Here you go Paul: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=8012111375 This link is for the buyer I used, but the auction has ended. You can get contact info from the link or just watch for a new auction. Shipping and customer service were very good. He does charge extra for the covers, but he's still way under what other folks sell the lights for.

The kit is marketed for the Cooper, not the S, but mine had a flyer (from hella) in it saying that it was now for all models. The instructions that came with mine also covered both models.

I wired mine per the instructions and no additional "work" was needed to make them come on with anything other then the brights. You will be tapping the highbeam power lead for the relay to sense when to light the lights.

Also, there should be no difference between model years when it comes to mounting these lights. My car is an 02, but I have a 04 chrome grille, a 04 DS grille and the aerokit grille all drilled to accept these lights.

BTW, I really love these lights, can you tell??

how big are these compared to PIAA or oEM?

Smokey,
thanks for the info! I really appreciate it. I emailed the Ebay seller you got your FF200 kit from- they are no longer available at that price! I am going to get some HID bulbs for our MCS tomorrow- see how that goes, then look out for a deal on an FF200 kit.

Thanks again,

Paul.

Cant speak for sure towards the PIAA, but I think they are a 6" light.

The OEM are a 5" round light, 3" deep. The Hella's are an oval 5.5" x 5" high and believe it or not they are only 2.5" deep. Looking at both sets next to each other the OEM appear shallower, but the curved glass adds to it's size.

Your welcome, and I think your plan is a good one. The seller seems to float one of these sets out on eBay every couple 3 months. Let me know which brand you end up with on the HIDs, might be interested in a set for my son's cooper.

With the assistance of my father, a mechanic, I installed the Hella driving lights on my '06 MCSC this past weekend.

First of all, I love the lights. They have a visual heft to them that I think looks great on the car -- the "bullet shape" back of the Hellas have a retro feel. The brackets seem to protrude the lights from the car more than the OEM lights, which may bother some (not me). And the Hellas seem to turn night to day (I haven't compared them to other lights).

However, there were some obstacles in the install that I'll mention here in case anyone else goes for the Hellas. This is not meant to be exhaustive; just highlighting a couple of trouble spots. It assumes you're somewhat familiar with the install.

MOUNTING BRACKETS TO GRILL: The hardware changes recommended by smokey4 are a must. We first tried installing a bracket with the supplied screws and clip-on washers, but they did not work well. Different from smokey4, we had to install the bolts pointing upward (couldn't get them between the grill slats) and topped them with cap nuts (a 1/2" bolt would have worked better than 3/4").

Using a shorter bolt to mount the light to the bracket, as smokey4 recommended, is also a good idea.

WIRING: The terminal on the power wire would not fit over the post on the fuse box. We cut it off the terminal and replaced it with a larger one.

The instructions said the blue/yellow wire was the high-beam wire, which you splice onto to activate the Hellas. But the blue/yellow wire left the Hella lights on in low beam. We determined the high-beam wire was actually white/blue. Perhaps something has changed in MINI production, I don't know. The instructions said to tap into the high-beam wire near the light, but we chose to access the wire (after opening the wrap) closer to the bonnet hinge.

I've purchased an override on/off switch that I will probably install and hide under the dash somewhere, just in case.

My thanks to smokey4 for his excellent post.

A picture of the car with the lights is below.

You are correct, the instructions must be wrong. I'm looking at the electrical wiring diagrams section of the Bentley manual. The yellow/blue wire is low beam and white/black is high beam. I'm working on an FF200 fog light kit on the lower grill and I plan on tapping the fog light power instead of the low or high beams. I'm glad I've got the wiring schematic for the fog lights right in front of me :nod: . Tomorrow, I cut through my M7 grill and run wires. Hopefully, it'll be done by the weekend.

Has anyone seen the other version, the FF 300's? They have a really great looking oval shape that might be fantastic. Only problem is that I cannot find a picture to show me if they are chrome housings?

The FF200s are oval too. I do not think the 300s are chrome but have "paintable" backs (so do the 200s). However, they 300s are pretty huge, more than 7" wide!
http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hell...F300/FF300.jsp

Yeah the FF200's are oval but nothing like the 300's! Those babies are 3 5/8" high by 7 1/2" wide :nod: While the 200's come in at 5" by 5.5".

I think you're right Andrew that shape would rock! Here the pic from chow's link
http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hell...ages/FF300.jpg

I did a bit more searching and found the same thing as you, smokey. . .

If I can get them to make them in a chrome housing, then it will be a hard choice between the 200''s and the 300's for my wife's Cooper. . .

heck, I might like them so much that I'll ditch my PIAA's and switch them for the Hella's on my MCS. . . .

I'm trying to work out a "possible bad purchase" of some Hella lights from an eBay seller, they are more appropriate for an under bumper mount then the advertised MINI application :roll::sly: If I'm successful, these just became an interesting contender :nod:
I picked them up to go on the Boy's car, but I'm digging those ff300's :thumbsup: The nice part about the "paintable backs" is we can shoot them in a semigloss black to match the aerogrille, as he's not a chrome fan.

Drop me a line if you find a good price on a set!

If you can live with 7 1/2" lights, which are pretty huge, then you can go with Black Magics which are Stealth:thumbsup:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwangi
The instructions said the blue/yellow wire was the high-beam wire, which you splice onto to activate the Hellas. But the blue/yellow wire left the Hella lights on in low beam. We determined the high-beam wire was actually white/blue. Perhaps something has changed in MINI production, I don't know. The instructions said to tap into the high-beam wire near the light, but we chose to access the wire (after opening the wrap) closer to the bonnet hinge.


I just finished wiring up my Hella driving lights. I wired to the white/blue and guess what, the driving lights lit up with the low beams. When I wired to the yellow/blue, the driving lights lit up with the high beams only.

For me, the instructions were correct. 2005 MCS, xenon headlights.

Just bought my kit on Ebay. I'll install it as soon as it arrives- pretty sure I'll be looking for this post for guidance!

Cheers,

Paul.

Smokey! I need help! I ordered the Hella Comet FF200s and the instructions are telling me to tap the green wire to the blue/yellow wire. Well, there is no blue/yellow wire . . . can you tell me what to do? By the way, I have Xenon headlamps.

What year is your car? As there seems to be a change in wire color on the 05 and newer cars.

On my 02 MCS and our 04 MC the highbeam wire is yellow with a blueish green stripe. On the wife's 05 I can't tell for sure but based on the gauge of the wire the highbeam is a white wire with blue stripe. Which would agree with Gwangi and saratogamini's findings.

Of course a multimeter and a straight pin would verify this easily. Stick pin through wire insulation and look for voltage when highbeams are on.

Good luck

I'm not an electrician but there's a guy in our club that was helping me and couldn't figure out which wire it was as both low and high beams are energized when you turn on the highs. I have an 06 and I have the heated washer fluid . . . if that makes a difference.

Hmmmmm, yet another reason not to have the DRL activated :lol: or at least that's the only reason I can come up with for both lights being energized.

Ok, just went out and checked on the 05, with a voltmeter. Hope the 06's are the same.

Drivers side - Highbeam: Green with Yellow stripe

Passenger side - Highbeam: Yellow with Blue stripe

Even if you have a different color setup, I believe that the wire that is on the right side of the connector is the high beam. That seems to be standard between the models we have in the garage.

Good luck and let us know if this works out.

GRosCoopster,

Did you get this worked out??

Thanks for the info, Smokey4. That affirms the color scheme I found out by another guy on NAM. However, to avoid legality questions and future safety inspection hassles, I've opted to install a toggle switch to have the lights on at will. I'll keep you informed of my progress. BJ may help me with this one as I am a novice electrician.

hi guys

for those of you looking to buy the Hella FF200 comets, you can either get them here:

http://www.buyautotruckaccessories.c...driving-lamps/

or

http://www.rallylights.com

Then just buy the mounting brackets separately from mini-madness. The total for everything comes out to about $200. That's way cheaper than buying the entire Hella FF200 MINI kit. I should be getting mines sometimes today from UPS. This weekend will be the install.

I do have a question though. Do you guys have to disconnect the battery first before the installation (to avoid any possible electrical shock)?

thanks

Oh yes! Step one of any ASE Certifiied repair is to disconnect the negative cable from the battery :nod::nod:

You're right, buying the way you did is cheaper then the MINI marketed kit, but I picked mine up on eBay for even less. Let us know if we can help during the install!

smokey4

thanks for the offer. I'll probably be asking lots of questions once i get my hands dirty. I do have a couple of preliminary questions though:

1) do most of you guys use a switch/toggle for the FF200 inside the MINI? or is it just hard-wired into the high-beams, so when the high-beams are on, the FF200s also come on.

2) what are some other switches you guys use instead of the one that came w/ the FF200s.

thanks again

Since I have the FF200 fog lights, I spliced my turn-on lead to the stock fog light instead high beam. I just leave the switch in the on position and packed it away into the driver side cowl area. That way, whenever I flick the toggle switch to turn the stock fog lights on, the Hella's will turn on too. I was thinking of eventually just cutting the wires and hard wiring this setup without the switch but never got around to it.

Driving lights should really be on only when the high beams are on. It is fine to hard wire the turn-on lead to the power for the highs. Remember, I'm talking turn-on lead...not power lead. That should be taken directly off the battery (Cooper) or the wire into the fuse box (Cooper S).

You're right, its crazy that the FF200 MINI kit (part #74519 for ~$300) is twice as much as the basic FF200 kit (part #74230 for ~$125) just for the correct brackets. However, I can't find the brackets by themselves at MINI Madness. All I see is the full kit for $299 (which is not the FF200) at http://www.mini-madness.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=65.

Can you provide a link to the brackets? Anything else I'm missing (wiring harness, instructions issues?) if I do go the standard FF200 + MINI bracket route?

I really appreciate the pics of mounting & wiring, and other insights from the folks in this thread.

Thanks!!