Who would have thought a simple tail light video on a Mini Cooper Could have turned into this? I didn't really want to post this because it was kinda of a silly repair but I thought you could at least has a chuckle at my expense 😅 This is what I get for dabbling in the Euro car side of things.
-Enjoy!
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If an SMA Video has helped you out please consider giving using "Patreon" to help support us. The videos take real time to create and pull us away from real work that pays our bills. CLICK HERE: https://www.patreon.com/southmainauto
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Disclaimer:
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Oops, Upside down right inside that Mini Cooper Again, we did such a fantastic job. Hopefully that push the second pedal. Now it starts. This guy must be one tall sucker because I can't hardly reach the pedals.
We did such a great job. They said that we need to look at something else again. the uh. they got a light out in the back like a marker later, a turning signal or something.
It's not the ball been told I told them I'm no Euro Car Guy Well have a look and if it's beyond my capability, you'll have to take to the BMW and have them fix it. They're fixed by the experts. Look on the marker lights. We'll hit the hazards.
You got a blinker there? We've got a blinker in our marker right there. That's interesting. I wonder uh that looks like an LED like ring or something there. let's put her in reverse foreign there marker light and turn.
All we have over here is just our blanket. Let's step on the brakes. must be the upper ball. Must be for brakes.
Looks like we have what we need there. And then there the marker lights. blinkers. Come on the brakes.
It's got nothing but I Got brakes marker reverse turn signal. We got everything on this side and that side marker but it appears on this side. We've got no marker, no reverse, no break. All we have is a turn signal.
Yeehaw Hopefully it's not some billion dollar module that's sitting under a foot of water. so I'm just looking at a diagram here. the left tail light. We know the ground's good because one of the lights works.
Um, so I'm curious. I See, it's powered by this footwell module. left side of left footwell ironically enough, has this module which seems to run light. It's powering the right one.
I Guess what we need to do? I I Don't know if these are all individual bulbs or it's a circuit board on that left tail light. Um, perhaps the best thing to do I Don't know if we can plug in a scan tool if you can talk to these things. I'm not sure how that really works like I said I'm not a big big Euro guy. Yeah, it says it's hooked a computer data line so apparently we can probably talk to it and see maybe that's got a whole bunch of circuit codes in it or something.
or if it is in the left foot. Well, the little I do know about Euro Cars it's probably sitting underwater I don't know much about them, but I know anytime there's a problem, it's always a module of sitting underwater. So anyhow, maybe let's try to talk to that thing. See what it takes to get this tail light out? Maybe do some checks there.
The way the customer explained, they put some bulbs in it so nothing works. Everything quit at once I guess so we'll see. we won't give up just yet. So plugged in I selected footwell module, we're gonna go through right hit codes I Didn't do a full system scan absent present and it says football module right Reversing lamp faulty left tail lamp one faulty left Side marker lamp faulty.
It's interesting because the right verse lamp actually worked I wonder what they have for uh, data in these things gonna uncover? Well um, side lamps, side marker lamps active test That looks like they've got a lot of things here. Let me, um, poke around in here and see what we see. It turned on for 15 seconds. Oh I see admission to please gotta hurry Oh yeah, look at that. it does. It turns on reverse lamp and the marker lights around because we have the key animal that go off with us for 15 seconds and there it goes. It goes off so that's interesting. Okay, so that's something I don't know what it is, but it's something.
I've got the brake pedal depressor on there and it says output to right and left on and it does not show a short so that's interesting. It's almost like the the module is outputting. so perhaps perhaps we should just go back to this tail light. Maybe we just got some green crusty back here, you know? I Popped in the live data for what they call it.
Oh yeah, the turn lamp. Oops. see here live data I Went to turn lamp again. it's checking just for a short.
Must be uses like some fets or something because it perhaps it doesn't have fuse. Let's turn on these little guys. see what it says. Okay, so it's switching from on off obviously.
All right. So the piers that the uh, well I trade. Yeah, because that side was working for left, wasn't it? Okay, so it's kind of interesting. Seems like they're Daedalus They're kind of kind of neat.
so far from what I've learned. foreign reverser on over there. We should be able to go in this reverse lamp data list and it shows both of them as being a I Don't know if it really means anything but I Think this is a good indicator that it can at least detect a short circuit or over current my assumption. So let's go pop that light out.
So this thing pops out easy enough. One screw at the top and then just these little hooks down here and it is like a circuit board thing. Well, not really. not really circuit board, but I guess just metal tabs that carry the current down to the next bulb and so on and so forth.
But I'm wondering. kind of cheese dog. Chrysler used to do things like this. things were kind of junk.
I wonder if we unplug this I wonder if the other tail light is exactly the same plugin? Oh boy girl, you're crusty. Yeah, she's crusty. Let's see the crust tapping out of it. hopefully dropping out there like snow.
Well I tell you what, then let's see ignored by parts of these cars. Let's see if we have everything here we need. Um Left Right break reverse marker. So one of these gonna be a ground turn marker? Break reverse.
So let me. uh. let's grab that diagram. Let's just turn on all the lights again.
grab a test light and shove it in here. I Assume this brown one's probably gonna be the ground. it's a larger wire. We'll see and see what's going on there.
But yeah, these are pretty pretty gross looking. That's the diagram. We've got everything turned on and it says I need this because I'm 43 and I still haven't gone to the eye doctors but I'm gonna Brown is the ground. All the rest of them do something else so it really doesn't matter at this point. We just know Brown is ground. Everything is turned on so we should have something. Okay, we got a turn signal, we got something there, nothing there, and something. let's make sure.
Okay, so we got something there. I'm just these are pretty big connectors so kind of easy to back probe. So that terminal which is gray, looks like gray with a red stripe. Maybe Uh, yep, gray with Violet We follow that all the way up that tags into something.
I Don't really know what because it goes into an unlabeled footwell module. but uh. regardless, it works. The reverse light should be blue with gray.
We know that so that one's on, it's in. Reverse This one should be on. but it's not. So that's interesting.
We don't have reverse. Okay, so that's kind of weird, but we have uh. yellow I don't know that yellow one goes through, can we Trace that somewhere? Nope, that goes to an unknown something in the footwell module. and then obviously we have our blinker, which we had before.
So what's interesting is we don't have reverse. We don't There's one wire here that's not working. and is it because we have a crappy connection? Okay, so we appear that we have no reverse light. We have everything but a reverse light.
We have some kind of marker. a break turn. We've got a good ground. We just have no reverse light.
I'm going to make darn true. I'm gonna hold my ground tight. go back and hold. we pierced nothing.
So the reason we don't have stuff is because of a crappy connection here. Chances are, if we plug this thing in and out because that connector there is pretty rough looking, we'll probably we'll probably regain some things here. It's by wiggling this. Yep, we don't have a blinker now.
But yeah, there we go. So we've got blinker, we've got break, We've got marker. We just have no reverse just by plugging it in and out here, seemingly cleaning up the connection, knocking the corrosion out of there. So look at that.
huh? Basically fixed, but no reverse light. So we're almost. We're almost done. I Wonder if we could clear the codes or if the codes go away? All right.
All right. So I'm going to leave that pierced not really pierced, but back probed into the reverse? All right. everything else is working. Let me grab a scan tool, pop back in our live data here for our reversing lamp.
you know, and it shows. It shows that you know it says no short circuit I wonder if we shortened it out if it can even recognize it short? Probably not because we have no power going back here. So here we are inside the vehicle and I Found the footwell module in the footwell as advertised. so pull back some trim footwell modules here. it's not drowning underwater I got you guys just sitting on the seats. About the best place I can put you for right now, um behind right rear trim I Want to make sure that we have the correct the correct wire here and I want to find it Well I Guess it doesn't matter which it comes out of. Pin number nine, blue with gray and that is in connector 14260 x12460 which I don't I don't know which connector that is. There's three connectors on here.
What we're gonna do, We're gonna do it the old-fashioned way. So we're going to look for a blue with gray. so this has blue with gray right here and I'm going to see what that wire color is actually next to because on this here, it's right next to a white with blue. and that's going to help us figure out who's who, which wires which.
And then we're going to make sure that wire is continuous from here to the back. And if it lights up the reverse light, then we're going to condemn this footwell module. We've got this a T-pin It's that. bottom Row One two, three, one, two, three third one in very lightly.
Just going to stick that in there. Power Probe Okay, we have connection to ground. Okay, let me go unplug the tail light and see. that should go away if if we're right.
I'm at the back unplugging the tail light as we speak. tail light is now unplugged. That falls right in the world. We should have no buzzer now and no connection.
Good thing we didn't just shove power down that huh jerk lay in the right hole. Let's go here from the back side. One Two three. Oh, you know why this guy's an idiot because the other tail lights still plugged in.
Huh? Am I right? Because it probably feeds both of them. Diagram Other tail light: blue, Gray. Oh, it does not unless it's hooked up internally on that wiring diagram that does not show them feed in both. Let me just back probe that one.
Okay, so that's interesting. I Know that's the right wire because it is black with gray right next to a white with blue, black with gray right next to a white with blue and the other side I Do not see any other black with Grays or I'm sorry blue with gray next to white with Blues I see other Blues with grays but not next to white with blue. So this is interesting. Our diagram may be wrong.
There's a number one and number two. What's that mean? Let me just try to find the legend on here. Right tail light, left Tail light. Oh you idiot.
That's because I'm probing in the one for the freaking right tail light. You guys can't even take me anywhere. It's left tail light Here we go: foreign. blue with gray next to a blue with brown blue with gray Number 47 Let's try to find blue with gray.
Let me let me look and find the correct side because the right side we know works. It's probably in the other connector because that's the only blue with gray that I see right here. Let me find it standby. We're gonna guess because I can see It says right there it says 51, that's 20. that's 19. So let's just count back because it says here: if this is right, that is in pin Uh 47 which should be technically open circuited. So 51 50 49 48 47 Let's just try this little guy. we're very likely going to probe.
It doesn't feel like there's anything there. 51. 50 49 48 47 doesn't even look like there's anything in that hole. No sir, there's nothing in that hole.
Of course it's going to be open. Okay, let me. uh, keep calm and carry on because this one only goes up to number 51. And I can see Pin 47.
That's 20. Idiot. Wow. Those Germans are freaking smart.
man. Look how these connectors come apart turn into a Euro shop at the end of this unless all these damn wires fall out. Which kind of suck. Oh yeah, it looks like this whole thing comes apart.
so we're going to be careful. Um, what's interesting is the rest of the wire numbers. So the numbers for this one were correct. Pin Number nine was the one for the right side.
So Pin 47, which fell empty which was that says it's 20. So it's supposed to be right up here. Pin 47 is empty. Pin 51.
is blue with gray. but what does that say that is here? It's not even labeled because just because it's not, this isn't a complete diagram Pin 50 is supposed to be. Let me just see if this color matches. Pin 50 is supposed to be black with green.
and it is. So Pin 50s black with green. So all the other pins match. Is this thing just not wired for a freaking left reverse light? Because the pin's empty.
It's completely empty. So now what? It's just gone. All the other PIN numbers match. You know any any other color I Look up matches here.
So let's just see. let's see Pin 40. Um see Pin 44 is supposed to be blue with yellow Pin 44. Blue with yellow.
Yeah, it's blue with yellow. Right next to pin 45 which is brown 44 Green with violet. That's crazy. All the rest of them match.
It's like the wire's just gone. So I tell you what. Um, according to this which we always stick with a grain of salt. left Tail light.
The blue wire with a gray stripe which we know is reverse light which we don't have is supposed to come out of pin 47. out of this connector which is blank. it's empty. The only blue with gray I see is Pin 51.
which is this guy here? I Threw our test light across the reverse wires back there. Oops, we'll go to feed test. you know I don't want feed test. We want Volts DC sorry we're going to turn our beeper back on I'm going to lightly touch that.
Let me go pull the light bulb out of the back, see if that's the right way. Look at that jerks. It's in Pin 51. is that right? or is that thing in the wrong? PIN Who would have moved that in a pin? I've got to assume that's correct because look at that. we take it out. That's our reverse light circuit. Pin 51. Let me do some more poking.
Maybe I got the wrong dented out a diagram for 12 Cooper Clubman Not convertible. This is not a convertible. Let me look at the diagram for the convertible and see if Pin 51 is supposed to be the reverse lights. Maybe maybe that thing got freaking moved it someday.
I Don't know I Gotta try to figure this out all right. So I looked and when you look at just the reversing circuit reverse light circuit on the wiring diagram, it doesn't matter if it's convertible, not, it just has Pin 9 and Pin 47. So I don't know what to do I don't know maybe we could plug if we plug this in I Don't think we can get to it? Do we just move the dang wire and see what happens I don't want to send it Up in Smoke Um I mean according to my information that I have, that's what it is. it's supposed to be in 47.
Um, let me see I guess before I move the wire, it's easy enough to move. These connectors are freaking genius. This makes me want to be a BMW mechanic. Whoever invented this thing needs a hug.
uh in the Rays because after working on domestic crap, this is freaking genius. Um I don't know if I want to move it. It's odd that 47 is blank. Let me see if I can find an Oem diagram.
I'm not really good at reading track diagrams, but let me see if I can find it. and if everything says pin 47 removing it baby, we're going for it boys. I can't see any reason to not to. I Think something happened here at some point so we're gonna push.
it. Looks like a release tab. Let me hold up on that wire I think that's a release tab there if I should get my glasses on. Oh there we go.
It released so that's in 1051. We're taking that all the way out. We're going to jump over here to 47. we're going to slide that right in there so you clicked in if we're wrong.
If we're wrong, we're wrong. But according to everything I read I Looked on the OEM diagram which was fantastic and that showed Pin 47 and pin 9. this is not a the only one that was different was an S supercharged model something but this is just a club man and I'll be honest with you when I got down here to take this thing apart, it didn't look like anybody was here unless they were good because I didn't see anything broken. Usually if somebody's been into anything on a car that I work on that, the stuff is broken.
So let's you know there's no broken Clips on any of the plastic. but who knows, maybe someday at some point somebody was down here. but this would be a no parts required fix. It's this.
Ultimately fixes it. Okay, so everything's plugged in. Let me get the key. I'll get the key back in and we'll turn down.
We'll put it in reverse and we'll see if anything works. Oh Key's on. It's in reverse marker light. Actually let me stick this up. What the frig? It's lit up red. That one's lit up right. Let me, uh. set you down.
the correct light is on. But did somebody put a red bulb in it? No, You know what. You know what this is. that's a rear fog light.
That's what that is. This one got a red tinted lens. This must have a rear fog light switch because now because that's our correct wire. but I bet this is some kind of European thing.
So now we need to move that back into pin 51. Yeah, because look, because now we've got our reverse. Oh that, that's a reverse. That's A that's a rear fog light.
This thing only has one reverse light. I bet that's what it is. Boys, let's go move that pin back because we frigged up. But it's good to know the football module in 1047 does work correctly, but only one reversely.
Wow. We had it fixed but we kept going. idiots. I'm such a freaking idiot.
It's kind of funny. What are you gonna do? You gotta laugh at it because I don't know I don't work on these damn things And then who was seeing the car with one reverse light? Are you kidding me? Hello anybody? I Didn't even look to see if that thing was clear just looking at the diagram. Man, we learned some things we learned. even though this car was wired correctly I would have thunk.
uh. Pin 47 in the footwell module still turns on to reverse light. If you wanna get yourself a different tail light for your Clubman maybe they make one with a reverse light. hack, move it from 51 to 47.
we're gonna come in here. No. I should really have my glasses on. I'm gonna see if we can't pop that.
oops I Just heard click back in I'm gonna pull that back out. put that back in pin 51 because Pin 51 obviously controls the rear fog light. however in the heck you turn it on. but this car only has one reverse light.
Oh my gosh. I Don't want to post this video. but I'm gonna because somebody else might make the same mistake I Doubt it. but I don't know where I'm gonna title it? Did you know Minnie only has one of their slate at least on this model, but there's that.
Now we should have everything functioning. uh, regardless of whatever codes we have. But let's see if we can turn on the reverse fog light. Okay, so we have all of our lights, including that reverse light.
Let's turn on the headlights. The headlights. are on. Okay, we got a fog light signal up there.
Let them back off on. Flick it up. What's it do? Okay, so if you just flick it, it turns them on and off. Do the front ones turn on? Okay, there's the front fog light.
front fog light. Do we have a reverser fog light or best fog light now? No, we don't I have no idea how to turn that thing on. So throughout all this, I learned something. Hey, look at the lens.
Uh, B The cars in America don't have the rear fog light option apparently. or at least this one doesn't. If it did, it would have a double symbol here. for fog lights. You'd flick it up, turn on the front. You'd flick it down to turn on the rear and this doesn't have that option. Uh, unless I'm an idiot. but at this point it's kind of irrelevant.
But from what I've looked in service data and from what I've looked on, just the YouTubes and Googling The ones that have the rear fog light option have a double picture of a fog light here. and this one does have the indicator in there. so there's a green indicator. Then there's the Amber one.
when I shine a light in there, I can see it. but when I push this down, it turns this front fog lights on. Push it down, turns them off. Same thing if I push it up on off, on off.
It doesn't do anything except turn the front fog lights on and off. So I can only assume maybe that's a European option. Awesome! We pissed away a lot of time here folks. or at least I did I think we're all squared away now folks.
News and everything I don't let me put the brake lights on I guess Okay, now we have everything. We got blinkers, we got markers, we got the one reverse light and no fog like gosh. I Feel stupid. So ultimately what was the fix? Now let me tell you.
clean the crap out of the connector, put a little no Ox conductive grease in there, fix the wire that we poked and our head in shame, All parts back on it and go try to recoup all the time you just lost. Take it for granted being familiar with most of the brands that I work on. not a hundred percent familiar, but familiar enough to know to actually stop and look to see if the car has two reverse lights. And this is personally my fault.
No, this is all my fault, not partial. This is my fault because I took this out and I turned it over and we went right to the wires. We went to ground and then we went bang bang bang bang. Oh, we got one that doesn't work.
What is it? Oh, according diagram, it's a reverse circuit and not one time did we flip this over. I Don't think to look to see if this bottom one was clear. Who would have thunk? First time I Ever seen a car with one reverse light? These things are pretty interesting. I'll tell you that.
I guess that's it. So let's be a lesson to you folks. sometimes you got to slow down to go fast and some cars only have one reverse sight and a non-functioning rear fog light. Who would have known? We know.
Now you know I know. And we also know if you want to reverse light on simply d-pin pin 51, move it to pin 47, Go back there, cut the wire, mount a big reverse light on it, and Robert's your mother's brother. I Guess you could do that. So I don't know we could have this thing fixing out the door in 10 minutes.
but did we? No, we didn't because we went on a wild goose chase. but uh, this is one that's going to go into memory bank that I won't forget and I hope you don't forget and I hope you get a little chuckle at my expense because I'm going to put the video up still don't know when I'm going to label it. probably some clickbaity title to get all you guys to click on it I don't know. Whatever. what I do know is I want you to go in. That comment and uh, leave me some kind of comment that cheers me up. You don't need to do that. Tell me if you've made a similar mistake where you've just wet this whole roundabout way only to find out that everything's working as it should.
I Enjoy reading those stories and I try to read as many of them as I can when you guys leave those in the comment section. So do that for me. When you're down there, find us on the NC the Facebook Remember that's not us on Tick Tock And if you find a guy, bring them to me. ten thousand dollar reward in one.
We'll do what we got to do. And just remember viewers. If I can do it, you can do it. Thanks for watching.
I would have went down the same path as eric 😂 especially with those wiring diagrams. In australia we usually have two reverse lights
Lived in Europe for three years, both of my European vehicles had rear fog lights which was mandatory by law at the time I lived there.
The chckles won today
We have all been there. Glad to see people that are much smarter than me making similar mistakes that I do when I fixing much simpler problems.
Great video i watched with a smile on my face. I live in the UK and for many years Euro car maker on some models they have put the one fog light on the side that is near the center of the road and the reverse light is on the opposite, this has been done in the light clusters. some car makers have fitted a full cluster on both sides but one side the reverse light is a blank and the opposite is a fog light blank.
Thanks have a Mini coming same issue.
I know it's easy to ass-ume that no one changed the pins in the connector but believe me I've seen it. Worked on a Chevy 3500 once with no brake lights. No power to either bulb. This one has a stop light relay in the underhood fuse block and it was activating. Pulled the underhood fuse block so I could power the lights directly from the connector. Looking at the pin information on the wiring diagram I realized the wire color on the correct pin was wrong. The brake light pin and the master cylinder fluid level switch pin were adjacent in the connector and someone had switched them. Looking very closely at the plastic terminal release for those pins revealed small scratches. There were no other obvious signs of tampering. This had a custom utility bed installed so it seems whoever did this had experience manipulating the connector and just screwed up. Both pins were brake related so they probably just read their conversion guide wrong. Moral of the story, ALWAYS check the pin number vs. wire color like he did in this video (and pray your schematics are accurate).
Hack
I think any mechanic that's been tinkering long enough has been led down a rabbit hole. Love your work and enthusiasm!!!
The switch, light, wiring are present but since the owner didn’t shell out the extra thousand they just didn’t enable it?
Does the owner manual address the operation of the rear fog & reverse lights that you discovered? How does the vehicle pass State inspection?
What does the owners manual show??
I would just die laughing at your expense if they all just “came out.” Talk about a test pattern moment!
Great job, Had a good laugh watching this one.
I'm not much of a euro tech either, I did catch the difference in tail light lenses when you first turned on the back up lights but I think the reason I did was because I remembered the older mini cooper's only had one center mounted reverse light. I feel your pain though, I've definitely chased my tail on some stupid euro problems just due to not knowing correct system operation and poor English translation in service information. On a side note, the collision shop I work for is working on obtaining BMW certification (much to my dismay) and so I've had a few opportunities to try some BMW module reprogramming. One happened to be a footwell module on a Mini Cooper, module was dead and car had no power windows, and no interior or exterior lights. What I've learned is the BMW ISTA software is terrible, extremely slow, half of it is in German, and nobody should ever use it. But, the Autel Ultra series (I have an MS909) will do BMW programming and coding as long as you have an active Autel total care subscription. It downloads module software right from BMW servers for new module installation as well as all module software updates, and it works quite well compared to the factory ISTA software. It even has some helpful translations for some of the stupid terminology that only BMW techs understand, like it will display "Perform terminal change" and right next to it "(switch ignition off, then back on)". Makes life a lot easier for us lowly domestic guys!
it doesn't appear to have a reverse light on driverside light housing or am i not seeing it proper?
My eyes went in the 80s with looking at computer screens, or at least that when I noticed. I miss my great eye sight. Any way, go down to the dollar store, get some readers, for $1.25. get 1s, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2s, 2.25 and 3.25. one for each depth of field. My eyes are weak in the morning. Need 1.75, by lunch, I'm using 1.25s, and most the time 1 are fine. Until I'm under the dash and close up. Then 3.25. Are what I need to magnify that small stuff. Trust me, you'll find just the right power to sit on your nose, you'll look over to see most things and through to see those diagrams. And when sitting at the work bench doing the small stuff like soldering, resistors on the back of a cluster, you'll love the 3.25s
At 1 minute 29 secs you show the left rear with the red lense, it made me whonder where the backup light was. but it didn't click later that was it even when you pulled the bulb out.
If people want North American mechanics to work on their cars, they should think twice before before buying Euro junk, unless they want to pay the big bucks in a Euro dealer/stealer. I watch you stuff all the time. I screwed up once and bought a Mercedes, and boy, I regret it!
😂😂😂 I wood have did same, keep up the good work
PMSL about 5 mins into this I was wondering if it was the same as my Jaguar XKR that only has 1 reverse light also.
I thought mine was broken & lokked into it as it's an LED board not bulbs & being Jaguar would be expensive, when I got on the Jaguar Forums I found out it was working as it's supposed to LOL
Years ago I worked on a euro car that had symmetrical lights across the rear and one was out. When I removed the trim panels there was no wiring, socket, or anything. Just a dummy lens on the trunk on one side. That’s when I stopped liking euro cars…
That doesnt seem safe.
I didn't know ?
If your not making any mistakes… your not trying hard enough
Awesome channel, had a good laugh at your expense. as far as mistakes go its not a first world problem and you sorted it. Thanks for the content.
Rear foglights are a euro thing, very smart. But yes, that's what that light would appear to be. Kind of surprises to see the US model has it, but with a bulb even, but it has not switch. xD
😂😂😂 i noticed that when you start working on it but was a very good experience thank you for sharing that 👍👍👍
I've had a few…. "good ole Humble pie" Have you had a big job then you get home, get in bed and suddenly you think did i tighten that bolt…..then you can't sleep all night
Living in UK I had to laugh as most cars only have 1 reversing light and a Fog Light at the opposite side … I think your video's are great and love to watch them i'm in the retired class and being an old Taxi driver I did all my own repairs …
inpa for factory BMW diagnostics and control, ista for module tree to quickly determine bad k, d or bsd line. best part, software is all free from bimmergeeks. highly recommend a icom clone over a cheap k&d cable because then you can do fiber optic loop to the current g series enet
Original defenders have one reverse light and one rear fog light. The fog light works though
The dashboard symbol for a front vs rear Foglight is different. The symbol for the FRONT foglights is a picture of a Vintage Headlight facing left with three DIAGONAL light rays (stripes) piercing a wavy line (the Fog).
The symbol for REAR fog light(s) is a picture of a Vintage Headlight facing RIGHT with three HORIZONTAL light rays (stripes) piercing a wavy line (the Fog).
If your car doesn't have the dashboard symbol for front Foglights, your car doesn't usually have them.
Front Foglights are usually an option in the UK and Europe, but can be standard fitment on some cars. They are not required by law. At least one Rear Foglight is legally mandatory, two rear Foglights are optional on some cars, and standard fitment on others.
It even confuses some MOT testers in the UK. Two reverse lights and two rear foglights isn't much to ask for given the price of these cars.
Should I like this? What a tough decision. Lol What the hey I give it a like!
Believe it or not my family live in Vance. We have done business with the yard and as you said they are great. I don't know how you guys work on the junk that comes in at your shop? I have lived in Alabama for all of my life and we don't have anything like that. Great job and thank you for the video about replacing the rear end of the Nissan.
Great video, reminded me of the Frasier episode where Frasier’s dad Martin talks about European cars electrical systems, live and learn! Keep the workshop stories coming, love watching here in the UK 🎉
interesting…
I mean your not a European you work on American cars so how would you know so don't be embarrassed your still a good mechanic in my book
Jesus Eric you fell deep down the rabbit hole 😂
On US spec BMWs there may be a wire to the rear fog light but there is no switch for it. Installing a Euro version of the switch may fix it or there may be a wire missing from the switch to the foot well module. When I took my E70 to Portugal I installed this mod and voila! In European countries rear fog lights are required.
Volvos (and M-Bs?) in the US have them enabled and I see quite a few Volvo owners driving with their rear fog light on, completely oblivious of the fact they are blinding those following behind.
People admire your honesty. We learn from experience. Keep it up!
Made me laugh, comment earned.
when we want to use rear fog light on euro car like VW Audi BMW Mercedes just change the switch to add the rear fog and put a wire from it to the control module. done. Or if you put euro tail light on USA car its the same story. it look like mini use the same tail light and just delete the rear instead to convert reverse light. Cheap thing company do.
Those suacy brits might be upset campairing english and german engineering.
A friend here in the states just made this exact mistake, ordered a driver side mirror for a foreign car 😊, and he got what he ordered
Blue is grey white is black,😊 sounds a lot like this administration we currently have. There’s none of these politicians that can tell us the truth. Good job Eric!
Yes, BMW modules do live in puddles. These are the ones with leaky door panels. Of course. Those connectors are amazing! Most brands have their own way of doing things. Toyota land, you must remove "this" to have access to "that". FCA, crappy grounds, even from back in Mopar days. BMWs, well, they leak after 60k miles, and there have been many plastic coolant parts (including the water pump impeller) that prematurely fail. They do go expensive and complicated on most things, then cheap on simple coolant pipe quality of design. Great videos! I am impressed you can deal with all that rust.
Wound never ever own one.
Everyone that does repairs correctly will do overkill at times, great job Mr Eric O!
Been my life's experience that Germans make great products, far east makes 99%junk!
Most bmw's I guess including mini cooper's have the rear fog lights pre wired and mostly coded (exception of bad bulb indicator) all you would need to do to make them work is just to find the appropriate switch
It,s a sideways Mini Cooper. "no-ox conductive grease" that,s the missing puzzle piece for me! I,ve tried di-electric grease and discovered NO CONTINUITY DA That,s why it,s for sp. Plug boots you dummy. Thank,s for everything you do!
Hay I got an idea, for the end product why don,t we make life SIMPLER?
Most of all Europeanen cars have Just a single reverse Light, strangely a rear fog Light is must have to pass inspection but fronts are optionele, stille liked the video, 😂
Quite a common feature on British / European cars. I was looking at the red lens early on. Do American cars not have rear fog lamps?
Was working a 1999 Audi A6, I didn't understand the symbols on all the buttons. I read the owners manual and wala! One of the rear red lights was a rear fog light 🚨. Was that dumb or smart engineering? I still don't know. But then, who else installs relays that tell other relays what to do😂.
As a Brit I was laughing (not at you!) through all the looking for the second reverse light.
Was really interesting to learn that US cars have 2 reverse lights.
Dashboard switch faulty, up turns on two front fogs, down should turn on one rear fog.
The l/r side marker was still out
We all learn somehow!
Of course we have reverse fog light in Europe 🙂
My boss' sister had one of these for a few years & hated doing bulbs in it. It was either a brake light bulb or the lover valance reverse light going out
Eric, who in the hell would kno? It's a d*** German car. I think you could say the price for going to school in Germany.😂😊 No matter what good job.
I have a 99 Volkswagen built in Germany. I have a rear fog light, but I don’t have a switch to turn it
They're a nasty car.
As are most Beemers and Citroens – Euro-cars in general.
Had 2 x BMWs, a Peugeot, 2 x Austrian Jeeps.All electronic pigs. As you also mentioned Chrysler Euro…
And they reckoned the original BMC Mini was bad – "Joseph Lucas: Prince of Darkness".
Better than these things, and they were ACTUALLY Mini.
Buy Asian.
That took you a long time. Didn't you see from the start the glass in the left rear light module wasn't clear? It's normal for us to have 1 reversing light and on the other side to have 1 fog light. Yes, I live in Europe, I am familiar with this. Nice video though, put a smile on my face. Doesn't have the main light switch have an extra position to switch on the main lights AND the rear fog light? It's something my wife's Smart car has, took me a long time to find that out.
It's funny the rear fog even has a bulb in it that will never turn on. Hey, built-in spare bulb though!
Funny one. I knew exactly what was going on. But as always you came to the right conclusion.
Thanks to you, i started actually working on my car and just 2 months ago i started messing with my 03 gmc yukon’s electronics, previous owner did all kinds of electric playgrounds but currently I’m after trying to get the front mode door actuator to work
Hi Eric, I am an American living in Holland and knew exactly what was happening from the get go. We have a PT Cruiser that was imported here years ago. The driver's side back up light was replaced with a red fog light. Good luck figuring out the wiring if you are using an American version schematic. Europeans cars sold in Europe will have only the passenger's side white back up light. American cars get converted to European Specs as European cars go to American Specs. Either this car was imported by the owner OR some dealer messed up on the conversion to American specs before selling it in America. Either way, kudos to you for finding it out in a pretty short period of time. Nicely done, Sir!
Down in these parts, the BMW beetle has mismatching rear lenses so I kinda guessed early on that you'd find the discrepensies in the lense colour.
In my trade I learn everyday too champ.
PLEASE bring in more BMWs/Minis, they are very easy to work on and the issues they have are well documented and PLENTY of support from BMW themselves in terms of literature of wiring diagrams and what not.
Love your comment about ”if you slow down it will go faster”, will play it to my friends they say I’m the only one that says that
I’m really impressed by your attitude and relentless efforts to find the problem, I see it like a challenge cheers
The rear fog light is an option and the toggle switch would have been in the empty slot next to the passenger side window toggle. I opted not to get that option and saved $250.
Hoi Eric thanks for youre video. In Europe the fog lights only work with the low beam. (In the Netherlands we call them dimlicht) when you switch to high beam, the fog lights turn off😮
Some cars have foglights in the front or spotlights (verstralers) and they work only with high beam .. so different use different lights. Thanks for youre honesty, we all make this kind of "mistakes" we learn from it for the next time. Greetings to you and youre family from the Netherlands 🎉🎉
I feel for ya Eric I never saw it coming lol
Nearly wet myself………..us Europeans seem to manage
You still didn't have the rear driver's side, side marker light from what I saw.
Most cars her only have one reverse light. As UK and europe drive on the opposite sides of the road, there's wiring for each side, with only one connected.
Grandioso
heres a fun story for you. My wife and I bought a second hand car during the pandemic. Cost us over 20 grand australian. It was a write-off repair, which was certified and guaranteed and all that. I noticed that the glovebox light never worked. I had a look and it looked like some ape had smashed it in with a hulk smash, and had bent up part of the tabs and part of the glovebox compartment. Checked the fuse, all good. So I took the light assembly out, and tested it. bulb worked fine, everything was wired fine. put it back in and it didnt work. Took it back out. after about an hour of screwing around I realised that the tab that gets pressed down by the glove box lid when its closed to disable the light was bent so that when it was put back into place, it was offset, and not sticking out the hole. It was just permanently pressed in. So I removed it, bent it back into place, seated it, then stuck it together with some industrual double sided tape, and blam, works great.
Never would have thought a car would have 1 reverse light 😮
Why would there be a "fog light" at the rear or a car?
Footer from tx. Looks like you should be glad you covered all the bases. Great guy. Keep up the great work. Thanks.
The amount of times I have searched how many reverse light's a car I have some have had 2 some have 1 and the opposite is a fog light and I have spent hours trying to confirm one way or the other
My wife is looking at buying a new 2022 or 2023 Mini Cooper. Any comments from those of you who know something about them? Thank you.
I have never seen a modern car with one reverse light. Thanks Eric
No problem we as mechanics use our skills to attack problems and some times those skills drive us to do what we need to do. its not you but euro vehicles made to be operated over seas not in America so if the car had 2 reverse lights things would have gone in your favor. take car
Live, learn. It is hard to not laugh WITH you on this little qaffe – far be it from me to laugh at you on this matter… Thank you for sharing and bringing some old memories back re: incorrect factory wiring diagrams that left me doubting the accuracy of wiring diagrams forever since then. I now (retired) work with mostly First Generation Mustangs and Cougars, and I have plenty of annotations, clarifications, and corrections to the factory wiring schematics. Despite the error it is still better to have the diagrams than not as the great majority of the diagrams are far more accurate than not..
European cars usually have only one reverse lamp and rear fog light is mandatory on every car.
Please do not misconstrue "European" With "German Quality Engineering" (Geordie In Canada here) 🙂 The Germans can screw up two world wars, a World Soccer cup! Now they can Screw up anything! Wait until you have a Mini in the shop for a Month, with a failed intermittent window down….they pull out the parts cannon, and then plug it in outside of their firewall to the internet and figure out they screwed up the programming!
Say it isn't so, Eric O!!!
Great video my girlfriend has a Mini Crapper lol😂 Clubman
Since when is a Cooper a German car? I think they are made in Ireland
Sometimes you only find out by working on something Eric.
German cars are over enginered!
I only remember the one reversing light and one rear fog lamp as I've owned a few vehicles like this. I suppose you rarely come across this if you usually drive your seven litre gas guzzlers ? 😂
Eric O, second-gen Scion xB's also have just the singular reverse light! It's just not in the cluster – it's a separate light altogether. 😅
In europe we didnt have to have reverse light working till 1995 haha
I spent a long time chasing wiring on a Mitsubishi box truck for the tag light. The bulb was burnt out, but installing a new one didn't fix it. Checked the wiring and didn't have power to it. Checked fuses and ended up looking at the diagram. Chased wiring all the way from the module to the bulb and it all checked good. Was about ready to call the module bad only to realize that the module sensed the bulb was bad so shut the circuit off. Even with a new bulb it wouldn't acknowledge the circuit until the key was turned on. Super weird since the lights all work with the key off, but I guess it's in a passive mode where it only powers what it knows is good. Also feel like it's odd to power down a circuit for having an open.
Ever since then I make sure to cycle the key on about anything with lighting modules before chasing the wiring.