Hello I just got some factory clear tailights for my DS mini S off ebay. they are perfecl like new and only half price. I installed them and soldered a jumper wire to make the fog light come on with the brakes. I think this is required anyway to be legal. However my question is, my tailights came with those silvery blye hue bulbs to hide there real color ( Red) (yellow). were these the bulbs that came with the kit from the dealer? also all of my bulbs are soldered into the plate which seems odd to me. Do the bulbs come soldered on on the clear tailighs or is that something the previous owner of these tailighsts did?
I noticed at the auto parts store the other day that you can get LED replacement bulbs in red and yellow. Has anybody tried these as a replacement in the clear tailights? seems like they are bright enough but it seems as there is a pink hue to the tailights with the bulbs I am running now.

thanks

 

Pat W,
Aloha and welcome to NAM.
I have the white/clear tail lights. The bulbs are blue tinted and are soldered into the sockets. You can replace bulbs (top 2 are P21W and bottom is P21/5W) by using your stock light socket bracket and putting in the aftermarket bulbs there. The pink tint to the light is from needing to add the white tail light wiring kit $125 which allows for a red not orange/pink light (voltage change).

Also to be legal you will need to add red bumper reflectors. MINI sells a kit for $35 but there are different ones for the standard bumper or aero bumper. You do have to cut ovals out of your bumper to install the reflectors.

 

anybody had to replace these stock blue hugh bulbs yet? I want to stear clear from LED unless if there is a style that really works well.

 

I have run mine without any red reflectors on the rear of my car for over a year without a single problem with the coppers. Have 3 brothers who are cops and their advise was to just run with the lights on during the day if I was worried about it, which I am not.

If you do worry and or get pulled over, carry a roll of red reflective tape. You can buy it at any Pepboys or Autozone. If the cop makes an issue of your tails, just stick some of the reflective tape on the bumper right then and there.

As far as the bulbs I would steer clear of LEDs especially for brake lights. Chris Tuls ran them for awhile. The problem is that they are really hard to see during the daytime as they are not as bright and do not use the reflective coating of the housing as well as standard halogen bulbs.

AFAIK all the bulbs are soldered in from the factory. I just unsoldered the yellow one and replaced it with clear for my reverse lights.

 

I've had the factory clear tailights with no reflectors for 3 years with no problem. My left tailight is still using all of the original 02 bulbs, my right brake light has gone out twice. I just unsoldered the bulb and replaced it with the fancy Polarg bulb (the clear/crystal bulb, beware - they are $20 each). If my left one ever goes out I will probably replace them both with the cheap red bulbs, they arent that noticeable in my opinion.

 

I keep an autozone bag with a package of stick on reflectors in the boot. I figure if I ever get pulled over I'll just say that I just replaced the lights and "Just ran to autozone to get the reflectors". It's worth a try, but no issues so far.
Annette