| I just finished this, and found that the process is fairly easy. I am in the U.S., so my instructions are for the driver side being on the left side of the car. I have not seen a car from the U.K. with the alternate setup yet, so I'm not sure if this works, but here's what I did. On the passenger side, I pulled up the carpet on the footwell pretty far, and there is an indentation about half way across toward the center of the car. I used a step bit (it allows a perfect circle to be drilled at the exact size you need) and drilled a hole through this section. If done right, it should come out beneath the black plastic covered area that is toward the back of the engine compartment. I also put a 4 gauge wire grommet in the hole I drilled so that the wire would not rub against the cut metal and short out. The grommets are very cheap and you can get them from most stereo shops that do quality installs. Once the wire is through the firewall, there is a grommet at the bottom of the compartment that the black plastic forms in the back of the engine compartment. Just run up through that, as it already has a hole for water to drain through. I'm not sure if the battery is in a different location on the US cars, but for me, if you are standing in front of the engine, it is on the right side. My drill hole was on the left side, so I ran up through the left black plastic compartment and then ran the wire through the back into the other black plastic compartment, which works really nicely, and then tapped the battery on the outside connector (not the actual post). If you tap the outside connector, get a good quality terminal that can be bent 90 degrees (I had a 4 gauge terminal from Monster Cable and had to heat it over the stove before I could bend it). This will allow the plastic cover to snap into place without being blocked by your terminal and wire, and will be waterproof (for the most part, as much as Mini made it).  | 
Jan 12th, 2005, 04:51 PM
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