekend. I agree that comfort access really confused the issue and added hours to the diy for me.

I really like the idea of leaving the wiring under the boot.

I feel like I became an "expert" on trailer wiring this week. LOL!

NAM members saved the day for me.

 

I really need to get the hitch for my 07 mini for my hitch bike rack; however, I just installed the JCW aero kit. Does anyone know if the hitch will line up on the black rear grill like it does on the Cooper S? I know the JCW rear bumper has a way thinner grill. :(

Has anyone get this done on a 07+ JCW?

 

Just a follow up note for future DIY'ers. Mine was a '10 MCS WITH comfort access. After much trial and error I got it to work fine using the Curt converter # 56200. Here are a couple of tips.
1. make sure you have a decent voltmeter. The tail and brake are the same wire.
2. Wiring is as it states in the schematic included. Exempt on mine the Brake/tail seemed to have two wires at the tail light assembley doing the same thing. I used the one nearest the turn signal and it has worked fine.
3. If you tap into the 12v power adapter in the boot, make sure the car is running when testing is done. Not sure if this is a comfort access thing but it messed with me a couple of times when installing.

GL and I hope this helps someone in the furture.

TAS

 

That's normal, even without the comfort access option. Something to remember when you have a trailer hooked up -- no lights without the engine running, or the accesories on (key in & start button pressed, w/o brake pedal or clutch depressed).

 

Hey TAS,

I hate to revive this thread, but I'm having a similar issue.

I'm installing trailer hitch wiring on my 2011 Countryman. Like yours, my converter has 5 wires for the car side: power, ground, left turn, right turn, and brake/tail light. It's functionally equivalent to this: http://www.etrailer.com/Custom-Fit-V...id=20081174767

I've found the proper connections for all of the car-to-converter wires except the brake/tail light. I also have the comfort access, and there isn't a really obvious car wire to splice into.

You mentioned that you spliced into the wire in the taillight assembly nearest to the turn signal wire. On my taillight wiring assembly plug, there are little numbers on each connection pin, 1-6. For me, 1 is the turn signal wire, and 6 is the ground. If that's the case, then you tapped into wire 2 for the brake/tail?

I was going to splice the brake/tail into the 3rd brake light, but I think that would only activate when you hit the brakes and wouldn't work for normal running tail lights. Fastlane's solution above makes it seem like his PWM converter had independent wires for the brake and tail, whereas ours are combined.

Sorry for the essay, but could you please confirm that you tapped your tail/brake wire into the #2 of the taillight wiring harness?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Jakers