Do you have Comfort Access? I believe that's one of the sensors for the kick to open feature.

 

I do have it, so that may be what I'm looking at. Hope there's a workaround.

 

Cannot really tell from your photo, but does it look like this?

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=61_4452

If so -- it looks like the wires are the important part:

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=61_4969

Perhaps you can relocate the control unit? I'm interested in your results as I've been close to pulling the trigger on that hitch myself.

EDIT: Ahh, comparing your photo to this one from the manufacturer, it's pretty clear the whole wiring bit for the smart opener is in the way. I think if I buy this hitch I'd just remove it, it's not like that feature is THAT awesome.

 

Coming up to the Clubbie in the rain, two grocery sacks in one hand and an umbrella in the other -- I consider the smart opener truly awesome! From the links you gave, this is indeed the part.
Here's a better shot of the problem. Comparing it to the manufacturer's photo you can see the electronics bracket is totally in the way. There may not be a solution here.

 

The Boss thought the Clubman All4 might be a bit too small as a replacement for our Range Rover Evoque (even though the wheel base is the same 105 inches as the Clubman). Anyway, we went for a test drive.


Drove a Clubby All4 S with the dynamic damper control. I drove first and asked the little missus if she would like to try it out. To my surprise she said yes and she put the pedal to the metal and after about three corners without hitting the brakes, she said, "I think this is our next car."


I have the production number for our Burgundy/Silver Clubman S All4, hoping for delivery in about a month. Planning on a 3 year lease, depending on what the Mini USA deals look like when it's time to take delivery. Dealers will lock in subvented money factors and you can get either the locked rate or, if the rate is better at delivery, you can opt for that, but the money on the hood changes each month and can't be carried over.


Hoping to become a fellow motorer soon if we can make the right deal.

 

Wow, you definitely have an interference problem. The hitch is certainly a work in progress. On my All4, I needed to cut about 3/4" off the receiver tube because it hit the muffler. I cut it with a sawzsall and then painted the end with high-temp black paint. Evidently the All4s have a slightly different muffler in order to allow the rear diff to fit. I was able to work around my issue, but your problem seems insurmountable with the hitch you have. That really sucks to discover it after you removed the cover. Also, I found the wiring directions to be nearly all wrong for my car. I traced all the wires and tested it every way I could and am sure I have it right. I sent the correct (for my All4) wiring guide to Outmotoring, but I don't know if the directions they are now sending reflect what I found. Good luck, but it looks like you'll have to wait until someone make another hitch.

Another thing I've been trying to find is a way to get the wires through the bottom of the car so I don't have to run then through the door. To my surprise, I haven't found a spare grommet. The OEM hitch must have a way of getting the wires through the floor, so if anyone from a non-US country has the OEM hitch please tell me where the wires penetrate the floor.

 

Thanks for the info, JohnnyQuest! I'm a bit miffed that OutMotoring didn't see this issue. I'm planning to talk to them today. As GDGR has suggested, I could solve the problem by removing the smart opener mechanism; I'll need to decide which is more important. If I decide to do that, I'll hang on to the smart opener in case there is a new hitch receiver design -- that will of course involve another hassle getting the bumper off. Also, the instructions have you cutting the plastic brackets holding the smart opener to make room for the receiver. It seems like this would mean replacing the whole plastic frame over the heat shield and wiring if I wanted to get the smart opener back in place. Does that sound correct to you? What a mess!

 

I feel your pain (but yours is a bit worse). After tearing it all apart and discovering the receiver wouldn't fit, I was pretty upset. After doing some research I discovered that by cutting 3/4" off, it would still work as a class 1 so I cut it off. I certainly didn't want to reassemble everything and then do it again later.

Yes good point about the plastic brackets. I too found it really strange that the directions called for hack-sawing them off. I scratched my head for a while trying to figure out what their purpose was. I couldn't find any purpose, so I figured "what the heck" and cut them off. But I figured that they must do something, and it bothered me to just cut them. You discovered their purpose: they support the hands-free hatch opener. If you ever want to reattach the opener, I can't imagine those brackets being expensive.

One thing I'd check is if you will get a warning if you just unplug the device. If you turn on the car with any of the rear lights unplugged, you'll get a dash warning that you have a bulb out. If you haven't already, I recommend that you unplug the device and then start the car to see if you get a warning. You may to to jump the wires to extinguish a warning light.

On the plus side, I've used my trailer quite extensively trailing my dirt bike, and it really works great. (Some of the photos on the Outmotoring and Minidomore sites are of my car). Frankly, this car would be effectively useless to me without a hitch and I still think it's a huge mistake for Mini to not offer it in the US as an OEM option.


Let me know when you get to the stage of doing the wiring. I learned a few tricks that will save you some agony (and the connections in the directions are nearly all wrong.)

All in all, my hitch is great and I'm glad I did it.

P.S. You may be able to reattach the hands-free device to the hitch rail itself. You could probably just zip tie it back on. From the photos, it looks like that would result in the unit being nearly in the original location. That may work like a charm.

 

You have made a great choice.

I ordered mine (S, All4, same colors as you and blue chesterfield seats) early April and took delivery mid May could not be happier for fun driving or for highway trips never had a mini that could do both so well put on 6600 miles with just weekend driving reminds me of the BMW model "2002", their first in US in seventies fun, practical and when necessary pretty fast while the wait was difficult i almost miss the anticipation but i prefer having the car to use - it is rare that you get to like a car better each time you use it

 

Good to hear, Minor! We're hoping to meet ours next month. Went for satellite grey and the fully loaded package and thought we'd try the 17" net spoke black rims. Can't wait to see the car. Can't wait to motor.

 

I just spoke with OutMotoring, and apparently they have run into this issue with two other customers, one of whom is a mechanic. The suggestion they had was to mount the smart door device on the hitch. They haven't heard back (in a couple of months), so it probably works. So -- great idea you have! I would certainly like to see what you have to say about the wiring. I wouldn't mind connecting with you backchannel -- I'm sending you a PM.

 

Please let us (me) know the result, no matter what route you take. My car has the same conflict, you are just a couple of weeks in front of me.

 

Sure, I'll talk to you via PM. Helping each other out is what these sites are for. But here is the info I put together in case others have issues. I'm not a mechanic, but I know my way around cars.

Here are my install notes:

Install notes:
Hitch
1. The lights on the bumper are easily removable. They should be removed and the wires unplugged as a first step. That way, the bumper cover won’t dangle by wires when it’s removed. Makes it much easier to reinstall cover too.
2. Directions say to torque bumper bar to 17 ft-lbs. That seems very low. I don’t have a reference, but I think 35 is more in line for such large bolts.
3. The back of the receiver tube needs to be cut ¾” on order to clear the muffler on the All4. (Per our discussion).
4. The directions should list needing a 18mm deep well socket for the bumper beam.
5. The torx size required is T-25 (not 20).

Wires
1. Black with white stripe on car = left turn = yellow on module
2. Yellow with black on car = brake = red on module
3. White with grey on car = tail lights = brown on module (see note below)
4. Blue with grey stripe on car = right turn = green on module
5. Directions say to connect power wire to cig lighter. Cig lights is very thin wire (gage 18 or 20). Power wire is 10 or 12 gage. Very bad idea to connect thick wire to thin. I used a red and yellow thick wire that is powered by the key. Kit should supply a 10-12 gage quick splice. I had to buy one at a car parts place.
Note: Car has upper tail lights in doors and lower tail lights in bumper. The lower ones double as brake lights (same bulb). Therefore, you need to tap into the upper tail light wiring (i.e. the white with grey stripe wires). I initially tapped into the lower ones and the applying the brake activated the blinkers and the brake lights on the trailer.

Also, I made my own hitch plug, which I think is slick as goose poo (whereas the one supplied with the kit is just goose poo! - everything else in the kit is good quality).
I bought it here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/330942881765?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I cut it at 27 degrees and glued it with super glue. It looks and works like OEM. I attached some shots. (Note: That's water on the plug stem in the 1st photo. I wasn't that sloppy with the super glue in case you're wondering.)

 

Here's the situation so far. Glad we also have FantasticChoice's cabrio, since the clubby is still in pieces in my garage! The smart door sensor mechanism won't fit as is, so I took the module and the sensors off of the plastic bracket and I've been experimenting with how they might be placed to make it work. It turns out the hitch crossbar is in about the same location as the original upper sensor, so that's good, but the lower sensor is a problem. I've actually gotten it to work, but not reliably. I've just contacted our dealer's service manager, and also Brose, the German company that makes the opener unit; haven't heard back yet. Anyone know where I might get a technical article or diagram showing how these sensors have to be mounted placed to get them to work?
I did go ahead and cut the mounting brackets, and the hitch is in place, but the bumper bracket makes remounting the whole smart opener unit impossible.

 

What would be ideal would be for someone with an OEM hitch (available in non-us markets) to post photos. I posted a question on the Mini56 site but evidently there is no one with the OEM hitch. Also, we should probably migrate over to that site since this site refuses to set up an F54 file.

If you look here http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=71_0891
I see only one part number for the tow bar. I don't see anything indicating that the comfort access would require a different part number. Could it be that the comfort access is not available in Europe? Maybe you should try building a Clubman on the UK site to see if you can get both the hitch and the comfort access.

 

Look again at the realoem pages (I included the link above) for the Smart Opener components. They clearly say that they only apply to cars WITHOUT the tow bar.

I think MINI won't sell both on the same car, in any market.

I'm all for moving to a different forum. But would be nice if it were a US one!

 

Interesting! I went onto the UK site and was able to "build" a Clubman with both the tow bar and the comfort access as options. So there must be either two versions of the OEM tow bar or two versions of the comfort access hardware (maybe both).

 

Hmm, interesting. There is a retrofit kit available for the OEM tow bar that indicates that it is available for cars with Comfort Access. Note that although there are several rows here for cars with and without, the retrofit kit is the same part number regardless.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=03_1095

 

From what we (I'm trikerdude's wife)can tell, it really isn't the Comfort Access that is the problem. This is a "smart door" and "hands free opening" module issue. The Comfort Access seems to refer to the door opening with the little button in the door handles, etc. As an update, trikerdude is just about getting this to work. He'll update with exactly how he did it. Its coming along, and, at least at this minute, we're hopeful! Thanks for the continuing support.

 

I just made my first post on the Clubman forum at minif56.com -- enough of this over here, without a proper home.

http://www.minif56.com/forum/825-mini-clubman-f54/

 

It is so dead over there, though. Seems to be very UK specific, too.

 

I wonder if someone could help me understand what "without a proper home" means? We have gotten such good input on this site, so I'm confused. I went over to the other site, and I don't know what's more proper about it. I'm confused. What am I missing?

 

The F54 Clubman doesn't have a specific forum over here. We are stuck half in the R55 forum and half in the F56 forum. If they had just done this whenthe car was announced, it wouldn't be an issue. Presumably the people that run this site just don't give a ****.

 

At some point the Clubman talk might need to move to the 3rd Generation Minis section. The other F series are there. It's nice having Clubman forums altogether, but it makes sense to lump F54's with F56 et. al.

 

Done! I did get the OutMotoring trailer hitch receiver mounted and a system worked out to keep a functional smart opener for the rear doors. Here's the story:

First, this is *not* a project for the faint of heart. I'm no auto mechanic, but I do have pretty good Fix-It Guy cred. It turns out that the mounted hitch geography allows for placement of the smart door sensors in pretty much the same position as before, but not with the original sensor mount. There are two sensors, which you can see below, and a control unit that all have to be in place. I started by taking everything off of the original mount and trying, with some input from my wife, since two heads are definitely better than one, to figure a way to mount the components on the hitch, but the relative positions of the sensors has to be just right. I could rig up a temporary way to do that, but there was no way to make that permanent. I decided to go back to the original mount and make it fit on the hitch, which took some serious mods. Here is the mount:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...attach/jpg.gif

Here is the modification -- removing the ends and also the control module tray, which I saved to provide a cushion for mounting the module to the hitch.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...1&d=1472234158

Once I got the idea that I could slightly deform the upper, flat sensor a bit, I mounted the new unit to the hitch receiver around the draw bar tube. Here is what it looks like, before I gave the cable ties a haircut. The flat sensor is above, the round one, looking like an antenna, is below, and the control module is on top.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...attach/jpg.gif
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...attach/jpg.gif

Much to my delight and amazement, it turns out that this arrangement actually works.

A couple more comments: OutMotoring suggests removing foam spacers from the bumper mount, which they say allows the bumper to fit better over the hitch receiver. I did not find this to be necessary, so I left them in place. Also, their instructions have you removing, quoting from their instructions, "ten (7) 8mm screws from the bottom edge of the bumper." There are actually 8 of these screws on mine. Next, they call for cutting a slot in the heat shield to make it possible to reach up and secure the drawbar, but, possibly because we have the smart opener, the heat shield is formed differently and doesn't interfere with the new hitch. I did end up having the heat shield an inch away from the two bumper mounting screws in the center , so I could only replace 6 screws, but the mount is still totally secure. I may go ahead and attach these with flat metal bridges. Finally, given the shape of the lower bumper trim, it doesn't look possible to get the plastic plug, which hides the hitch receiver when not in use, to fit totally flat. I'll work on that, but I may try JohnnyQuest's suggestion, earlier in this thread, for a hitch cover.

If you plan to try this install, I'm happy to answer questions. I was at this for a week in my spare time, but most of that was spent trying to imagine how it could possibly fit! Have courage.