Hey NAM friends, I have been looking to replace the OEM tail lights on my 13' JCW for some time now and recently just pulled the trigger on these from Outmotoring. One of the contacts on the stock pair would get some build up every once in a while and I had to clean it off to avoid a bulb going out and a warning light on my dash. That, and the fear of R56 parts becoming harder to come by were the two main driving factors I used to convince myself this purchase was absolutely necessary and don't you try to convince me otherwise.

A little background: I did months of searching on forums, vendors websites, FB, youtube, eBay, etc. to try and narrow down my selection. I actually bought a pair of "Helix" lights off eBay and ended up having an issue where they delivered to the wrong address and I never saw the package (I filed a dispute with my bank and ended up getting my money back, no thanks to the seller or FedEx). A little discouraged I took a break from my search until recently and narrowed it down to the pair on ECS and the one from Outmotoring, basically the last two reputable vendors that also still have a pretty large inventory (this is based just on my personal observation).

So why did I choose the significantly more expensive pair? In short, my patience ran out! I finally settled on the pair from ECS since I saw some pictures online, they looked like what I would expect, and the price was pretty damn good. I had the pair in my cart, went through the whole process and stopped short when I saw the estimated ship date of March 16th, 2023. No way I'm waiting over 6 months for these, who knows what will happen between now and then. So I'm considering the extra $160 super duper expedited shipping. Since I couldn't find a single review anywhere for these specific tail-lights and especially not in 2022, I decided to write this review in the hopes it would help out a member of the MINI community. I actually didn't intend to write a review of this initially and the photos may reflect that. It's not until I hit a few snags along the way that I felt it would be a good idea to share my experience.

p.s. I'm not sponsored by Outmotoring, although if Aaron or anyone else wants to send me more parts to give my unbiased review I would happily oblige . On to the review!

tldr; I think the price point for these is a little high considering the build quality but overall I'm happy with my purchase, given my little "fix" (read below) holds up.

Packaging

No complaints here, it came pretty well packed so I wouldn't worry about receiving it with any damage. As you can see I had already opened it - the foam acted as a cradle and the bubble wrap to fill the gaps.


Construction

Overall, these lights look pretty fantastic but the first issue that actually prompted me to write this review were the mounting holes. The passenger side light was fine, but the driver side came with holes that were not completely bored out. One mounting point actually didn't have a hole at all! Not a big deal since I took a drill bit and just poked right through no problem. Also used the bit to widen the other holes to where I could angle the screws in correctly. Not a deal breaker here but something I would have liked to expect beforehand.




Fitment

Fitment was a little tight which I guess is also to be expected of an aftermarket part like this. For the price tag, I would have liked this part to go more smoothly but again not a deal breaker here, just something to be aware of. For both sides I had to a bit of pushing and angling, mounting and un-mounting, in order to get the holes over the right spot. I was careful here not to screw it back in too tight since because of the angles of the screws I was a little afraid the plastic would flex in a way that could cause cracking in the future. If you come across this use your best judgement but just know it may not mount on perfectly aligned like the OEM pair. Widening the mounting holes just a little may help here but also be careful and use caution if doing so.



Install

This part was pretty straightforward. You will receive one adapter per light, and two sets of these adapters depending on your year (pre or post LCI). One end goes into the OEM harness and the other into the new light. Note: the end connecting to the OEM harness does not click in! It just kind of, sits there. This actually ended up being the most annoying part of the whole process and almost caused me to start a return on the lights. Why? Because after I finally got everything connected, tested, light rings on and car locked - I forgot something in the boot, came back to unlock it and noticed the unlock lighting procedure did not light up the passenger side light!! I had no idea why and actually did not have time to troubleshoot as I was leaving town for 2 days. So for 2 days I was just marinating in my despair wondering where I went wrong. When I got back I immediately opened the wire compartment in the boot and started checking for any loose-ness. Lo and behold, putting pressure on the connection between the new adapter and OEM harness caused the light to turn on in this mode and a wave of relief washed over me. So I went ahead and zip-tied those baby's tight and so far no issue, but it's only been a day so I'll be keeping an eye on it.

My fix


New Harness


New harness connectors


OEM Harness


​​​​​​​New light harness (The connection to the light itself does click in on this side)



Bonus photos of the rear lights that I happened to take





Functionality

Again, these lights DO looks pretty damn good, which is why I made it work as best as I could first since it would have been a shame to return them. Here are some photos I took after the install of them on and off.




The color is deeper in person, the camera lightens it making it seem a bit dull.



And of course, what review would be complete without a little video! These do have the sequential turn signal style and I think its really nice. (I couldn't post the image here but here are some links to an Imgur album).

https://imgur.com/xaZ18sL
https://imgur.com/PnoKh7W


Conclusion

Overall I'm happy with my decision and would do it all over again as opposed to waiting until the other pair is available. Do I wish these were built to a little higher standard for the price point? Absolutely. But considering what is available for the R56 these days I'm just happy I was able to find these at all. Happy to answer any questions and as always happy motoring!

 

@joyride305

Well done on these lights

 

Looks nice!