Thanks DrZ. I will definitely be doing this to mine very soon.

 

I finally had a chance to spend some quality time with the front-end plastics and these LED DRL/fog units.

Sadly, I have bad news. Not only are these lights as sold electrically incompatible with my 11/11 R55, they are also mechanically incompatible.

On the stock assembly, the city light socket is at the top. On these units it's toward the bottom, and offset to the right (as viewed from behind).

This means that for the light on the right side of the car, the wiring harness for the city light is just barely long enough. However, that's the easy side.

On the left side, the position of the city light connector interferes with the washer reservoir; it's not possible to plug the city light in without jacking the back of the light up and aiming it towards the ground.


I have persevered, and with a lot of butchery I have something that sort-of works, but really, these lights are a bust for at least the LCI cars, and possibly earlier.

Since I've had zero responses to my request for anyone that has these installed to talk about their electrical (and thus mechanical) setup, I don't have much in the way of positive input. If you're preparing in advance, follow the pictorial I made above, but instead of setting up to plug into the bulb holder, I would look for a mating connector for the city light wiring connector and make a pigtail setup instead. You'd need to seal against water ingress, but that would be the easy part.

I may get a couple of 63128380205 (the bulb holders) and see if I can cut one down to make a pigtail out of next time I hate myself (e.g. if I do a FMIC and pull the bumper cover completely off).

In the meantime - proceed with caution, and if you do succeed, please post here with your results.

Edit: Actually, how the heck has anyone mounted these? The bracket on the housing that the stock LED regulator is mounted to is where the adjuster attaches on my car. There's no way you could have both attached at the same time...

= Mike

 

Sweet rolling pic!

 

@ DrZ, I'll be installing these on my 2010 MCS once the yellow fog bulbs and Lamin-X arrives. I'll let post how it goes.

 

Mine are in transit from OutMotoring now and after reading this thread I am not certain I still want them. If they flicker, that will look cheap and aftermarket. If they are on all the time and I could be cited for that in Massachusetts, that won't work for me. They also require a lot more work to install than I thought they would. Wish I had found this thread before my order. It also isn't clear if they'll work on my '13 JCW Coupe when it arrives. Loving the look, though. It would be good to see PutMotoring post here and mention any changes or improvements they've made since getting feedback.

 

Not sure how you could be cited for them in MA as they would operate just like any other DRL out there. If its the LED's your worried about... some of the Mercedes have LED's as DRL so it really isnt much different than that IMO. Cant you install some kind of resistor to prevent the flickering?

 

I'm really glad I sub'ed to updates on this thread. I was thinking about asking for a pair of these for X-mas, but after the horror stories, I'm afraid for my 2012 R55 LCI (2012 Mini Cooper Clubman S).

I'm really intrigued by DrZ's electrical fix, which I feel comfortable doing (though I don't understand all the electrical theory behind it).

Should I pass on these until they're really solidly made or what?!

Also, I read a lot about DRL's, my daytime running lights are my headlights (bi-xenon). When I go through my nav and turn DRL on, my headlights turn on. Do other people have something different?

-Nick

 

FYI, there have been 3 versions of these LED lights and there were a handful of units that had flickering issues about 6-9 months ago but I think nearly all of them were fixed with the version 2 'blackbox Module'. At that time there were 2 part numbers (07-2010 as well as one for the 2011+). About 2 months ago a new version was released which fits on all current gen2 MINIs/Countryman. Since the Version 2 update we have not had any (as I recall) complaints about flickering, etc.

 

It is worth noting that on the 2013 model the Driving Light function has to be activated in order for these to function...

 

^ Thank you for clearing everything up!

 

Good stuff. Any feedback on the electrical cable length/needing extensions? Or the physical mounting issue?

If all of this is pretty much a non issue in the later revs, then perhaps I'll put it on my letter to Santa.

 

Just hooked up these lights and they looked great and the install was easy. However I have one problem...as soon as I hook them to the battery, they will not go off.

 

Any ideas on why they would be on without the lights on or car turned on? Installed mine today and as soon as I reconnected the battery, with the wires attached as directed, they came on and stayed on. Didnt go off until I took wires off the battery.

 

Hi Aaron,

My car arrives this weekend. Before I go about installing this can you clarify your statement a tad?

Do you mean "driving light" function or "daylight running lights"? My dealer refers to Driving Lights as the add-on lights that go in the bonnet/grill area and Daylight Running Lights as the lower ones we are talking about in this thread.

I need to know if my dealer should deliver the car with Daylight Running Lights programmed as always on or if, as your post suggests, I need them to enable something for the driving light option even though I don't have any "driving lights" on the car. It sounds like something needs to be programmed anyway for these LEDs to work properly but I don't know which one it is.

I'm assuming the problem just described above where the lights turn on whenever power is connected to them regardless of the car being on is probably some sort of wiring error.

 

They should only be on if your car is turned on. Get a hold of Aaron at Outmotoring for help, he was great fixing my problem.

 

These are sold out on the website, any idea of a time frame when these will be back in stock, Aaron?

 

ryoma111,

I noticed your pics that your xenons have a yellow look to them when they are on. Did you do anything to them? It looks nifty...

 

the manufacturer is making adjustments to the last "black box" design and has a revised design in testing - hence the handful of issues in the last batch (sold in the last 6 weeks)...they are saying they start shipping the new design in 2-3 weeks...

 

Thanks very much for the update.

Meanwhile, what should I do with the ones I have sitting in a box ready to install? I'd hate to get a friend to help me remove the bumper and everything only to find there's an issue with them. Should I send them back before installing them and chill while you guys implement a fix or do these issues only affect a small number of them and you advise using the ones I have now?

 

Ok this install isn't rocket science here but it still will not work correctly on my MINI. I just received the new converter and the problem is still the same. As soon as there is power hooked to them, they stay on ALL THE TIME. They do not shut off if I turn off the DRL on the MINI, they do not turn off if the lights are off, they do not turn off when I lock the car, they do not turn off if I take the green wire off the white/blue wire, they do not turn off until they are unplugged from the battery! I know this sounds like Dr. Suess but this is really frustrating! Aaron help!

 

Ok here is my fix and it's funny because after reading this thread a few times it is a hybrid of a few solutions.

Black wire- battery ground

Blue wire- white/blue headlight wire

Green wire- white/blue wire...but lights were dim and flickering at idle a bit...SO took off green wire and lights are bright and not flickering (look better anyway).

Turned OFF the DRL in the SETTINGS menu on the MINI.

Result: LED Lights come on with headlights, go off with headlights. Never wanted DRL in the first place so no lights during the daytime. LED are on with low and high beam. Fog lights still kick off when hi-beams are used.

If anyone sees a problem with this please let me know but this seems to be the only way they will work because no matter what I did, hooking straight to the battery put power to them whether the car was on or off...kinda like some 12 sockets in cars. The converter box didn't get hot or any of that so I think all is well.

 

Did the post directly after your post help resolve your issue? If not, please email me directly so we can work this out for you.

 

Subscribing to this thread to see when the new/update version ship.

 

Aaron, yes the solution below has solved the problem. Don't know if you want to give feedback to the mfg but the directions included did not work at least on mine. Thanks again for the help and they look GREAT!!

 

Has anyone installed these on a Countryman? I'm wondering if the front bumper would need to be removed like the cooper s?