I just got done putting two 8 inch blue neon lights inside my R56. I also have a radar detector so I plugged a 4 way adapter into the cigarette lighter and I was using 3 slots, two lights and radar detector. When I turned on the car I had a signal pop up in yellow and read in the OM that it was because there was a lack of power to the engine. About 3 minutes of driving (with lights on thinking the problem would go away) the throttle was not working. When restarted the throttle only worked about 50% and I'd have to push it all the way to keep from stalling. Anyone else have a problem like this or have an adapter and have no problems? Please tell me that these $20 lights are not too much for this $30,000 car! Any ideas?

P.S. I ran two adapters and 6 lights with a radar detector in my previous Magnum with no problems. Also 1 adapter and 2 lights in an '04 S with no problems.

 

This is very bizarre....The lighter circuit is fused at 20 amps...if you were drawing more than that, the fuse would blow. Maybe the RFI from the neon lights is causing intereference, which is making the obc flip out. With BMW's electronics expertise, this would not surprise me.

 

I think they run on electricity, rather than money.

I would guess that the MINI is honed for performance and economy. It makes sense that they would minimize the amount of engine power used to generate electricity. No matter what it cost, I wouldn't expect a Ferarri to pull a horse trailer. It ain't what they are made for.

 

I would much rather have the engine power obviously, but I am thinking that these small lights wouldn't be too much. Just wondering if it is a fluke sense there was no problem in the 04 Mini.

 

If you can take them outside of the car & power them up from the lighter with an extention cable, this will tell you if it is an RFI problem...if you don't get the "low engine power" message.

 

do the lights work without anything else? Just lights.

Try to strip everything down and then add to it, radar detector, etc etc.

If it does not work, i bet there is something you can do, maybe a second battery? I know the guys who light up thier car to the extreme add an extra batt in the trunk, but not sure if this would work with a mini or not.

 

I'm no expert by any means, but what you're encountering sounds very odd to me. I've got my Radar Detector, TomTom, GTechRR, Driving Lights, and Gauges all hardwired in, and I don't experience any power lag...though I keep wondering, at what point is my MINI going to rebel and tell me, "uh, no way, mhm, that's it...no more mods on mods on mods or I'm not gonna run for you"

 

Why the hell are you trying to install two 8" neon lights in a MINI anyway? This is the cars way of not allowing it's owner to ruin it! Don't be mad because the car has better taste than you, and isn't allowing this trash to be placed in the vehicle. Go buy a riced out civic, I'm sure it'll run 10 neon lights... I know, I've seen it!

This post is all in good fun

 

I was just putting the at the feet of the driver/passenger. Ruining it is one way to look at it but I think it's adding to the "mood lights" that already come with the car. I perfer this over a ricer civic because I can kick their a**'s! I guess it's considered trash to old geezers.

 

What if it (or something else) is hardwired? Would this take power from another source and then be ok?

 

Someone would need a wiring diagram to sort that out. If the OBC is supplied power by the same wire as the cigarette lighter, that might make sense.

As Coffeeman pointed out, it could be interference instead of lack of amps. Try running them off the outlet in the trunk.

 

Get yourself a 30A Automotive grade relay from Radio Shack about $8.00. Find a location behind the dash in a concealed location to stash the relay, find a good ground source there and connect a ground to the relay. Next run a positive lead from an unfiltered source, the R53 has a Positive terminal under the bonnet thats easy to tap. Run this lead via an existing gromit in the firewall to the relay. Next step would be to find a switched fuse and use an "Add a circuit" to tap this to trigger the relay. Next run your devices to the relay.... VOILA! You now have a switched 12v circuit with clean unfiltered power.

It's a lot easier than it sounds, if you want to chat PM me and I'll give you my number

 

Heeeeeeeeey! I'm not an old geezer lol. Just someone with good taste

I was just giving you a fun ribbing, I'm sure the blue lightning tastefully done probably looks pretty good. Besides, it's not like you're putting them on the outside of the car!

 

Ouch! Well at least I have mine!!! J/K

 

Does the problem go away as soon as you unplug the adapter, and return when you plug it back in? Neons don't draw much power and the cigarette lighter can provide quite a lot of power, so this is very bizarre.

 

Yes! If I start the car with them unplugged, everything's fine. As soon as I plug them in (within a second) a warning sound chimes and the light comes on. It goes off as soon as I start the car after they're unpluged.

 

You might have a short...check your wiring. Your electrical load is not that much unless you have short which woud draw gobs of amps. If I wereyou , I will go hurry and double check!!!!

 

I'd venture to say your problem is not a result of drawing too much power. Maybe created a surge of some kind while doing the install. The MINI is not too wimpy to power bad taste. Rather than neon lights, have you thought about using your cigarette lighter to create life from lifeless bits of corpses? Make a life, get a life, you know?

 

I will double check it but for now it's all unplugged...boring looking but unplugged.

 

All I could think of is that they are somehow feeding some interference back into the electrical system. You could do some experiments as others have suggested. See what happens if you plug it into the cigarette lighter in the boot, or start with nothing connected and add in the devices one by one..

Consider using LED strips. A lot of us have installed them around the car in various places with good success (do a search on "oznium").

 

Coffeman is probably right in his theory. The electronic ballasts in these lamps generates a hi voltage and very high frequency that is backfeeding into the multitude of electronics and upsetting the system. I wouldnt play around with these again. If you look on the warning label on the engine ECU it cautions not putting certain devices into the circuits. Could cause a lot of damage and void your warrenty. You are lucky that you recovered from this by disconnecting the devices.

 

A rock is free and will still break a $600 windshield, so I don't see that price matters. That aside, sounds like a grounding/shorting problem to me....

 

As a card carrying old geezer, I can say that geezerdom has nothing to do with undertow's post. All a matter of taste. I don't know that I'd follow your mod, but I think the stock ambient lighting is underwhelming.

 

I think this is a bit alarmist. Sounds like the add-ons are sapping power, not inducing power overload into the system. Since he is shutting down the system and disconnected it, not likely any damage occurred or would occur. Check for shorts. Some of those multiple outlet things are cheaply made. First thing to do would be try each accessory independently. Then add in pairs. Change around the pairs. As I said, my first inclination is a short/bad ground somewhere.

 

It can't be a short/bad grounding, the fuse or relay would've blown/tripped. It is definitely interference, as in it's inducing AC power on the electrical system. If you have a multimeter, measure the voltage and current at the terminals. If they are fluctuating quite a bit, that's a problem.