I was at a local rally on sunday when somebody had approached me about my driving lights. I know they have a bad shake to them, I just thought it was the design. I was told there is a support that you can buy for them. Almst like a rubbet bummer ro soemthing that sits behind it. Does any one have such a thing and is it possible to locate a pic? Thanks

Mike
Motor ON!

 

Lamp steadies are plastic coated rods that protrude from behind the body of the light in order to cut down on vibration. They usually are fitted to a T-nut type threaded bushing with a lock nut so you can adjust and tighten them.


I actually bid on a set of 6 Cibie steadies on Ebay last month but did not win the auction. You can probably make a set yourdelf from some threaded rod and plier handle grips as a covering.

 

If you have the "Sport Package" and factory driving lights they should have installed supports with them. See attached pics

 

I have the aero kit with black grills and when the dealer installed the driving lights they cut too much plastic out of the grill and the lights would shake when my MINI was at idle.



I made some shims to fill the extra space. I used inch long sections of a very large black zip tie.


Now I see there is a factory support for the lights when installed on the aero grill!?!? Figures Tom Bush didn't put these on my car

 

Or you could try smaller, lighter lamps

 

Is it possible to get a little closer look at the supports? I am having a bit of trouble seenin it. The other variable is this are not factory lights they are PIAA 540's

any help would be awsome thanks

Mike

 

I think the Mini-Madness mounts are great, if a little pricey. I've had PIAA 520s mounted on both factory and the MM mounts, and much prefer the latter. The MM mounts are about twice as thick and are much more stable.

 

Lets face it, the design of the mounting brackets for the driving lamps is a real kludge. The use of the lower rung of the grille as a mounting point is a big mistake. The real strength in the mounting bracket assembly is the top point which is mounted to the inner sheet metal of the hood. From my experience, I have found that the secret to stable mounting is being sure that the three mounting attachments are as good as possible - this eliminates rivets or sheet metal screws, because these methods do not give a wide support on the back of the sheet metal that is supporting the mount.

If you do mount these light brackets, use stainless steel machine screws. Use the widest nut you can find, and be sure that it is self-locking, either with a nylon insert or engaging teeth. I used an 8/32 size, which meant I had to slightly enlarge the holes in the brackets. The right hardware will reward you with superior stiffness, corrosion resistance, and looks.

 

I mounted both of my sets of lights (in sequence on two different Minis) as described by the dentist, all ss hardware with lock nuts and washers behind the sheet metal. Both were PIAA 520s, which are definitely on the large and heavy side compared to the OEM lights. The only difference was in the mounts themselves. The first set were on factory mounts, the second on the much beefier Mini-Madness mounts. There was a huge difference. The first set bounced so much as to be unusable, the second are quite solid with only minor vibration. The mounts do make a difference.

 

Hoe good are the PIAA brackets?

 

Mine vibrate a bit, but it isn't too bad.