Anyone have advice on where the best lighting is projected from? The upper grill or the lower?

I've got the two 500ff's & 100w h3 replacement bulbs and now I'm debating on where I should mount them.

Anyone have a light spread picture? A picture to use for reference? Also outmotoring selling the adjustable brackets, but they are only as adjustable as your heart can be when hacking away at the lower facia grill.

I would assume that mounting them on the bottom would render them almost useless unless they were fogs. I will actually be using these.

Recap:

I have two driving lights, lower vs upper mount? (upper or lower grill)?

 

The lower you mount the, the longer shadows are going to be for things in the road, and over hilltops.

 

The best place to mount Hella 500FFs is higher up. You want the beam pattern to be on the road.

Unfortunately, for the MINI R53, that means mounting the Hella 500s in the flow of the radiator and high, they don't look too good as they are larger than the curve of the bonnet and will stick up.

I mounted my rallye lights in front of the bumper as this is the best place for my driving conditions in Vermont. The lights I have are also H4 bulbs and feature low and high beams in each light. This allows me to toggle on high beams when going down a hill and there is an uphill approaching. Also when coming over a crest of a hill, the low beams work great and don't point into the trees.

If you can find the kit that mounts them in the middle would be the best. They won't be in the way of the radiator and will work. I think outmotoring.com sells these for the R56 or the Alta kit? You can also try to fabricate something like I did.



Full write up
http://www.tsrennsport.com/weblog/?page_id=404

 

Check with the State laws as to how high or low you can mount Aux driving lights.

Also find a way to make sure its not easy to remove the lights as I am sure some kids would love to take those off your car for you.

 

TSR, When you get a chance I would love to see these lights without the covers. Thanks, doug

 

Thanks TSR for the helpful insight. I ordered the bonnet mounted brackets as for the time being I don't have the time to design one off brackets. Thanks MiniKar, I would think the airborne sticker on the back would deter them...if only they knew the firepower my EB r53 carries. :0 I'm thinking some sort of special locknut? I was actually thinking the same thing, "what would deter an adolescent male from removing my lights"...I really like those piaa 80's. They are quite large I might add. And to think that I thought that my 100w replacement lamps would be adequate. Looks like I have some competition. Good thing I purchased some replacement D2r's. Hey TSR, how difficult were those brackets to fab? I'm assuming Home Depot has the pieces I need. If so I would really like them mounted where you mounted yours. Looks especially cool since they aren't mounted to the bonnet.


Appreciate the advice,

Christopher

 

Brackets:

http://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coop...-brackets.html

Also don't forget, when it comes to some factory parts, (driving light brackets & driving lights for example), vendors who also work on Mini's will sometimes have used as well as new parts at reduced prices.

http://www.detroittuned.com/shop/
http://www.waymotorworks.com/
http://www.helix13.com/

 

Yes, these are the correct middle mount brackets. I would have used these for a set of Hella Rallye 1000 Black Magics or Hella 500s. But, as I said at the shop we had the PIAA 80 Racings on the shelf for a great price.

 

Here you go.

 

Not that hard, but, they were extremely time consuming to fabricate. I must have taken the front aero kit on and off at least 10+ times, took over a full weekend. The end result is exactly what I wanted. I guess it would have gone quicker if I used a band saw and a drill press at the shop. I took my pokey time at home instead - cut everything, drilled and rat tail filed, painted all by hand.

 

I have Hella 500's on my MINI with the outmoroing mounting brackets.
The install was fairly easy. I had to remove the front spoiler to mount them, not a tough job at all.

 

Those lights look great! Are the Hella 500's a pretty popular light for the mini's? Any "how to" writeups on wiring them up?

Thanks!

 

IQ, as for wiring there are two options. You could wire them in parallel with your highbeams using a relay etc. Or go the route I will be and wire them independently so I have the controls specifically for those at my fingertips. As for wiring writeups. Well just check out outmotoring I believe and they have the OEM driving lights manual there. Just a matter of the supplied on/off switch, power & ground and an inline fuse. Not sure the amp for the fuse yet. Find a grounding point and make sure to attach that before the power. Find an engine mount bolt or something that is anchored to the physical body w/o paint covering the metal's natural surface. Run the power back to your battery and make sure to install the inline fuse before attaching it to the positive post. You have to do this twice I believe, one for the switch as well as the lights themselves. Two grounds but most likely one hot wire from the switch since that'll be controlling the circuit.

As soon as I get back from Korea I'll take some pictures to explain.

I couldn't bring myself to spend 110 plus shipping on brackets when the lights costed 69 bucks with a set of 100w bulbs.

DIY Links