I just received my 05 MCS but I want the clear tail light. Needless to say Mini USA hasn't got their act together with many accessories let alone the clear tail light (if it ever will be available for the US).

I asked my dealer to ship me the 04 clear tail light anyway as I was confident that I can make it work with some elbow grease.

Due to poor communication the dealer went ahead and installed it despite I stated I will installed them myself.

Because of the interchange of fog light and back light between 04 and 05 model naturally the back light does not function properly.

The 04 and 05 tail light shared the same harness connector but evidently the 04 fog light wire is now the back up light for the 05. As a result the backup light is red as it was the fog light bulb for the 04 clear tail light.

You would think that I can just swap the red bulbs with clear bulbs but the bulbs are soldered to the bulb holder assembly which holds all three bulbs.

My question is on the 04 standard tail light, are the bulbs soldered or socketed onto the buld holder assembly?

I check the 04 owner manual and it is very ambigeous though it give me the impression that they are socketed.

To replace the soldered down bulb requires special precaution because one can easily melt the plastic assembly. On the clear tail lamp it appear Mini intended the entire bulb holder assembly to be replaced if any 1 of the 3 bulb burns out.

Thanks

 

Looking closer on the bulb holder for the clear tail lamp. The bulbs are bayonet mount. I think the soldered bulbs are unique to the clear tail lamp even it share the same bulb holder assembly as the standard lamp. Since the clear tail lamp requires the use of red and orange bulbs instead of clear bulbs in the standard tail lamp where the lens provides the colors. Some litigation-shy engineer must decided that they don't want to risk someone replacing the bulbs with wrong color ones. The solder fixed the bulbs in place so you have to buy the whole assembly. I hate to know what Mini charge for this replacement assembly.

 

Looks like I overcame the challenge of putting in an 04 clear tail light into an 05. :smile: I managed to swapped the red fog light bulbs with a pair of clear one on the 04 light assembly. Now the fog lamps (on 04) is white as the backup lamps (installed on 05). It looks great. Please note that the 05 stock backup bulbs are 15W while the clear bayonet bulb for the 04 fog lamps are 21W. I will need to look into the fuse to see it will be OK.

 

Ya know, I've got a good question while we're on the subject of taillights. has anyone successfully used LED bulbs in the rear taillights and turn signals? I tried replacing them and after I installed them I had odd results.... The turn signals blinked very fast (Kinda like if you have a burnt out/missing bulb) and the taillights worked, but even when you turned the headlights off, the LED taillight bulbs stayed dimly lit. So, I pulled them and put the normal bulbs back...

 

I believe the reason the blinking rate increased is due to how blinker works. It relies on the amount current the lamp draws to time the blinking rate. Since you alter the current consumption by changing the incandescent lamp to LED this throws the blanker out of the design range. I have no insight into the tail light bulbs (assume you mean the drivng lights) stay dimly when headlight is turned off.