Well, I bought an 2002 Mini R50 5 speed with 70K for a commuter car and realized there was no stock cruise on the car. After reading about others experiences and the fact that I really liked the car, I decided to try to retrofit cruise to the car. Found a wrecked 04 R53 at a local salvage yard and pulled the following:

MFSW with all the controls and clockspring (slip ring) $100
Ordered the following from The Mini Parts Store
Clutch Sensor Plate (35-31-6-765-622) for manual trans $1.50
Retrofit Cable Set (61-12-0-136-522) $25.90
Clutch Switch (from Mini dealer) $32.69

Used instructions from the following link: www.motoringfile.com/howto/MFSW.PDF

Running the wiring loom as involved but not impossible by any means. Need to remove dash cover and pull inside panels away from floor to access wiring. The fuse box module was held in place by two nuts. The only issue was fitting the two wires *A6/A7) into the DME module. The original plug either has to be drilled out on the top to let the wires pass through (tried this and it didn't work or you use the new plug supplied with the retrofit wire (X60004) for routing all the wires into (also did not work for me). I went back to the salvage vehicle and pulled the plug with the wiring to the DME and cut this off with about 8 inched of wire to spare (It was already chopped up in other areas so was unusable as a wire loom) This plug had all the wiring for cruise plumbed. The plug needed a special tool to release the wires from their sockets and my mechanic had the tool and fed all the wires into their respective locations. He then programed the car for active cruise and the light came on in the tach for cruise, but it did not engage. Last step was to add the metal sensor plate (needed on manual R50s from 02-04) and I now have functional cruise control. Charged me $240 for labor, but for $400 (not counting my labor, which was free) I have cruise for a fraction of the cost from the dealer. This was a ordeal, but I have to say I do not regret the experience, The DME plug is the hardest part, everything else was a cake walk in comparison. Love my car even more. Greg

 

Awesome...This is something I want to do to my 2005 R53. Nice to know that it can be done. Is the MFSW any different other than the buttons?

 

On the O2, the original steering wheel was a two spoke wheel with only horn buttons. The clock spring only had connections for the airbag and horn. THe replacement steering wheel had the horn buttons, cruise controls and also radio controls. These would not fit on the old wheel as the inserts were larger than plain horn buttons. The clock spring had additional connectors for the cruise/radio buttons to attach to. I stayed with the two spoke wheel cuz that was what was on the donor car. The bonus of all this is that I now can control the radio from the steering wheel buttons also.

I would check your car by taking off the airbag (disconnect battery first) and see if you have additional connections on your clock spring that are not being used. Do not know if your newer car is prewired (mine was not) which would make the job a whole lot easier.