My daughters 06 Cabrio has the left rear brake light out, I looked at it and I'm assuming it changes like by R50. Looks like I need smaller hands and be a contorsionist to remove it. Any suggestions?

 

Changeing bulb out not that big of issue.
Changes same as R50.
Only 1 nut to take off.
1/4" drive socket with extension bar.
Can't remember socket size, 8,9, 10mm

 

Don't recall there being any nuts involved, my '05 has a cover that is just pressed into place, the light bulb back-plane is snapped into place and comes out with some insistence...

Limber up a bit that's for sure. The right side isn't so bad, but the left with the pump motor taking up half the room makes that one a bit of a fight.

Rgds,
JTB

 

04 R50 has 1 bolt holding tail light on.
Sorry for confusion.

 

It can be done without tools and it isn't necessary to remove the mounting nut or the taillight itself. This is true for all of the 1st gen models (R50/R53/R52). A single panel holds all the bulbs and it releases from the back of the taillight when you press tabs. However, it isn't easy on a cabrio because of the angle of the access opening and hard to see what you're doing. On an '05 and later there are two vertical tabs on either side of the wiring connector that you squeeze towards the center. On an '04 and earlier, it is a horizontal tab below the wiring connector. It might help to disconnect the wiring harness first (probably have to press a lock tab on the connector).

 

I just had to do this and it's actually not that easy. The car has Sirius radio, which is mounted right in the way of everything. Well, almost right in the way - you might be able to contort your hand enough to convince yourself that you can do it without removing the Sirius unit. Don't bother. You will end up with cuts and an empty lightbulb socket at best. Trust me - you will not be able to screw the new bulb in and put it all back in place.

Removing the Sirius unit isn't exactly straightforward either - otherwise I would have done this right from the start. One of the mounting bolts is tucked away behind the plastic trim, and it looks like you have to remove the trim to get at it. I managed to get a socket wrench (9mm) on the bolt without removing the trim, but only because i was lucky enough to have a socket extension that was exactly the right size - long enough to reach but not so long that it didn't fit in the tight space. The socket wrench ended up pressing against the trim plastic a bit harder than I had hoped, but I saw that removing the trim was going to require removing the gasket around the hatch, a task I was really not wanting to do (just to change a #&*$ing brake bulb!)

All told, I spent over an hour doing this. The annoyance of changing it out might explain why the dealership (who was otherwise completely awesome) prepped my used Mini with new tires, a new windshield, a thorough detailing, but somehow missed replacing the brake bulb.