Hey everyone!

I have a 2011 Countryman S All4, and much to my chagrin, I noticed that my parking light/side marker light was out. This is NOT the light in the side scuttle, but rather the light in the amber reflector on the front wheel well fender. This light is supposed to come on when the car's parking/headlights are on, but it doesn't blink when the turn signal is engaged. See the pic below:



For me, this was the passenger side only, so that's what this how-to covers. Driver side would be quite similar, I'd expect.

When I did a part lookup, I mistakenly thought I had to replace the whole side marker assembly (orange reflector and bulb as one unit), so I bought this part on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/TYC-18-6099-00...e+marker+light

Turns out I only needed the bulb, which is much cheaper and readily available at your local auto parts store. Live and learn.

Anyway, the following shows what I did and offers a brief explanation of each step. I think pictures help a lot, so I took a lot of them during the process.

1. Find your jack and take off the wheel. This may not be strictly necessary, but it makes the whole job much easier.



I panicked when I looked under the car and didn't see an obvious jacking point, but googling helped me find a spot. This picture is looking up at the bottom of the car and slightly to forward:



No damage done, and since I wasn't working under the car, no jackstand necessary. The tire-changing jack that came with the car was plenty.

2. Using an 8mm socket/wrench, take out the small screw holding the two plastic fender pieces together. Then, using a small flathead screwdriver for prying and small needlenose pliers for pulling, remove the forwardmost three plastic rivets from the top fender piece. See pics below for clarity:



For the record, this is when I decided it would be much easier if I just took the wheel off. And be careful when prying the rivets out with the screwdriver! My screwdriver slipped and I scratched the fender a bit. I also broke all of the plastic rivets I tried to take out, so I had to buy some new replacements at the auto parts store:



3. Once you have the rivets and screw out, you can CAREFULLY pull back the heavy felt lining of the wheel well to expose the back of the side marker lightbulb socket. You'll see what I mean here:



I pulled back the plastic piece of fender on the outside of the wheel well in order to get a better grip on the felt liner stuff. I thought opening the circular access port at the bottom of the felt liner might help, but it didn't:



4. Find the wiring harness that connects to the side marker lightbulb. It should be pretty obvious:



5. THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO MAKE SURE YOUR LIGHTS ARE OFF so you don't shock yourself. At first, I tried to unclip the harness from the bulb, but then I got smart and pulled the bulb from its socket, pulled the bulb/harness combo out into space where I could see it, and THEN unclipped the harness. Details below:

5.a. A quarter-turn removes the bulb from its socket:



5.b. Drag the harness/bulb out into the daylight:



(Note the silvered-out color of a dead bulb)

6. Plug your new bulb into the wiring harness. BE CAREFUL NOT TO TOUCH THE BULB WITH YOUR BARE HANDS; the oils on your skin make the bulb's life much, much shorter. I used a Ziploc bag to handle the bulb because I didn't have any nitrile gloves on hand.



(Note the non-silvered color of the new bulb)

7. Carefully re-insert the bulb/harness combo into the socket. This takes a bit of finagling, and this is where the Ziploc really came in handy.



8. Turn the lights on and test!



Huzzah!

9. Now to reassemble everything. First, slide the heavy felt liner back under the plastic fender pieces. This also requires patience, and, for me, some gentle work with a flathead screwdriver. Also, replace that circular access cover if you happened to take it off for no reason like I did.



10. Put the 8mm screw back in, and put the plastic rivets back in following these mini-steps:

10.a. This is how the rivet comes in the package:



10.b. Take the rivet apart:



10.c. Find the hole you're going to rivet:



10.d. Insert the receiver/female part of the rivet into the hole:



10.e. Insert the head/male part of the rivet into the receiver/female part:



10.f. Push the head/male part in until it's flush.



11. Once all your plastic rivets and that 8mm screw are back in, it's time to put the wheel back on. This is a little different from other cars I've owned--instead of studs and lug nuts, this has lug bolts, which makes re-mounting the wheel a little trickier. Just takes some patience to align all the holes properly.



Torque the lug bolts to 140 Nm (103 lb-ft), per the manual (don't forget the star pattern of lug bolt tightening). I also took the opportunity to clean the wheel while I had it off.

12. That's it! You're done! Enjoy the fruits of your labor:



Feel free to add your own comments/thoughts/insights.

 

Thanks for the step by step. You have saved me a bunch of time.
Your pictures didn't come up when I looked.

 

My man. I just noticed my light is out as well. 11 Countryman. Same side as yours. WHOOHOO For me you did the nicest write up. I will be tackling this project this weekend.

Again THANK YOU!
What a wonderful community i stumbled upon here at NAM I love my MINI and the group of nut cakes that drive em.

Motor ON.

ProjectMini

 

Started to do this and ran out of time a few weeks ago. Today my son took the car into dealer for oil change and they replaced the bulb for $7, no labor charge. Seems like a bit of work or they have some very simple short cut to do this.

Anyway thanks Portland MINI, deserves a shout out for a good deal in service. Usually we bash the dealer for everything.