I was driving home (about 15 miles) and i'm pulling up to my aparment and i see this smoke coming from the left hand side rear... My sun roof was open... I smell this burning smell.... I pull over right in front of my apartment, get out, and the left rear light is smoking... the damage:

 

that is real screwy, never heard of that one before. I hope it didnt do any other damage.

cheers, jason

 

[sniff, sniff] I smell warranty!
I've noticed that the side markers certainly do get warm - I hope your tragic fire isn't a sign of things to come...

 

i sure hope not... I've not had a problem up until now:(

30,700 miles

 

That's really weird. What's that orange stuff and where did it come from? Did the bulb short or something?

If this part had some kind of design flaw, I'd think we would have heard of this happening before.

Please post the explanation if/when you get one!

 

What's that orange stuff on the light and on the black trim??
It almost looks like you took a hit from a paint ball, or something similar. It looks like that might have broken your lense, and then been "cooking" on the bulb. Is that possible??

 

Euro-spec ones are guaranteed to fix the problem.

 

I believe the orange stuff is melting of the plastic.

 

You're on-scene, so obviously in the best position to check it out, but its wierd that red plastic would melt orange, and you'd think the melt would be centered around the hole in the lense, and it doesn't look like it is. Also. melted plastic is still plastic after it cools. Does it feel like melted plastic?? Oh, well. Let us know how it turns out.

good luck!

 

Its almost a dirty powder. Beneath the red lens cover, there is an orange thing...
I just went out and took more pics.

I called patrick mini, and they said they will be waiting for it to be looked at.

Tow truck is on its way out right now (Patrick mini said not to drive it, because even if the lights are off, the electrical system could still be running and cause even more damage)

So Now i get to wait in my cozy apartment with the laptop right by the front window, and wait for the tow truck:p

Its definately not a paintball though.

 

Looks like rust to me... Maybe it was full of water and shorted out?

 

This really peaks my curiosity.

So you think the orange stuff came from inside the lens?

Part of me thinks the lens got broken by road debris, and the bulb shorted as a result. But that seems unlikely.

I guess the dealer will give the electrical system a thorough going over.

If the light did melt spontaneously, that would be one for the history books. You can file it right next to "Spontaneous Combustion, Human."

At least you know you can't get flamed any worse on NAM than you've already been flamed by your MINI!

 

It very well could be rust as well. Thats the safest bet actually. The orange stuff is kinda like a powder, and it smells.... kinda like rust/burning. lol

 

Wow! I have never seen anything like this. Actually it looks like a flying rock busted the side market light plastic lense and shattered the factory bulb.

Unless ther eis some kinda of whacked out electrical problem I don't think the dealer is going to cover it under warranty if they see that a rock may have hit the lense cover.

Keep us posted.

 

In our Cooper CVT, a flying rock busted the orange left turn signal side market light and filled up with water. Difference is that when the rock hit it, it took the bulb as well but did not cause any fires. days later I realized the left side turn signal light was not working. It was $110 to get it replaced, not covered under warranty.

I still think a rock may have hit your rear marker light cover just when you were driving back home and since the light was ON then upon impact the bulb shattered and burned the surrounded plastic. Who knows it might have been damaged from before and you just didn't realize it until it got worse.

 

That's what I thought too, but the way the lens is melted at the bottom makes it look like it melted from inside. Could the bulb et broken in a way that it would generate that much heat?

 

Sure. Think about it. Its night, he has all the lights on in the car and suddenly a flying rock in perfect aligment with the planets and stars hits the rear marker light plastic cover in just the right angle, enough to break the lense and blow up the already hot burning bulb. I bet that if this had happened during the day time, he would have had nothing but a broken plastic lense and a broken bulb...no fire damage.

Try busting a lighted, hot bulb in a regular lamp to see what I mean (Please do not take the bat and go crazy around the house!)

 

it wasnt night out. I always drive with my lights on.
Weird part is, I had my sun roof and window open a crack the whole drive home. I didnt hear anything hit my car Maybe I just didnt hear anything.

 

Im also sorta upset, I just vacummed out the inside and filled up with gas:(

 

>>it wasnt night out. I always drive with my lights on.
>>Weird part is, I had my sun roof and window open a crack the whole drive home. I didnt hear anything hit my car Maybe I just didnt hear anything.


I think you should take this opportunity to have the dealer program the DRLs that way you don't have to turn on the lights during the daytime.

Bummer dude! I sincerely hope is nothing serious but rather an 'act of nature" type of thing. You will need a new wheel arch with plastic lense and bulb. You are looking at $100-$150 out of pocket for this one.

 

>>It very well could be rust as well. Thats the safest bet actually. The orange stuff is kinda like a powder, and it smells.... kinda like rust/burning. lol
That is a Neil Young tune!
I do hope you get this worked out so you don't have to worry about it.

 

 

>>Bummer dude! I sincerely hope is nothing serious but rather an 'act of nature" type of thing. You will need a new wheel arch with plastic lense and bulb. You are looking at $100-$150 out of pocket for this one.


It will not cost that much. The wheel lip moldings are like 9 bucks and the reflector is like around 30 something. As long as you can reuse the wiring harness, it should be really cheep. But why did it happen in the first place? I would find that out for sure.

 

My mini should be at the shop now:(

It was towed by this company that we called and complained to once.
The tow truck driver was driving like a psychopath swerving, speeding at like 60 mph on a 30mph road, tailgaiting. we called the number on the back of the truck and left a message... Then the tow truck that picked up my mini was the same one. ugh.

/worried.

 

>>
>>>>Bummer dude! I sincerely hope is nothing serious but rather an 'act of nature" type of thing. You will need a new wheel arch with plastic lense and bulb. You are looking at $100-$150 out of pocket for this one.
>>
>>
>> It will not cost that much. The wheel lip moldings are like 9 bucks and the reflector is like around 30 something. As long as you can reuse the wiring harness, it should be really cheep. But why did it happen in the first place? I would find that out for sure.


Yeah but take into account the dealer labor rate to install the wheel arch piece at around $90+ an hour.