My 04 MCS has the original style rear taillight housing with the unused fog light on top, turn signal in the middle, and two filament taillight/brakelight on the bottom. The right rear brakelight will not come on at all. The tailight part of the bulb lights up fine. I replaced with a new bulb and it did the same thing. When I removed the old bulb, the taillight part was still lighting up but the bulb was corroded for some reason and the glass pulled right off the bulb when I tried to remove it. I cleaned up the connection points but it didn't help.

The original owner did the fog light mod with a diode between the 1-4 pins so the top fog lights would light up with the brake light. It's been that way and working for 3 years that I've owned the car. I don't know if that is related. When I put the new bulb in and it didn't work, I removed the diode and it still did not work.

Any suggestions on what I need to do to get this brake light working again?

 

Craaap...

Looks like it might be the Body Control Module BC1. $$460 plus labor???
01BASIC MODUL
1

61356982114$460.84
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t-working.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t-working.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ake-light.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght-issue.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ight-died.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...light-out.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ght-mod-2.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...shorted-2.html

Any suggestions out there?

For $460+ I could just add an add-on trailer brake light kit and run the wire over to the right brake light and fog light.

 

Why couldnt MINI just use a flasher unit like almost every other manufacturer? Why tie a bunch of $5 bulbs into a central $460 control unit that renders your car useless if you attempt to replace it without a dealer reprogramming it???

 

Odds are the diode burnt out. Had the same issue. Luckily I had it covered un warranty. The BCM is located in the foot well on the passenger side on the right behind the plastic panel. Part needs to programmer by the dealer for it to work, it controls everything electric in your car...