What are "Follow Me Home" lights and how do you activate them? I'am having an occasional problem with my brake lights "staying on" and am wondering if this problem could be related to this. I can't find any info on this in my owners manual, but have heard other Mini owners refer to them. Thanks guys, any help is greatly appreciated................

 

Go here http://motoringfile.com/
click on your year manual on right side
for 05s its page 57.

 

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'Follow me home' lamps

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If you activate the headlamp flasher after
having switched off the engine and the
lights, the low beams will stay lit for a preset
period of time.

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"Follow Me Home" affects only the headlights, not the brake lights.

I have this active on my car - basically, when I get home at night, if I turn the car off with the headlights still on, then turn the headlight switch off, the headlights stay on for 90 seconds.

If I turn the headlights off first, and then turn off the car - "follow me home" is NOT active and nothing happens.

It's a nice feature that way - you get to control when you want to use it.

I have heard about other MINIs (04s and 05s) that have had issues with brake lights staying on. Some were fixed with a software upgrade, others required a new brake switch.

My car is an early 03 build - I never had a problem with the brake lights...

 

You can activate your "Follow Me Home" lights by flicking the highbeam flash stalk after the car is shut off. By default this is programmed to work from the factory, but you can specify the duration or to deactivate it when the car is programmed.

Evidently, on some cars, turning off the car then turning off the headlights does the same thing (though not on my 05 MCS with Xenons).

Another useful tidbit--if you press down or up on the turn indicator stalk with the car turned off, the left or right side markers light. This is some type of European requirement for parking on the side of the road--you have to turn on the side lights (Parking Lights). Even though not required in North America, it's still activated on US cars.

 

My '05 MC will not do this, I have the Xenons. If I leave the lights on, and shut off the car, then the lights, they do not "Follow Me home" I have to flick the High beams.

With Xenons, I can not turn on the headlights without the key being on, the car however does not need to be running.

Steve

 

Not every car has Follow Me Home turned on - it was one of those dealer-programmable options. There are also different lengths of time that can be set.

 

Every car has Follow me home turned on at the factory with a default 40 seconds. If it is not on your car, the dealer de-activated it.

Steve