I recently added some rear fog lights and wired them to be used as tail/brake lights. They come on lightly with the head lights and look just like extra tail lights but illuminate brightly when the brake is depressed. The brightness matches the cars original tails lights, whether the lights or brakes are on. The fog lights were $60.00 at Outmotoring and other than some time and connectors nothing else was needed. Please note my car is a 2010 Cooper S and your wiring and color codes may be different. I did it a few weeks ago and later decided to post it here because I have received so much help that I wanted to give back. I double checked all the wiring so that is correct but the bumper cover was done by memory. It was a bit tough but I had already removed it once to install a hitch. I only wished I pulled the fog light connectors down at that time. It looks so much better now and plus I feel it's safer. Good luck if you decide to do it.

Here is how to do it:

There are three parts to installing rear fog light to be used as tail/brake lights. Note wire colors and taillight connector position may be different on your car. This was done with a 2010 Cooper S.

Install new lights
1) Remove fog light knockouts in rear lower bumper cover. There are plastic flips located on the backside of the knockouts. They are a bit tough to dislodge but will pop out.
2) Install fog lights in new space. They snap right in.

Remove rear bumper cover to access wiring
1) Remove two screws visible when boot is lifted.
2) Remove two screws in left rear wheel well.
3) Dislodge plastic rear quarter cover from bumper and car.
4) Gently pull quarter cover out so you can reach in and remove a screw near top and a pin near bottom of bumper. I stubby screwdriver will work but requires more bending of quarter panel cover that I liked. A Chapman screwdriver works much better. The lower pin needs to be pulled out with a flat screwdriver then you will need to pull the pin housing out.
5) Wiggle the bumper cover up and out. It sits on some kind of rail. There is also a plastic pin in the center holding it in place. It will stay with the cover.
6) Look for fog light connected taped to harness with construction tape. Remove tape and snake wires into hole felt with fingers near wire junction. Make sure you pull down enough to reach the light.
7) You should be able to reach over do the same for the right side with removing any hardware on the right side bumper cover. It is a bit tough but it beats pulling the rest of the bumper cover off, which is what I had to do to install the hitch.
8) Once connectors are pulled through install all bumper cover hardware.
9) Take note of wire color codes on each fog light connector. Yours may be different than mine. (see below)

Configure wiring
1) Remove rear passenger side access panel. It removes by depressing front side of panel and pulling out.
2) Pull wire connector off taillight. There is a little clip on the outside edge. Take note of wire color code in position 3. Mine was Gray w/Purple strip. Yours may be different. Wire positions are labeled on the inside edge of the connector. Reinstall connector once you know the color of number three.
3) Remove some tape on the large wire bundle that goes out to the rear. You will need to access about 3 to 4 inches so that you can pull out wires needed to connect.
4) Connect the Gray w/Purple (taillight) with the Black w/White (left side fog) and the Black w/Blue (right side fog). I used quick press terminal connectors any method will do.
5) Test lights before clipping covers shut on connecters. The top portion of the connectors can be used to test power if needed. (note: a good ground is hard to find. I had to scrape a section inside the fender) Apply a little tape to hold everything in place and close up panel.

 

I appreciate your detailed post. I recently installed the rear fog lights from Outmotoring and was going to have the dealer add the rear fog function to the chip (I already have front fogs and switch on my 2010 S Convertible). I like the idea of additional rear brake lights better as this will add a safety feature used much more often than rear fogs.

2 questions before I start: If I already have access to the stock rear fog wiring from below and it is plugged in to the fog lights (doesn't work until the dealer mod to the chip), 1). Do you still need to remove the bumper to access the tail light wiring? 2). Did you change the bulbs from the ones that come in the lights from Outmotoring?

Thanks again!

 

No you will not need to remove the rear bumper cover. That was only to access the wires to plug into the lights themselves. Your convert may have had the wires located easier to access so that is good for you.

I did not change the bulbs that came with the light assemblies. They work fine just as they are.

As far as tail lights vs rear fogs go I get way more use out of wiring them as extra lights. They add safety everytime I have the lights or brakes on. The rear fogs I felt would never be used, which is why I didn't get them on the build. I've had several cars with rear fogs and never used them. Also, the switch is a pain to put in. I did find one post that said the cover can be pulled off using a special tool but I couldn't find the tool searching the web. And last but not least, I haven't read any posts where the dealer was able to reprogram the car to accept the rear fog option. Several have tried and all have failed. Search rear fog lights and view the posts. I haven't checked in a while so I'm not sure if this is still the case.

Good luck...

 

Thanks much. I saw the rear fogs from Outmotoring in an ad, and bought them because they would look a lot better than the black plastic spacers in the bumper (they do, even without lighting). I thought they were just going to be lenses, and was surprised they were the complete rear fog light housing and bulbs, and they took only 5 minutes to pop in.

I bought my 2010 S Convert off a MINI dealer's inventory, did not want to wait to build, but figured I could find one with the color and options I wanted from one of the 3 dealers in the area. I probably would not have ordered rear fogs as an option, but it already had the front fogs and switch. Front fogs are very nice at night on the rural roads where I live to light up the critters on the edges of the road.

The 2010 S had the rear fog wiring just taped to the inside of the bumper. I was hoping they would actually just work when plugged into the new lights, but no luck. Haven't searched the old posts, but thought I had seem somethere that the dealer could reprogram the BCM chip to light them up. Will work on connecting to the brake lights this weekend to finish the project up.

Appreciate your help. Happy motoring in beautiful NH.

 

Glad to help anytime. That's what NAM is all about. Feel free to add your findings on the 2010 S Convert wiring diagram/color code here to help out others with a similar car. Hopefully your color code matches mine making it real easy for you.

 

I spent a few hours yesterday on the project to connect the rear fogs to the rear tailights.

Response to your question: on the R57 Convertible, the rear tailight wire in the #3 position is grey with purple stripe, same as the R56 coupe.

Several significant difference from your experience:

- Access to the tailight in the convertible is through a small access panel on the top of the boot interior side trim. The panel is only about 5X5, but with some twisting and a mirror, you can get your hand in from the top, feel back, and remove the wiring clip.

- As I mentioned before, the wiring for the rear fogs was already taped to the bottom of the bumper, and just needed to be pluged into the new fog lights. Unfortunately, nothing happens when you plug them in as I first hoped. My R57 has the front fogs and switch factory installed, so they may also run the rear wiring. I don't know if the rear wiring is taped to the bumper if you don't have factory front fog lights.

- To access the wiring bundle, you need to take the boot side panel trim out. Not overly complex, but you need to remove 2 plastic fasteners behind the rear seat, remove the corner hard plastic panel (2 torx screws) and the rear hard panel at the bottom of the boot door (3 plastic fasteners, 4 push-on fasteners inside).

-Unfortunately after all of this, I found that the wiring bundle at the rear contains the grey/purple wir, but does not have the black/white or black/blue wires for the foglights. Either the rear fog wires are split off prior to the boot, or I worked on the left side, and I noted your picture has the wiring on the right side...maybe the wiring for the fogs is only in the right side wire bundle? I didn't have time to pull out the right side trim, etc. but may play with that in the coming weeks.

Overall, convertible boot and sides are very different to work on than the coupe, because of the smaller boot size due to the extra hardware for the top mechanism, and the space taken up by the roll bar mounting and roll-over actuators behind the rear seats. Somewhat of a PITA to work on due to the limited space on the sides.

So project is on hold for a while...did get to learn a few things about my MINI on a nice afternoon!

 

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the wiring is switched to the other side in an R57 compared to a hardtop. That was true for the 1st gen convertible vs hardtop.

 

Can this mod be drone if my Cooper already has rear fogs?

 

Yes, you can add the wiring mod if you have the rear fog lights but you will need to add a diode on the wire feeding the lights so the power doesn't back feed. If you search the site I think someone already posted about it.

 

I'm getting ready to do this to my 09 this week but i have some questions. So i just pull the wiring down from the back of the bumper and plug the fogs in. Then use connectors to hook the grey/purple with the black/white and black/blue. Now what about the ground? You lost me on that step. What do I ground and where?

 

The only electrical connections needed are mentioned. No grounds are used and the return vdc is already part of the harness. All's we are doing here is tapping off the brake signal and feeding it to our new rear fog lights.

Good luck...