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Installing A Third Brake Light / Removing Back Seat


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#16 OlivierW2

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Posted 07 August 2022 - 05:37 PM

Deeppockets, yes, I understand, it's probably easy to access the wires when the fuel tank is removed :-)

I do have new shock absorbers, cones and other stuff to replace the whole suspension system in front and rear of my Mini… I just lack time for now. We'll see in a few years ;-)

 

Ok, I see. My MPI is from 1999, so I really don't know when they added the 3rd brake light to the schematics and cars. Maybe 2000?

In the "RaveCD" folder, there are electric diagrams in "cdxn990e.pdf", but this third brake light isn't present yet.



#17 coopertaz

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Posted 08 August 2022 - 10:50 AM

just splice from brake light  +ve feed with solder splicing joint and route wire behind pillar trim. if you remove rear quarter light you can remove 2 clips and ease trim away from body and hide cable between roof lining and seal at top. use l/h rear light mounting bolt as -ve point (dont know if this is done on mpi's but was earlier minis)



#18 hennasxi

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Posted 14 August 2022 - 07:38 PM

I have one of the factory fit 3rd brake lamp cars and the wire simply runs through the parcel shelf frame where there are a few holes and comes out behind the fuel tank, one wire is crimped and earthed on the rear light cluster securing screw, the positive feed is spliced into the brake light wire and that's it.  Its pretty crude and simple.   I retro fitted a factory lamp to another MPi and found it was simple to run the cable from the bottom centre of the rear window straight through a hole in the parcels shelf the same way as the factory one, except I routed the cable to the non-fuel tank side and crimped it in that side in the same manner.   Took me about 45 mins start to finish.  Not sure why you need to remove the back seat at all ?



#19 OlivierW2

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Posted 15 August 2022 - 05:19 PM

Thanks coopertaz! I didn't want to touch the roof lining, I'm worried I won't be able to put it back nicely :-D

I went for the right side because of the fuel tank. Like you said, for earth, I used the mounting bolt of the light :-)

For the plus side, I used a T-tap wire connector on the correct wire (green and purple).

 

Now everything works perfectly, I just need to find a way to hide correctly the wire, because at the moment it's hanging :-/

 

Oh, and fixing again the back seat wasn't fun at all: the two screws attaching the back and the base are not fun to put back. The back is attached with some metal plates… or I should say, "razor blades" :-D

 

Thanks hennasxi!

I needed to remove the backseat, because I dodn't have holes accessible without removing it.

I don't know if all MPI are this way, but I have the metallic parcel shelf and it is covered with some "hard carpet" (not sure how to call it). The only holes I had were the one used to screw the back to the parcel shelf. The others holes were used by the speakers.

So I used a hole on the side of the car: the wire go near the rear window straight to the boot (will try to make pics later, even if I replaced the seat).

 

How did you cleanly route the wire to the side so it doesn't show?



#20 coopertaz

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Posted 16 August 2022 - 09:12 AM

if you ease quarter panel trim out as stated then you can use a plastic trim tool to run wire between seal and roof lining then not disturbing lining. not ideal but fast way and will hide wire. easing trim away you will not disturb roof lining as trim is also clipped around rear window


Edited by coopertaz, 16 August 2022 - 09:12 AM.





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