What do you mean by "Lens Frame?" The covers? Are you all using the original white covers that come with them?

 

Our 2004 Mini Cooper S has a blue/yellow wire for the high beams. Hope this helps.

 

On the frame thing- the housing (silver colored) that holds the glass lens is what doesn't snap in correctly. My kit didn't come with covers- has anyone put that 3M clear stuff on? I put it on the other front lights on the MCS and my Range Rover. Works great!

 

Oh, you mean the actually glass lens itself. Strange ...

I just bought the clear Hella lens caps. They are meant to be on all the time, no worries about rocks breaking the glass. They do mar up after time but those smudges would be on the glass vice the plastic and therefore I think they work great.

 

Yeah, I meant the actual lens, not the cover. It's good to hear you like the clear covers...I've been planning on getting some.

 

ok, tapping into the low beam seemed to have worked. But I've got another problem now. After I turn on my low beam (w/o turning on the FF200) for about 20 seconds, they would start to flash continuously. If I turn on the FF200 along w/ the low beams, then the low beams will operate fine.

What is causing this problem?

thanks

 

bad news, i managed to fried my relay wire after connecting this to the battery bolt that is mounting the MINI's aux battery lead in the fuse box under the hood. When I connect the negative back in the trunk of the MINI, the relay on the harness lit up and started burning. Did I overloaded this wire with the 12V current?

smokey4, you said to tap the relay into the fuse block in the left foot well, can I tap this into the fuse block under the hood also, because the wiring coming through the firewall goes directly to the switch. I'm not sure how to tap this into the fuse block of the foot well and still have it connected to the switch. I think the relay wire that I tried to connect to the battery bolt is the same relay that is running to my switch. (some sort of Y connection?)

God, I feel like such an idiot now. I'm going have to order another wiring harness from the vendor again.

attached is a diagram of how my wiring harness look like. Can someone shed some light for me? I would really appreciate it.

 

Here's how it's supposed to be done...I assume you have a MCS but the only difference with a MC is the + lead will come from the battery.

On the MCS, the +12V lead has to be connected to a power source (this is what drives the lights). Here's my FF 200 install. The 3rd row of pics shows how I tapped the wire coming into the fuse box. The wire coming from the top with the yellow part is the +12V lead for the relay and it is attached to the bolt that's already there. The wire feading this fuse box is very thick and comes straight from the battery in the back. No issues with overloading it.

I grounded the relay on the bolt that connects the fuse box/air filter to the big metal grounding point. It isn't shown but you'll see it when you look.

The wires to the lights go to the lights (you can figure that one out).

The switch will go through to the passenger compartment so you can turn the lights on and off.

The turn-on lead is the lead that opens the circuit that allows the switch to turn the lights on. Without this lead receiving a 12V signal, the switch will not work. You can tap this anywhere. Tap the lowbeams or parking lights if you want to be able to turn the FF200's on without high beams. Tap a source that's on as soon as the car starts up and you can use them anytime, regardless of the MINI's lights.

Hope this helps.

 

No you didn't overload it with 12 volt current. More then likely you've got some crossed wires somewhere and you had a closed/shorted circuit, which in turn will start to melt things. Did you run a ground for the driving lights? Your diagram doesn't show it.

No I didn't. I said, If all you're wanting is power for the switch - so that it can send it back to the relay.......... just tap into the fuse block in the left foot well. The relay power and switch power are 2 different animals.

Look back over the posts and you'll see both myself and kapps saying the same thing...you've got to have trigger (turn-on) power from the switch to the relay so that the relay knows when to close and allow battery voltage to go to the driving lights. Like kapps said you can get that voltage from anywhere that is "hot" when the car is on.

If you are going to still use the switch, then I would tap into the fuse panel in the left foot well with a Add - a - Circuit, since the switch is in the inside of the car already. It's a small fuse extension that takes the place of an existing fuse and allows you to jumper another power run. Do a search and you'll find all kinds of info.

You know at this point I'd give up on the switch feature. I'd go to a local parts store and ask for a horn & light relay, pick up some spade connectors and following the instructions on the back of the relay box and in this thread and all the others, I'd wire these to come on with the highbeams.

Once you've got them working, it'll be much easier to wire in a switch feature. Just my dollar 2.94

 

kapps:

From your pictures, it looks like we have the same exact wiring harness. It appears you connected the wire that has the fuse holder to the fusebox of the MINI. I connected that wire to the extra positive battery post to the left of the fusebox (that should do the same thing right?) As for the turn-on lead (blue wire), i tried tapping that to my low beams. It works fine like that, but if I turn on just the low beams w/o the Hellas being on, the low beams will flicker on and off after about 20 seconds of being on.

smokey4:
by the sound of it, it appears that I do have a closed circuit. I connected both the relay wire and the turn-on lead to the positive terminal of the battery. I forgot to illustrate in my diagram, the grounds for the lights are all connected to the main ground wire so I just need to ground one wire. Since tapping the turn-on lead into the low beams seems to be causing my low beams to flicker, I think i'll try tapping the parking lights instead. Do you happen to know what color wire is the parking lights?

Sorry to you all about my endless questions. I feel like an idiot now trying to do this simple install.

 

If you've got the turn-on lead hooked to the positive side of the battery, what do you have hooked to the lowbeams?

If you meant you've got the power side of the switch hooked to the battery terminal, then just take output side of the switch to the relay (not sure but could be the blue wire in your diagram).

If in your write up you've combined 2 wiring attempts and don't have the turn-on lead hooked up to both, then never mind, but if you do I think we've found your problem.

Sorry I'm no help on the parking light wire, and don't worry about the questions that's why message boards are here

 

That's weird. It *should* have worked either way. I tapped my fog lights for the turn-on lead. There shouldn't be any difference in what you tap as long as it receives a +12V signal.

 

thanks guys for helping me out with this install problem. This is the setup that fried wire. I hooked up both +12V and the turn-on lead to the positive terminal of the battery. I guess I misunderstood a "switched +12V" w/ a continuous +12V.

I tapped the +12V here:


Then I tapped the turn-on lead here (instead of the low-beams, because for some strange reasons, the low beams would flicker continuously after about 20 seconds if I just had them turned on w/o the Hellas being on. If both are on at the same time, then it functions fine)


I think based on smokey4 reply, I might've had a closed circuit wiring it this way. Sounds about right?

 

Hang with me while I think out loud..............

You hooked both the relay power in and the turn-on lead to the battery..... If everything else was hooked up correctly the only thing that should have happened is the lights should have come on and stayed on - regardless of key position.

Then you also hooked the turn-on lead to the low beams - which will take the headlight switch out of the circuit. You direct wired power from the battery to the lowbeams. I'm fairly sure the car didn't like that and was trying to shut them off - while the relay was turning them back on, and that's why they were flickering. You reached a point where the relay said - screw it and couldn't keep up with the repeated open / close commands it was getting and it decided to fry.

If you want to use the battery post for the trigger / turn-on lead power, that's not a problem, but first you have to wire it through the switch. Run it to the hot side of your switch, and then run a wire from the 3rd contact to the turn-on lead pin on the relay. This method will allow you to run the driving lights anytime.

If you want the lights to only be able to come on when other lights are on (be they headlights or parking lights) then pull the power for your switch from either of lights, and the rest will be the same as above.

Let me know what you think..

 

In the 2nd pic, you say you tapped the turn-on lead to the fuse box bolt. That's where you should be tapping for +12V power, not the turn-on lead. In that setup, where did you tap your power lead...from the low beams? If so, that's probably why they start flickering. They can't handle all that power.

Connect the +12V power lead (the one with the fuse on it) to that bolt on the fuse box. Tap the turn-on lead from any +12V source (this wire only senses a voltage, it doesn't draw any real power). Make sure it's grounded well.

 

Actually, that was my initial setup and everything worked (with the exception of the headlights flickering momentarily) w/o the "turn-on" wires being fried. With this setup, the +12V was connected to the aux. battery post (not the fusebox bolt, should be the same thing right?).

It was when I did the above setup is when my wire fried.

The only other thing I could think of is when I installed my own rocker switch, I plugged in the wires into the wrong prong. (there was a POWER and a LOAD). If I mistakenly switched these 2, would it have caused the problem?

 

Kapps/Smokey4

thanks for all your help and input. I finally got around today and redid my hella wiring. The re-install went perfect and everything is working now.

I did end up using the add-a-circuit to tap into the Reverse Light fuse (5A). I guess I could've went with another other switched fuse, but the reverse light was in the center of the fuse box so I had some room to flip the add-a-circuit upside down if I need to.

thanks again
Tony

 

Congrats and glad to hear it Tony!!

 

Thanks to RichV over on Roadfly - I now have a PDF file of my bracket drawings.

4 views of brackets

Have a look at the 2 other drawings in my gallery for the entire bracket "flattened" for easy cutting and good luck.

 

Just thought I post some pics of my post-install for you guys.

 

i installed these a few years back and my relay has since then failed.

anyone have a suggestion as to what i can do without dropping $$$?

thanks in advance, and pardon me if i somehow missed a thread/comment that notes this. :(

 

i installed these a few years back and my relay has since then failed.

anyone have a suggestion as to what i can do without dropping $$$?

thanks in advance, and pardon me if i somehow missed a thread/comment that notes this. :(

 

So you are saying you bought these lights on Ebay, and those brackets CAME WITH THEM? would they be part of the fast mounting system? was this the package you ordered? so they came with brackets perfect for the Mini?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HELLA-COMET-...ht_4790wt_1015

Also, the ones that I see on ebay come with the gray capsule for the back. How did you get the chrome ones? I've been looking into a set of these for my Mini but i need some more info. i want them by christmas time. any info you can give me would be greatly appreciated!