I've tried several times to untwist the upper left brake light bulb socket. Sucker won't budge past about 1/8th of a turn. I can easily remove the middle socket on the back of the housing.
Followed manual, removed panel in left rear. Can see upper brake light bulb socket. Tight fit. Big hands. Bearing down on it pretty good and still only get 1/8th turn. Practiced on middle socket so I have a good feel for how much I need to turn it. Going to have to take back to dealer (still under maint/warranty) unless I can figure it out.
(My signature is outdated, this is a 2011 Cooper S.)
I attached photo of the back of the fixture. Socket is the one on top.

Thanks.
Jerry

 

Unless you want to try to get some sort of tool on the socket to improve your leverage, your only other option is to remove the tail light so you have full access to the back of the tail light assembly. It's pretty easy to remove, just lever off the chrome trim and remove a couple of torx screws. It's 60+ mi to my dealer so I would remove the tail light to avoid the drive.

 

Pull the trim off the outside. Remove 3 torx screws and work on the thing in your lap. It's easy.

 

Hi guys, I'm in the UK and I cannot for the life of me undo either of the rear upper brake light sockets on my R56. All the others are fine - just can't turn the top ones on both sides! Don't really want to take the clusters out unless I have to. My question is - what exactly is stopping these holders from turning? I wondered whether the harness has to be unclipped first? Don't want to break anything.........
Thanks in advance,
Roger

 

Put some pliers on it and turn, might just need a little more torque. Don't break it though!

 

Well I managed to get this sorted out. Good job I didn't use pliers - that would have broken the light fitting for sure! I took the units off the car in the usual way and found that both of the upper sockets had partially melted and distorted due to heat. Consequently the lamp holders had become fused to the main lamp body and were impossible to turn. I carefully cut away the melted plastic with a scalpel and the holders then turned no problem. I took the car for its MOT and the guy at the garage already knew of the problem before I told him! He said it was very common on R56 tail lamps. Apparently later cars have modified units.

 

Wow I was searching this same thing.

Hi y'all. First post here. Hoping someone can help. I have a 2011 base hatchback. Love it. But as we all know, repairs are costly. I recently came across my rear driver side brake light being "out". Since I'm not fluent on anything relating to fixing issues on my car, I figured I would take it to my guy who has always done great work on my mini.

He gave it a feel and said that all of the other bulbs come out fine but he couldn't pry this one out (it's the top bulb, just as the original post had stated in this thread). Furthermore, my guy said that the plastic sometimes melts on these bulb sockets and you either can pry it loose or you just have to replace the whole tail light...yikes). So I told him I would leave it with him in a week.

Well I got the courage and with help from YouTube, I was able to take my tail light out and dissect it. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that bulb socket to wiggle loose...but I was still able to replace the bulb (which looked like it had burnt out). All was fine and dandy and I felt awesome for doing it myself.

Now fast forward two days, and boom, my indicator pops up that a light is out...and guess which one? The bulb I just replaced!!!!!
So now I'm looking into just replacing the tail light but I wondered if any of you have any ideas on any other suggests for me to look into. Is replacing the entire tail light most necessary? Does this have something to do with that socket being melted and immovable? Is there any greater cause potentially? Would replacing the tail light be the best fix?

Thanks in advance

 

I had one bulb, the 21/5w upper go out. I couldn' get it out for the life of me so I went to the local auto shop (really local) and they got it out (woman with small hands) but dropped the first replacement down inside the housing. She put another in and we just left the first one inside. No harm, no foul. But when I got home, it was bothering me so I tried again, lost the whole upper bulb assembly in the fender well. So, I finally came to the web and read your post. Went out and snapped the trim off gingerly, took out the three torx screws, retrieved both bulbs in all of 5 minutes and it was back together. When am I gonna learn to check here first! Thanks.

 

I have a 2009 MC S R57. driver side upper brake light was "out." Happened to be at the mini dealer on Saturday and spoke to the only mechanic in the shop. He took the time to actually show me a recently replaced tail lamp where the upper socket melted. He said in 70% of the cases of the driver side upper bulb being out it's a melted socket. I'm going to leave it for the shop to repair. I wonder if Mini would cover this out of warranty as it seems like a clear defect (as they have modified the replacement not to melt....

 

Its been talked about before. I have seen in on older R56 models. Not so much on the 2011 LCI+ models.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...il-lights.html

You could swap out for other aftermarket taillights, I have not heard of people having issues with those:
2007-2010 rear taillights pre LCI

https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2007-Cooper-R56-S-Coupe-L4_1.6L_N14B16A/Lighting/Tail_Lights/

 

Had the same problem. Thanks, your method worked for me. Took the fixture out of the car and used a small sharp scalpel to cut away the melted portions that we're blocking the bulb holder from twisting fully.
Also this apprently was why the bulb was not functioning also. My bulb was fine, it just could not make the correct connection with the melted plastic. I scraped it clean and am back in business.

 

After replacing all bulbs in the tail light area (driver side) the brake light still would not come on. I did exactly this on my son's 2009 Mini Cooper S - driver side upper brake light. Worked like a charm. Glad I happened across this forum!

 

 

I had the same problem.
The Tail light socket is melted. You must remove the whole unit and see if you can fix it . If not the unit has to be replaced. It is a bad design and if the connection gets wonky it melts. I was able to save mine by cleaning the connections with sand paper and squeezing the connection tighter.This never happens on a Toyota.

 

My wife's 2013 mcs had the bulb contact burn out on the tail light panel. The twist in socket was fine. Dealership wanted $250 to replace the tail light assembly...

I fixed it with a few drops of solder and sandpaper -- been good for 4 months now.

 

Just letting everyone know this problem is still there on the later R56s. My wifes is a 2013, all original bulbs. Driver side top bulb out, can't remove so pulled the housing to find it melted. I then unsnapped the clips to remove the back half of the assembly (black plastic holding the bulbs) from the red half of the assembly that faces outward when installed. This allowed me to get to all the bulbs without having to untwist them. Problem was, bulb was fine. The black plastic had melted and flowed between the metal contacts preventing electricity from flowing.

Completely rediculous MINI. I used a dental pic and cleared away the melted plastic and its working again (for now) but there needs to be a solution for allowing better electrical contact so it does not heat up. Someone mentioned using dielectric grease?

I've got an Xterra with 228,000 miles and its fine (no melted bulb connectors). BMW continues to amaze me, and remind me why I won't be buying one of the new Z4s no matter how nice they look.

 

The problem is definitely poor contact causing electrical resistance/heat.
The fix on my wife's mini is still good.

Dielectric grease will help prevent corrosion of the wiring and socket which (corrosion) would lead to increased resistance...

In my case there was no corrosion evident -- the farking thing (the bulb contact) simply burned through right at the bulb contact. imho mini should have replaced it for free as a warranty/defect item but...

We were in Colorado, but now that we're in Ohio (which seems to get more rain than Seattle!) general corrosion of all things will be much more of a concern of mine...
So it's probably a good idea to remove all the bulb assemblies to clean and coat with a bulb grease BEFORE you have a corrosion issue.

My other thought was switching all the bulbs to LED's to reduce the heat problem but I suspect the onboard light failure indicator wouldn't like that...
Has anybody had success with LED's?

 

Someone help! I have a 2010 Cooper Convertible and I keep getting an external light failure notice and figured out it is the passenger side top parking light. I replaced all the bulbs and it still didn’t work. So I tried the driver side carrier (the one that DOES WORK) in the passenger side and that didn’t work. So I assume it’s not the bulb carrier that’s in question. Could it be a fuse? I cannot find ANY information online! Anything is appreciated, as I’m new to the mini world.

 

2015 R-59 still under warranty

had this problem just last week

dealer replaced the driverside taillight housing .... said it was the melt problem.

 

I had had this problem too in my daughters car out of warranty $600. I’m an EE and took it apart since I asked for the old one back and gave them a lot of **** about it and called the corporate office to complain. This is NOT safe, the resistance from the contacts getting dirty creates heat and melts the plastic where the contacts are. I think conductive grease is the only options but this is a major design flaw. They refused to reimburse me for the $600 for a freaking long tail light. This should be a class action.

 

I had this problem last year, and I scraped off the plastic and the bulb worked.
one year later, it now doesn’t work anymore. I scraped any plastic I could see, but it still didn’t fix it.

would it be worth buying a new socket?
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...h/63212756177/

Or could the problem be with the upper portion of the socket board?
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...h/63212756179/

It’d be ridiculous to replace the whole taillight since these items can be replaced.

 

Were you able to get the parts and make it work again, just saw this thread?

 

Did you figure out a fix? I have been dealing with the melt for a few years. I kept chipping off some of the plastic and it always went back to working. Recently it has not been able to fix it, so I purchased a whole new tail light assembly. I plugged it in and the brake light still does not work! Light bulb looks perfect that it came with. Is there something I need to do to get the new tail light (brake light) to work. The tail light works, but not the brake light. The wires and plug seem fine.

 

Just to make sure: it's only one of the (three) break lights that doesn't work, right?

If you have a multimeter, check whether there is any power at the plug when the pedal is depressed.