Like many of the older Minis I see around, my taillights have been fogged for years and are getting worse and worse. When I found out a full replacement assembly is just $99 (from Turner Motorsport of all places), I watched a YouTube video to make sure it was easy to do it myself and ordered them.

They arrived today, and I promptly broke the clear outer lens of the left assembly as I tried to shove it into place!

So dumb.

Fortunately the old assembly slipped back in easily (I think I put the foam tape too close to the edge of the new assembly and the fit was too tight) so I'm just out another $99 and waiting for the replacement. Turner was nice enough to pay for shipping on it, too.

Just wanted to vent my frustration at myself. I'll share pics once I've successfully finished the project.

Thanks for listening!

 

Sorry about your misfortune. It's always good to use a gentle touch when putting lights back into the vehicle. I too have slightly cracked one doing this before. :( We do have a DIY that goes over the removal of the rear taillights to get to the bulbs if you do want a visual guide for the next go around. It's under our "tech info" tab at the top of the site and then under Replacing Lenses and Bulbs. We also have the OEM supplier rear taillights for your MINI here for future reference and for anyone else looking to replace tired/worn out taillights. Good luck!

 

Once I pushed the old assembly back in, I realized that the new one was requiring way too much force to insert and I should have pulled it out and tried to adjust something (as opposed to whacking it to try to get the clips to snap in...). My guess is the new fit is much tighter because the gasket is new rather than 12 years old, dry and shrunken.

Comparing it to your photo - you can see where it sticks out much further. I bet if I tuck it in more it would slide in more easily. I'll also push the foam tape back further. Thanks!