As promised, here are my notes and some pictures of installing the later model rear floor cupholders in my 2012 Countryman S. I added the rear power socket option between the cupholders like the front one has, since the stock power socket at the end of the Rear Rail is far away from the front seats if the front seat passengers want to power something up without using a splitter on the stock front socket while it's already in use.
I bought all my parts from ECS Tuning, and kudos to everyone who helped in my earlier thread about these cupholders.
MINI of NA swore they wouldn't fit, something about the front rail being too long on the earlier model CMs....
Your posted pics proved them wrong of course.........
I tapped into the 2 wires of the front lighter/power socket to keep the same fuse for the circuit. I ran the 14ga wiring under the front rail, well, off to the left side of it actually, behind the black console trim and exited out the new steel bracket that gets bolted to the support bracket of the rail/Handbrake system.

If I was just adding the cupholder, and no wiring, this job would have gone very quickly. I took my time gently taking things apart to understand how my MINI is put together.

First pic is with the stock trim end panel removed from the front rail.

 

The rear cupholder get a factory metal bracket that is almost overkill for its job. You take off 2 floor stud nuts and fit the bracket over the studs and right next to the existing metal brackets of the floor system. You transfer three screw clips from the old bracket to the new one, and either use the 3rd one that was left on the stock bracket for the rear of the new bracket and buy 1 more clip, or just put 2 new ones on as I did[ I have years of BMW body clip collections.....

 

The assembly is a collection of parts. Your sub-base sits over the hump on the floor, and the actual cupholder section will pop onto that, next will be 2 rubber rings that have tabs sticking into the interior of the cupholders to help keep things upright and not spilling. They neatly lock into matching tabs on the top of the cupholder. Finally, the upper trim panel will house the power socket and lock onto the top of the lower cupholders with plastic tabs gently grabbing to lock it all together..
Then you push 2 rubber circles into the bottom of the cupholders for the finishing touch like the front cupholders have.

You need to install the lower sections to the metal mounting bracket with the 4 required screws, some of which can be reused from your stock bracket before you install the power socket/top section, since installing it will cover up the mid-section where the top screws mount.
The two rear/bottom screws aren't covered up until the rubber pads/circles get installed into the bottom of the cupholders, again, just like on the front cupholders.

 

Side view of the "hump" base and the cupholders

 

All together now...

 

Standard 2 pin connector for the front power socket/lighter. I had some wiring at the rear of my front rail, but none of it was suitable to tap into for a second lighter, so best left alone back there unless I wanted a really low fuse rating off the phone wiring maybe.......

 

I had originally planned on running the new wiring on the right side of the center /front rail system, so I took the R/F seat out for more room. I had read that MINI used under- seat speakers, so there they are... Also, I had NO IDEA that the towing eye bolt was Velcro'ed to the floor under the R/F seat as well since it's stored differently in my Clubman in the spare tire wheel....

 

The access to the power socket in the front cupholder is easily gained by removing the 2 bottom rubber pads out of the base, and unscrewing the 2 mounting screws. This allows you to pivot the entire front console upward like on a hinge to unplug the socket and pull the short section of harness out to the drivers side for much more working room than my picture shows with it pulled out to the right....

 

All done, and it was worth the effort....
Thanks again to ECS Tuning....

 

You are welcome.

Nice Job and glad it fit the early CM.

Having the extra cupholder makes a difference.

 

I just purchased the rear cup holders (6 part numbers) for my 2012 CMS from ECSTuning, so I will be doing this install. Was the rear power socket at the end of the rail part of an option? I currently have a rear socket and thought it was standard. Great mod though and thanks for the info.

 

From what I've seen, one can have nothing but a blanking plate,[ which is what we had], or you have your option of the socket, but no cupholders- or you have the later vehicles with both socket and cupholders.
We have a single Non-Pod style cupholder at the very rear of our Rear Bucket sets, so maybe rear seating options[ bench versus Bucket Seats] played a role in that as well when the cars are being optioned out.
The Rail Mounted Pod style cupholders were already broken in our new-to-us 2012 CM S, so it wasn't worth getting more of those fragile versions, only to watch someone break them again....

 

Nice job with your photo documentation and step-by-step notations -- did you HAVE to rip out your front seat, or was that just to make sure the wiring was cleanly routed?

I too thought the metal mounting bracket was major overkill... I mean, it's just there to stabilize the plastic bits and give mounting points for the screws. Suppose short of intervention by sledgehammer or power tools, it'll ensure that the rear cup holders will NEVER be kicked or dislodged out of place. Crazy, right? :D

 

Did not have to remove the R/F seat, but went into the job wanting maximum working room since I have never taken any MINI interior apart.
It's just 4 Torx bolts and 1 electrical connector. The seats are very lightweight as well since there are no electric motors or bladder compressors to add weight like on some cars.

 

You happen to have photo of how you spliced into the existing power for the outlet? Also.. which parts would I need to add the power outlet to the new cupholders?

Thanks!

 

Not sure if I took a picture of my soldered splice into the front power socket, but I showed the 2 wire harness/connector of the front socket pulled out from the center console.
Just gently cut away about 3/4" to 1" of insulation and solder each wire, one at a time.
I just tucked my new little harness going from the front to the rear cupholder under the bottom edge of the center console on the left side/drivers side to avoid the Parking brake assembly that dominates the right side of the console when you're looking at the guts of what's hidden inside the console/rail.
You will need 1 power socket and one plastic ring/bezel that the socket gets slid through to be mounted in the cupholder assembly.
I think ECS Tuning posted a diagram of all the possible parts for the various cupholder/blanking plate installs at the rear of the rail in a related thread. And after tracking that Jan. thread down, here they are: Socket, 61346973037, Ring, 51167052720. Checked with ECS or others in case I missed typed a number.......

 

There is another option if you don't want to splice into the stock harness, it just requires a little soldering. Buy some spade connectors:



You will need two males and four females. Your harness should have the male connector plug into the stock harness, then have a short lead to a female (where the front cigarette lighter will plug in). That female should then piggyback all the way back to the rear lighter. Create two of these, one for 12v and one for ground, and run them below the front rail. No need to remove the seat and no need to splice!

 

Additional Rear cupholder mod Countryman,

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...a-12-a-10.html

 

Hey,

I'm also in the process of getting the rear cup holders fitted and came across a video manual on youtube:

The list of used OEM parts is also there
Nice to see the procedure on film and looks quite straightforward. Hope it helps.

Cheers...