Hi all!

Added a 1-1/4" trailer hitch receiver to my 2012 Mini Cooper Base Hatchback R56 a few years ago for use with a 1UP MTB bicycle rack. It's worked out great for years. Now I've bought a RoofNest Condor Roof-Top-Tent (RTT) to do some weekend camping and riding. At first I installed it on the OEM Mini roof racks, but quickly determined I didn't like driving around with that extra weight up there every day and didn't want to install/uninstall it every time I want to go camping. What I have decided to do is purchase a small trailer and mount the RoofNest Condor RTT to that. In order to pull a light weight trailer I'm going to need some trailer hitch wiring for the trailer lights, so I bought a TEKNOSHA 119190 Modulite HD Plus to do the job. The problem I ran into is the same as everyone else doing this; finding straight forward detailed instructions for the MINI side of the module are hard if not impossible to come by. Here's what I've determined so far.

2012 Mini Cooper Base Hatchback R56
I think this year and model is a basic simple 3-wire system, but everything I read says R56 Brake/Tail (BT) lights are multiplexed using the same bulb for both with different voltage. My 2012 "base" model doesn't appear to be multiplexed, but I could be wrong. To the best of my ability these are the wires on each tail light plug and their function.

1 Driver Tail - Grey = Brake
2 Driver Tail - Blue/Purple = Left Turn
3 Driver Tail - Grey/Purple = Brake
4 Driver Tail - Brown = Ground
5 Driver Tail - (EMPTY)
6 Driver Tail - Yellow/Black = Tail/Park

1 Passenger Tail - Blue/Grey = Brake
2 Passenger Tail - Blue/Red = Right Turn
3 Passenger Tail - Grey/Purple = Brake
4 Passenger Tail - Brown = Ground
5 Passenger Tail - (EMPTY)
6 Passenger Tail - Yellow/Black = Tail/Park

So the common wires on both sides of the car are 3, 4 & 6

Turn light hot wires = 2
Running lights only hot wires = 6
Brake lights only hot wires = 1 & 3
Running & brake lights hot wires = 1, 3 & 6

I noticed the running and brake light area outside the center circle single bulb turn light has 2 light bulbs in it (3 bulbs total on each side). My initial thought was that one was the running light and the other was the brake light and the center was the turn light, but that's not the case. When I turn on the running lights these strange tubular lights within the lens itself light up and none of the light bulbs are lite. These look similar to neon light tubes in the plastic and may be LED lit (I don't know?). None of this may even matter if these tail lights aren't multiplexed (Again, I just don't know). The 2 bulbs outside the center turn both light when the brakes are applied.

My thoughts are that I can simply connect the TEKNOSHA 119190 up as a 3-wire system using each #2 (Driver - Blue/Purple & Passenger - Blue/Red) as their corresponding turn lights, #6 (Yellow/Black) as tail/park lights, #3 (Grey/Purple) as brake lights and #4 (Brown) as a ground.

Has anyone wired up a 2012 Base Cooper? Does this look right to you?

I did find the writeup another member did for a 2009 R56, but my wires are completely different.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

Took a chance and wired it up as a standard 3-wire system using wires 2, 3 & 6 and everything works great!

There was a screw bracket right inside the driver's side access panel that I used to ground the TEKNOSHA module to the Mini body with a ground washer after scrapping the paint off.

I wired the module power to the lighter plug on the driver's side using a 15A fuse link; that way I don't have to touch anything in the Mini fuse box relating to the lighter plug or run a 12G wire all the way up to the positive battery terminal.

NOTE: The lighter plug is only hot when the car is running, thus you will not have trailer lights when parking lights are on and car is not running (possible roadside emergency). Personally I don't like the idea of the TEKNOSHA module always being hot when parked if wired to the battery positive terminal like the instructions state. I also don't like the idea of an exterior exposed hot wire running under the car up to the battery. I'm fine with not having trailer parking lights when the car is not running.

If I can figure out how to post pictures I will post wiring photos and some my trailer once it arrives, gets assembled and has the RoofNest RTT mounted to it.

Cheers!

 

Drivers side looking into the tail light opening with tail light removed

Passenger side single turn light wire

Passenger side turn light wire routing along and attached to the hatch latch wiring.

Wiring worksheet

 

Can someone remove the F55/F56 in front of the thread title? Must have clicked on something by accident. Thx