Hi All,

I've recently moved to the USA and have picked up a replacement for my much loved R56 MCS which I was forced to sell before moving.

I now have a 2007 Mellow Yellow MCS (I always wanted one in the UK, but yellow never really suited the weather).

However, it appears that neither the buttons on the radio, or any of the controls around the climate control, or the window / fog lamp light up.

All of the other lights appear to be working, the speedometer lights are light, the circular display for the climate control is lit, the MFSW lights are lit, as are the 'mood lights', footwell lights.

The center light comes on when the door is opened, and all the exterior lights seem to work.

I've tried adjusting the brightness, but this hasn't had any affect (other than dimming the working lights). I also tried manual turning on of headlights and high-beams, as well as fog-lamps, but to no avail.

All the light and instrument fuses seemed OK from a quick glance, so I'm kind of stuck as to why these aren't lit.

I assume there isn't some obvious setting somewhere (or that these aren't, in fact, lit on USA models)?

I've attached a picture to give a better idea of which bits are lit and which aren't.

 

Are your lights turned on ?

 

Yes, they are.

As above, I've tried this with both automatic and manual headlight settings, as well as with high-beams and fog lights.

 

Dude. You're in a problem than. Bring your car back to mini. !!

 

That's always an option, but I'd rather see if we can resolve or suggest potential causes of the problem here, before taking it to Mini who will no-doubt want to charge a fortune to investigate and fix the issue.

 

So I took the car to Mini and the good folks in the Service department couldn't agree amongst themselves as to whether the lights should be one or not.

They then said they'd like $160 to determine for sure if they should be lit up or not.

Cost aside, the fact that they don't can't agree if the lights should work or not doesn't fill me with confidence...

 

Are you kidding me ?!? They charged you ?!? That's insane. What dealer ship was it

 

Did it occur to them to look at another car there at the dealership and see if its switches lit up?

Embarrassingly, at the moment I don't recall if mine illuminate or not. I'd go look, but I don't usually go outside in Feb wearing pajamas...

Spridget

 

I have an 07 S

I just checked

with parking or headlights on

the a/c controls, audio controls, and toggle bank all get backlit with red, and there is a 'ring' around the base of the radio vol' button.

 

Sorry, my poor wording above. I should clarify, they didn't charge me.

The techs couldn't agree on whether they should light up and wanted to charge me to look into it further.

Because they couldn't agree, I declined their offer, as I decided I wasn't going to give them $160 when they seemed clueless about something so basic, so I wouldn't be able to trust their 'investigation'.

EDIT: The dealer is Crevier Mini in Santa Ana.

EDIT 2: To mention, the manager offered to give a 5-10% good-will, which hardly seemed worth it to me...

One of the sales guys looked at one for me, but it was a 2009, so not very helpful (It did light up though)

Thanks, that's very helpful! I did suspect it should all light up...

It is weird, as the center of the a/c controls (the little 'LCD' like screen) lights up, and the green LEDs on the various a/c buttons also work work fine, just no red/amber back-lighting :-/

Any thoughts on what might be causing it to not light up?

 

The illumination lead into the IHKA module harness must not be supplying the voltage signal. Or the IHKA module is bad or needs to be reset. Looks like the online WDS (wiring diagram service) is not available.

That entire panel is controlled by that module.

 

Thanks for the reply, that's very interesting.

Does the IHKA module also control the lighting for the radio controls then?

As a final question (while trying to locate a working WDS...) how would you go about resetting it?

Also, is it possible this could be a software problem, i.e. someone has handily re-coded the module to not illuminate?

 

Sorry I missed that....those lights behind the radio controls are controlled by the radio module. So I would really, really suspect the illumination lead is broken/cut somewhere in the dash.

 

Aha, that's helpful... Guess I just need a wiring diagram now...

 

Thanks to my Google skillz, I now have a copy of the R56 WDS, which is pretty useful.

However... I think I'm going to need some help...

As a start, I believe the Radio to be component N9, and I assume pin 14 ("Signal, locator lighting") of connector X13812 controls the lighting of the currently dark elements of the radio.

Unfortunately, I'm now slightly stuck... As I can't quite determine where the cable ends up once it's left the radio. I believe this runs to connector X9331, on the left side of the car, but I'm not 100% convinced... :-/

Could someone advise me if a) they think this is the correct pin/wire, and where the other end actually plugs into?

 

Actually, re-looking at the wiring diagram, I believe my assessment to be incorrect.

Pin 14 goes to X1436 which splices into the harness connected to X14259 which is the 'Footwell Module'

 

Which would make sense if there is a damaged cable in this bit of the wiring harness, as it appears the IHKA and 'Centre Console Switch Cluster' all connect branch off from the same connector, X1436.

Of course, it would be helpful to know which actual wire this relates to in the real world...

 

Before I start taking the car apart, it occurs to me if could be a fault with the footwell module (FRM). Is it possible to determine if there is a fault with this component?

If I use the tach 'check control messages' (for example: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-messages.html) I get a nice 0, which implies there's no problems.

If I was to use and OBD2 reader, would I be able to determine if there are any issues?

 

I do AudioSwap after front / rear I spend the same as you

 

So, after being unable to acctually find anything wrong, I finally gave up on this and took it into the Mini dealership to look at.

After many days in the shop, a few hundred dollars, a replacement FRM and a wiring fix the interior lights are now working again

So definitely a big thumbs up for Crevier Mini in Santa Ana.

 

Did they happen to tell you or note on your repair order that the FRM required coding/programming? Or can you just plug in the new module and go?

 

It depends what you mean by 'plug and go'

They swapped a known good FRM from another car to check the lights actually worked, so presumably the car powered up without major issue.

They then installed and programmed a permanent replacement which was shipped in from Mini.

Given the above, I presume that the FRM will pretty much work in any car even if it has the 'wrong' programming, but you'll likely find some things won't work or the FRM will claim certain options are present when they aren't.

(If you get a blank FRM, it might not work though)

 

My question was geared more toward if any programming at all would be needed on a brand new FRM, apologies for the confusion. I was assuming that it would need to be coded/told what equipment the car physically has so it's not throwing faults for missing equipment but wasn't 100% sure.

By the sound of it, if one were to replace the FRM with a fresh/new module, then a visit to the dealer is necessary.