This was kind of embarrassing, I am known by my friends and coworkers to be pretty into my cars and know a lot about them. But this girl i know has a friend with a mini and she taught me this. You may already know this, but it was totally new to me....

If you come to a stop and turn off the car, you can then take the blinker arm and push it down (or up) and both of the fender lights, the turn signal under the mirror, and the rear brake light, will all light up and stay on until you come back to the car later and start it! It's kind of a neat safety feature for when parking on streets i guess. If you push the arm down, the lights on the driver's side come on, and if you push it up the lights on the passenger side come on. At one point we even got all of them to come on...not sure how we did that. These lights stay on, unlike the follow-me-home lights.

But anyway, thought that was cool and had to share for those of you who were also in the dark about it. Maybe you won't get oWn3d like I did.

 

Yes these are true "English" parking lights if I'm correct. You're supposed to keep the lights on on the side of the MINI in the road - away from the curb. It's for foggy weather which occurs quite often in England.

 

This is a standard BMW feature.

 

Only standard on euro spec BMW's ... the North American model has this feature disabled.

Hey ... I'm from the government and I'm here to help!

Cheers

Geoff

 

__________________________________________________ __________________________
Only standard on euro spec BMW's ... the North American model has this feature disabled.
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Not true mine has that option.

 

It's pretty much a standard feature for EU countries, where their regs stipulate that vehicles parked in potentially dangerous places (and in the fog that can be virtually everywhere) indicate on the street side of the vehicle, its borders via lights. I've used these lights for over eight hours at a time all with no ill effect on the starting power of the battery afterwards. Just another cool feature on the MINI.

 

[QUOTE_____________________________________________ __________________________
>>Only standard on euro spec BMW's ... the North American model has this feature disabled. [/QUOTE]
Which model BMW do you have? (and don't say MINI Cooper!)

 

both the E46s I've had ... had that option

btw "I'm from the government and I'm here to help!" is good material - well done!

 

my old mercedes '89 and '00 both have this feature. they are pretty much standard on european cars.

 

Yes, I remember both of my Porsche had that feature as well. :smile:

 

Yeah....I didn't know that either. Thanks!

 

It's on pg. 48 of the 2004 MCS user manual, official term is "Standing Lamp"

 

wat's a follow me home light? :???:

 

This feature is a European requirement because the streets here in Europe are not as wide as the streets in the US. Because of this, the European law requires this so the drivers can keep the light on that is facing the street. This is standard on ALL European spec vehicles, don't know if all European made US spec vehicles are the same though.
Another safety feature for the Europeans is the rear fog light. Since I bought my vehicle in Germany with US specs, they added the "missing" toggle switch for that purpose.

 

It's works on my 2002 MCS

Thanks...:smile:

Peace,
D

 

Whew! I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know about this.

And my Audi's don't do this, and neither does my same friend's 3-series bmw.

 

>>wat's a follow me home light? :???:
>
I just thought those were the blue flashing lights that follow me home on occation...

 

>>wat's a follow me home light?


R.E.

 

I had the dealer set the follow me home lights to 40 seconds (shortest time, I think). I can flip the high beams after I have taken the key out of the ignition and the lights stay on long enough for me to find the switch in the garage.

 

>>[QUOTE_____________________________________________ __________________________
>>>>Only standard on euro spec BMW's ... the North American model has this feature disabled. [/QUOTE]
>>>>Which model BMW do you have? (and don't say MINI Cooper!)


I have a 2002 MCS

 

I remember hearing about this on nam a long time ago...it was mco back then. I use it when I park in the street sometimes.

 

>>This is a standard BMW feature.

This has been a feature on many european built cars for some time. In fact my 89 Volvo had it.

 

>>This was kind of embarrassing, I am known by my friends and coworkers to be pretty into my cars and know a lot about them. But this girl i know has a friend with a mini and she taught me this. You may already know this, but it was totally new to me....
>>
>>If you come to a stop and turn off the car, you can then take the blinker arm and push it down (or up) and both of the fender lights, the turn signal under the mirror, and the rear brake light, will all light up and stay on until you come back to the car later and start it! It's kind of a neat safety feature for when parking on streets i guess. If you push the arm down, the lights on the driver's side come on, and if you push it up the lights on the passenger side come on. At one point we even got all of them to come on...not sure how we did that. These lights stay on, unlike the follow-me-home lights.
>>
>>But anyway, thought that was cool and had to share for those of you who were also in the dark about it. Maybe you won't get oWn3d like I did.

 

Cool trick

--thanks for sharing!

I had no idea! keep 'em coming....Jenni

 

Stupid question....but how long can you leave these lights on??