[bgdrewsif]

I recently completed this project on my 2016 2-door cooper. Fortunately, my doors had no extra trim pieces pre-attached so I did not have to 'drill them out'. I just had to drill the holes through the door cards with my cordless drill and then insert the trim pieces, connect the additional LED light modules to the extra wiring connections that were not being used already, and then secure the trim pieces with the metal axial clips. I decided to take the trim pieces that went around the interior door handles and door speakers to a local auto paint shop to have them professionally pained gloss black to match the new trim pieces I was installing.

Painted door handle trim:

Painted speaker trim:

Detailed view of how back end of trim pieces are secured to the inside of the door cards with metal axial clips (I pushed them down onto the trim pegs with a small rachet bit:

The front "swoosh" trim piece secured with metal clips and the new LED lighting module (I used some black electrical take to make sure there would not be any unwanted light bleed-thru.

Rear trim piece secured to door card and new LED module:

New led module with the optical conductor inserted into the lighting module. The door card had a clip built into it to snap the LED module securely in place.

New led module with the optical conductor inserted into the lighting module. The door card had a clip built into it to snap the LED module securely in place.

It was not until after I started this project that I realize there was a third unused lighting connector in each door. I was confused about what this was for but further research revealed this is for a light to shine in the lower door pocket with a third LED module and a small u-shaped optical connector. So I ordered two more LED modules and the little clear plastic optical connectors and installed those after they arrived a month later. Those required no drilling as the clips to attach the light and plastic u-shaped optical conductor are already in the back of the door card and the little hole for the light to shine into the door pocket is already there.

Clips to attach LED module and u-shaped optical conductor for bottom door pocket.

With LED module installed but still missing the u-shaped LED optical conductor. One end snaps into the LED module and the other end inserts into the 'starburst' plastic circle on the back of the door pocket. There is a small hole (maybe 2-3mm) that the end of the optical conductor sticks through to shine some light from the back of the door pocket. The white box on the far right of this photo is the light that shines onto the ground from the bottom of the door if you are trying to figure out where this is inside of the door.

 

[bgdrewsif]

This is so helpful thank you!!

You're welcome! I will try to take a couple more pics once it gets dark outside in a few hours, it looks awesome at night but really is not visible in the daytime. (the lighting, not the trim pieces themselves...)

 

[bgdrewsif]

I've got the lighting already, it's got the Mini Yours package but it looks like someone has broke one of the light strips previously. The one on the curved trim piece. Ive only had the car 3 weeks. Mini wanted the car for 3 hours at £130 per hour but I would rather just try to fit it myself. Your post has definitely helped loads though so thanks again!!

I will say that based on what I've seen from other posts if your doors had the trim pieces pre-installed from the factory then they are probably plastic-welded into the door card rather than being attached with the round metal securing clips. This would make it a LOT more difficult to remove them to replace the clear acrylic optical conductor strip.

 

[bgdrewsif]

Hi bgdrewsif, Perfect job for this retrofit and your post is very helpfull. I have one question (I'm not really understand) to do the same in my F57 2016. Do we need an electric harness to plug the 2 leds beside the trim or not (already in the door harness). If we need an electric harness do you know the part number ? Thanks in advance

I am unsure about an additional electrical wiring harness... in my car, the wiring for the two illuminated trim pieces and the lighting plug for the door pockets were already there inside of my door... just taped together with masking tape so the wiring wasn't rattling around inside of the door. (see the previous posts at the beginning of this thread from member AlphaQuad to see what this wiring being taped together looks like) So in both of my front doors the wiring to power up to five LED modules was inside of the door panels with only two LED modules connected to light up the door handles and the back of the armrests inside of the door. If your car was equipped with the same lighting package as mine then I would imagine that the wiring is already there and there are just no LED lights plugged into the extra plugs. But the only way to find out for certain would be to remove your door card panels and actually look to see what the wiring looks like in person.

For my 2016 F56 I did not have to purchase any additional wiring, just a total of 6 LED Modules (3 for each door) as well as the gloss black trim pieces and the u-shaped acrylic optical conductors to direct light into the bottom door pockets... and also the small metal circular clips to secure the new trim pieces to the inside of the door cards after I drilled out the holes and inserted the pieces... the most difficult part of the whole project was drilling out the holes... took a little trial and error and In the end, I used a small Dremel saw to remove a few plastic clips from the back of the new trim pieces that would attach somewhere around the door handles and I did not want to deal with trying to cut holes for them to be inserted and with all of the metal circle clips holding the other posts in place the parts I sawed off the back s of the new lighted trim pieces were unnecessary anyway.

 

[bgdrewsif]

I promised to post some 'after' pictures of the finished project and totally forgot to do so a long time ago so here are some very delayed 'after' pics of my Nigel with his additional door lighting with the two 'swoosh' trim lights and the lighting in the bottom door pockets...

Daytime at the car wash:

Night time:

And some close-up shots with the trim for the door handles and speakers I had painted gloss black to match my new trim pieces. I took them to a local auto body shop to have them professionally painted and they look OEM and exact match to the new trim pieces... I was VERY happy with how these turned out

 

[bgdrewsif]

Very nice and seems like a pretty straightforward retrofit.

Now I’m very intrigued and may have to pull off the door card and hope MINI kept the wires pre-installed for the ‘21 F56 🤔

Rich

Please update us on here when you begin your project and find out if the wiring is pre installed in your 2021 Cooper… I only know that it was pre-installed up to the 2016 Coopers but am unsure if the wiring harnesses were changed after the 2016 model year.

 

[bgdrewsif]

Where did you get the door parts? A dealership? I saw you post the part numbers, just curious if you had a cheaper source

I mostly ordered all of the LED modules, trim pieces and axial metal clips/connectors off of either Outmotoring or ECS Tuning… might have ordered the axial clips from a cheaper source but can’t remember 100%. I do know that the axial clips were a lot cheaper to order as BMW parts rather than MINI parts even from the same websites with the same part numbers… which makes no sense to me whatsoever…