Electrical ::Driving lights installation
 

First of all, sorry about my English, I’m not a native English speaker but I will try my best to explain. If my words are not clear enough hopefully the pics will help. You can download the official installation guide from here:http://www.outmotoring.com/images/ho...aux_lights.PDF, I ordered my lights from outmotoring, their price is $100 lower than ebay and their customer service were very helpful, I chose the wrong color of the switch trim, they placed the special order for the color I want(carbon black) and gave me the exchange.

First step: disconnect the negative battery terminal.

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Second step: pull the seal out, nothing hold it, just simply pull, and then remove the lower driver side trim which is held by few white plastic clips. You will only need to open the front part of the trim to get enough space. Remove the little triangle trim if you want more space, you need pull it to the rear direction.

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See that black box, that’s where the driving lights wires go. The box is held by 2 plastic nuts, remove them, disconnect all the wires from the box, then remove the socket casings of the X14260 and X14261, the casings held by those two taps.
Follow the guide to connect all the wires, remove the knee protection panel under the steering wheel, route the switch wire to the correct location. These two steps are the easiest parts. Attention: for 2010 and 2011 minis, you need connect wire A1 to pin 41(pin 41 has a yellow/red wire there, connect it with A1) . Don't connect A1 to pin4, the lights won't wok. Here I want to give special thanks to NM member "slimjimtell" without his help I wouldn't figure out the problem.




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Third step, remove the windshield panel covers. Start from the passenger side, after remove the two nuts, you need to pull it to the front direction.
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Before remove the driver side cover, you need to remove the wiper arms, this part is tough, you need a pulley puller to do the job; there is no way you can do this by hand(the hood blocks some space, even with the puller, it still not a easy job).

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After remove the two wiper arms and the driver side panel you can see the main wire harness, remove the plastic cover, there is a rubber grommet, you need cut a hole on the rubber, route the wire through it, then use black tape to seal it.

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Now, you need to route the wire through the bulkhead panel, follow the main wire harness there is another rubber grommet at the bottom, cut a small hole on it(the space is very limited, you need a small tool to cut) , route the wire through, finally the wire is in the engine bay.

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Forth step, connect the two ground wires, one to the service point terminal under the fuse holder, the other one goes to the point inside the fuse holder. Route the wire following the main wire harness to the front.

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Fifth step, remove the front grille. Start from the lower grille surround which is held by two taps on each side of the grille, then remove the grille, 4 plastic clips on the top and few taps at the bottom.

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Sixth step, install the brackets. Passenger side was easy. On the 2011 mini, you need to cut the driver side brackets to make it fit, 07-10 is no modification needed. This surprise cost me about 2 hours as I’m short on tools.

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The rest parts were easy and smooth, just connect the lights and put everything back together.


Before:

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After:

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END

Awesome writeup. Thank you!! :thumbsup:

Outstanding! Thanks!

Dave

Thanks guys.

Since I ordered the wrong color of the switch trim and the exchange process was taking sometime, so here is the update about the switch part.

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The switch trim is holding by 4 screws, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom.

First, we need remove the two screws behide the odometer, then pop up driver side dash trim, also remove the knee panel under the steeringwheel. Now we can see 3 screws, the one screw we cann't see is behind the air vent.


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Here are the two screws on the bottom


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There is still one screws we cann't see now, in order to access it we need to remove the air vent, not totally remove tho, just get it loose. First, pop up the small cover, then pull the big cover off. unscrew those two screws, now the air vent is loose, it still hold by one screw which you need to remove A pillar to acess it, but we don't need to do that, we already have enough space now. The rest parts are easy, just connet the wire, put screws back.


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Success !
 

This thread was invaluable during our clubs installation of driving lights onto our presidents 2007 MCS. Although we had a copy of the official MINI installation instructions :confused: , we repeatedly referred to these great pictures & notes to help us along :cool: .

We all had a blast this afternoon, a great activity for a rainy & cool day.

Hats off to jackyiscxd for starting this thread. :thumbsup:

Now I just have to find the $$ & time to get a set of driving lights for my own MCS :sly: .

UPDATE: Have now installed OEM driving lights on my own MCS using these instructions. Just a tip if you're doing this yourself, when testing the lights don't forget to turn on the high-beam switch :razz:. This had me rechecking all connections before I realized that I'd not turned on the high-beams.

Overall this took about 4 - 5 hours by myself. Saved the cost of the dealer but if I a put a cost on my time it might have been cheaper to have them do it. Just a thought.

Jackyiscxd:

Excellent write up! As a note, if someone want to get real strong brackets for their Driving Lamps the VIP Custom, http://www.vipcustomparts.com/driving%20lights.htm, Driving Lamp Brackets and pretty strong AND he makes them for the 2011 Mini's. Great Customer Service too!

I used Lamps from Outmotoring and the Customer Service is also excellent from that company.

S.

Where does the wire come out in the car? Can you see it after you take off the bottom panel under the steering wheel? I know this is old but I wana do my driving lights before it gets cold out. Im adding them since I didnt get that option.

I took the new wires through the rubber boot where the wiring loom goes through the firewall by the brake master cylinder. It is a PITA to get a wire through there without removing the windshield wipers and cowl, but it can be done and small hands help.

jackyiscxd shows the location clearly in the good write up he did.

You can't really "see" where the wiring goes through the firewall. I did this all by 'feel'. Locate the other wiring hareness and follow it up under the dash with your hand..... Eventually you will find the rubber boot as shown in the OP.

I pulled the wipers and cowl when I did mine and then used a wirefish to pull the wires from the inside into the engine bay. I also had help for this step (someone to pull while I guided from under the dash).

That is exactly how I did mine WITHOUT removing the cowl. Next time I will remove the cowl!

Pulling the wipers and the cowl presents its own challenges (i.e. refitting the cowl so that everything lines up and 'clicks' into place (patience young grasshopper :mad:), but its much easier on the hands when you need to pull wire through the rubber boot :nod:

Might have taken a toll on my patience at times, but I love the lights now that they're installed. :grin:

Do you have photos???? OOPS!! I just noticed you put them in your Gallery! Looks great!!

Great write up. I made my own switch panel. Maybe one for rear high beams (for tailgaters) and if I cant get the dealer to activate my rear fogs I will wire them to this panel. Im almost done with the driving lights install, didnt have to remove anything just used a hanger to snake wires through.
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Very clean setup! What is the 3rd switch for?

I put a rear "Highbeam" on a car many years ago for a bright backup light and discovered that it sort of worked for tailgaters too; I was always worried about the possibility of jail though for doing it:grin:

S.

Well the 1st on the left is for the driving lights I'm installing now. The 2nd will be for the rear high beams I'm thinking of mounting on the rear parcel shelf behind the rear headrests(James Bond like) for tailgaters and other obnoxious people. The 3rd will be for rear fogs if the dealer cant activate the oem ones. The brackets I used were from VIP. They fot great and no modifying had to be done to them. It was a bit of a pain to modify the grill to accept the brackets. I will post pics when done, maybe by this weekend.