[EVCooper]

@CoachCookie can you share which taillights you bought, I might return my vland ones in hopes I can find a pair that lights up more than the bar for braking.

 

[SameGuy]

I posted this in the other (US) forum, maybe it’ll help. I’m hoping this might yield some hints about the faults and missing Union flag brake lights. I'll look later as well. NB: I found this external link in a different UJ thread on this forum.

Umbau Union Jack „ECE“ | MY MINIS

18 Kodierungen für Umbau Union Jack Rückleuchten Europa Version (ECE): Bremsleuchten, Blinker und Notbremslichter (2. Bremslicht) Überwachungen aus und LED an. Coding_UJ_UmbauDownload Codings für TFL (Tagfahrlicht) = Daytime Running Lights (DRL) Hinten: BDC_BODY 3064...

blog.bettho.de

 

[Irishmykl]

I like having just the bar for brake lights, thats the way the factory Euro lights are. For me, more lights (UJ and vertical bar) dont seem to make a difference, since the vertical bar is brighter when illuminated than the UJ. Now if I can just get that darn horizontal turn signal working. It's funny all the time and effort that has gone into just making the amber turn signals work, seems like such a simple thing, but we have all desired it enough to make it this far.

 

[SameGuy]

😂🙏🏼

I’m just trying to decide if I should order whichever Chinese lights end up working best, or wait for later this year to side-trip in Europe to get an OE set, or just pull the trigger and eat the shipping for OE from Germany. All because I simply hate red turn signals on cars that offer amber elsewhere. I ordered two sets of EU tail lights for my smart 450 cabrio (used from eBay that were much more rough than the ad showed, new from a German authorized retailer). Seems like a lot of money (and a good dose of OCD) to switch them from legal to… legal.

 

[Irishmykl]

😂🙏🏼

I’m just trying to decide if I should order whichever Chinese lights end up working best, or wait for later this year to side-trip in Europe to get an OE set, or just pull the trigger and eat the shipping for OE from Germany. All because I simply hate red turn signals on cars that offer amber elsewhere. I ordered two sets of EU tail lights for my smart 450 cabrio (used from eBay that were much more rough than the ad showed, new from a German authorized retailer). Seems like a lot of money (and a good dose of OCD) to switch them from legal to… legal.

Ive been told (but not tested) that the OE ones are harder to program, or gave people more headache than aftermarket ones. I guess it also depends on if you dont care about the all red look. I like the smoked/clear look rather than all red with or without amber turns signals.

 

[SameGuy]

Yeah I was looking at the GP3 version, which is smoked-ish.

 

[Irishmykl]

Yeah I was looking at the GP3 version, which is smoked-ish.

yeah they are darker red

 

[methorian]

Super glad it worked for yours! Looks like all functions great and as it should!...I didn't do anything to code the UJ section for my brakes, my smoked lights always did that from the get go so that part remains. There must be slight variances in pin out and/or circuitry within our different brand tail lights 🤷


Definitely a possibility...And yes there is enough slack to pull the harness out of the access panel. After I got everything working on the left I didn't even remove the right tail light to do the pin swap mod.


Outstanding, another winner!...If you figure out the UJ brake definitely report that in here as others seem to be interested! I'm so lucky that mine just happen to work that way lol. If anyone in the St. Louis, MO are sees this I could try plugging in one of my tail lights on their car to see how the brake light operates and see if it's the brand of lights or not.


Now this is a bummer to hear. Not sure what's up there. Have not had any errors pop up on mine. Maybe make sure the harness is fully latched into the tail light, they certainly require effort with the seal on the connector.

I doubled checked that connectors were seated properly and that lights were still working correctly so not sure what's up. I'm going to take another look this evening. Will double-check that pins are seated properly.

 

[SameGuy]

Yes, definitely understand that. The only gotcha here is that there are wiring differences as we saw in this thread here:

Swap US UJ taillights on US F56 (2019) to UK/Euro spec

I have the same amazon/ebay/aliexpress lights (I am sure they all come from the same factory) I have given up trying to get the "euro" style as I really dont care that much. These look SOOOOO much better than the US red ones that I am super happy. Been on for over a year.

www.minif56.com

My car has 5 wires to the tail light harness, others have all 6 populated. We'll soon find out if that matters!

From the other thread where we were trying to get this figured out, here is my passenger (right) side and driver (left) side respectively as they were from the factory (before pin swap). It looks like my passenger side is the same as @aottley, except his has the extra white/black stripe on the end. And our driver side is the same, except you have the extra black/brown stripe on the end.

View attachment 78812
Black w/ yellow stripe
Grey w/ yellow stripe
Green w/ blue stripe
Brown
Green w/ grey stripe


View attachment 78817
Black w/ yellow stripe
Grey w/ purple stripe
Grey w/ blue stripe
Brown
Black w/ white stripe

I'm not surprised there are wire color differences per side, that's rather common. My 5 versus your guys' 6 is a little surprising though. Given that me swapping wire/pin positions 1 and 5 netted the same results I'd say the position is more important than the color anyway. Really anxious to hear of your results!

Just checked, my '23 SE is five wires as well. I didn’t bother popping the panel on the right side, but the driver’s side (left) has the exact same colour combination as yours. So now my question is — because I’m probably going to forgo spending two or three times as much for the OE European lights — do you remember which brand you ordered? I’m going to have a lot of trouble sifting through these three or four threads on each forum tracking it down!

 

[SameGuy]

Holy crap I just checked the prices of the Chinese variants. They’re almost the same on Amazon dot com as OE from Europe (but shipped free)… but the same lights on Amazon dot see eh are almost double the US prices!

 

[EVCooper]

I doubled checked that connectors were seated properly and that lights were still working correctly so not sure what's up. I'm going to take another look this evening. Will double-check that pins are seated properly.

So yesterday I installed them and tested them while the car was parked. This morning when I left for the first time and started driving away from my garage, I got the malfunction error. It would come frequently on my commute to work and then when I got to work and had a friend come check it went away. After cycling the car and checking the connections everything seemed seated properly and the harness was pushed in all the way. I will see what happens on my drive home here in a few hours. I am in a 2023 SE with the 5 wire harness. Spot 1 on the harness was empty so I technically swapped wire 1 in spot 2 with wire 5 in spot 5. I also have VLand taillights that have the additional dynamic cable but no option to pull the reverse light bulb out.

 

[SameGuy]

I hope you get it sorted. It might be a case of trial and error (pardon the pun), perhaps switching the wires back — Coach has the five wire variant and says he left them stock after all.

As an aside, every time I see your handle I think your avatar should be based on the FBI sketch…

 

[CoachCookie]

@CoachCookie can you share which taillights you bought, I might return my vland ones in hopes I can find a pair that lights up more than the bar for braking.

Just checked, my '23 SE is five wires as well. I didn’t bother popping the panel on the right side, but the driver’s side (left) has the exact same colour combination as yours. So now my question is — because I’m probably going to forgo spending two or three times as much for the OE European lights — do you remember which brand you ordered? I’m going to have a lot of trouble sifting through these three or four threads on each forum tracking it down!

Sorry for the delay. Had already posted this, but looks like it buried back on page 2...

Amazon.com: A&K LED Tail Lights Assembly for MINI Cooper F55 F56 F57 2014-2022, Union Jack Tail Rear Lamp with Sequential Turn Signal Light, Taillights Driver and Passenger Side Full LED Rear Light(Smoke White) : Automotive

Buy A&K LED Tail Lights Assembly for MINI Cooper F55 F56 F57 2014-2022, Union Jack Tail Rear Lamp with Sequential Turn Signal Light, Taillights Driver and Passenger Side Full LED Rear Light(Smoke White): Tail Light Assemblies - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

 

[CoachCookie]

I like having just the bar for brake lights, thats the way the factory Euro lights are. For me, more lights (UJ and vertical bar) dont seem to make a difference, since the vertical bar is brighter when illuminated than the UJ. Now if I can just get that darn horizontal turn signal working. It's funny all the time and effort that has gone into just making the amber turn signals work, seems like such a simple thing, but we have all desired it enough to make it this far.

Yeah I can't disagree with you on liking how the factory Euro cars are. In my case though it's not worth chasing down for now. I'll just chalk it to additional safety...Keep troubleshooting it man. Major progress has been made thus far!

Ive been told (but not tested) that the OE ones are harder to program, or gave people more headache than aftermarket ones. I guess it also depends on if you dont care about the all red look. I like the smoked/clear look rather than all red with or without amber turns signals.

I have not heard this, nor anything in regards to programming OE Euro tails on a North American car...

I doubled checked that connectors were seated properly and that lights were still working correctly so not sure what's up. I'm going to take another look this evening. Will double-check that pins are seated properly.

Hmm, that would of course be too easy if it were the connector. Keep us posted! Any info helps...

So yesterday I installed them and tested them while the car was parked. This morning when I left for the first time and started driving away from my garage, I got the malfunction error. It would come frequently on my commute to work and then when I got to work and had a friend come check it went away. After cycling the car and checking the connections everything seemed seated properly and the harness was pushed in all the way. I will see what happens on my drive home here in a few hours. I am in a 2023 SE with the 5 wire harness. Spot 1 on the harness was empty so I technically swapped wire 1 in spot 2 with wire 5 in spot 5. I also have VLand taillights that have the additional dynamic cable but no option to pull the reverse light bulb out.

Man not another one! At least the lights are still working, just like a false error or something. I have not experienced any errors as of yet, but will report if I do...And yes, technically pin position 1 is the unpopulated one on mine as well. So I technically swapped pin 2 with 6 (I think this is what you meant on yours). I've just been referring to it as 1 and 5 as it was like first and last...

I hope you get it sorted. It might be a case of trial and error (pardon the pun), perhaps switching the wires back — Coach has the five wire variant and says he left them stock after all.

No no no! Please re-read my post 39! I swapped wire 1 with 5 (technically 2 with 6 as described above).

 

[Irishmykl]

Sorry for the delay. Had already posted this, but looks like it buried back on page 2...

Amazon.com: A&K LED Tail Lights Assembly for MINI Cooper F55 F56 F57 2014-2022, Union Jack Tail Rear Lamp with Sequential Turn Signal Light, Taillights Driver and Passenger Side Full LED Rear Light(Smoke White) : Automotive

Buy A&K LED Tail Lights Assembly for MINI Cooper F55 F56 F57 2014-2022, Union Jack Tail Rear Lamp with Sequential Turn Signal Light, Taillights Driver and Passenger Side Full LED Rear Light(Smoke White): Tail Light Assemblies - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I believe those are the same ones I got. And they showed up in a Vland box, Im assuming "A&K" just resells Vland models.

 

[SameGuy]

No no no! Please re-read my post 39! I swapped wire 1 with 5 (technically 2 with 6 as described above).

Ok yeah just realized that! It was Anroy who swapped back, but he has the six-wire variant.

 

[methorian]

So yesterday I installed them and tested them while the car was parked. This morning when I left for the first time and started driving away from my garage, I got the malfunction error. It would come frequently on my commute to work and then when I got to work and had a friend come check it went away. After cycling the car and checking the connections everything seemed seated properly and the harness was pushed in all the way. I will see what happens on my drive home here in a few hours. I am in a 2023 SE with the 5 wire harness. Spot 1 on the harness was empty so I technically swapped wire 1 in spot 2 with wire 5 in spot 5. I also have VLand taillights that have the additional dynamic cable but no option to pull the reverse light bulb out.

Well, it's not great news, but it seems maybe the VLAND branded lights may not play well with this little modification. At least I'm less concerned I've seated something improperly. I haven't messed with mine anymore since Sunday, but I'm driving it today. I'm sure I'll still get the errors so I may just have to revert back for now.

 

[methorian]

So, drove the SE to work this AM and found out something interesting - absolutely no errors on the drive!

Will see how the commute home goes, but I suspect it's due to my lights being on vs off. My errands after coding/pin-swapping this weekend were during the day, so lights were off and errors thrown. The commute this AM was dark, so lights on the whole journey.

 

[CoachCookie]

I believe those are the same ones I got. And they showed up in a Vland box, Im assuming "A&K" just resells Vland models.

Hmm, I'll have to check my box and see. I definitely don't remember seeing Vland anywhere on mine, but I also wasn't looking for it...

EDIT: confirmed the box for mine does not say Vland anywhere on it

So, drove the SE to work this AM and found out something interesting - absolutely no errors on the drive!

Will see how the commute home goes, but I suspect it's due to my lights being on vs off. My errands after coding/pin-swapping this weekend were during the day, so lights were off and errors thrown. The commute this AM was dark, so lights on the whole journey.

Interesting observation. Now we need to see what happens next time you drive during the daylight as well. Either way glad you had an error free commute!

 

[SameGuy]

Lol, I, too, thought “BFD” meant British flag. I think it means “brake force display.” Maybe we should look at that as well, with regard to the errors.