Headlight Switch Wiring

[SoCalMiniFan]

I'm moving along in my rewiring adventure.  It's been slow, I don't have a garage at the moment so my Mini is really classin' the neighborhood up and is parked precariously in my front yard and it seems like it's been too cold or pouring rain every single weekend since I began this project. I'm also learning a ton as I go, I hate electrical which is ironic since my Dad and Grandfather were both Electrical Engineers and in all other aspects of hobbies/interests the apple hasn't fallen very far!

Anyway I've been plugging away a little at a time and I'm working on the internal dash area now. 

My question:
The Dimmer in American English is equivalent to DIP in Queens English correct?

Mini Headlight rocker switch has: On, Off, Park (in whichever order yours is set up)  My High-beams are on the steering column stalk w/horn.

New Universal Wiring Harness has 4 wires: 12v Power feed, Front Park, Rear Park, Dimmer Power. It suggests in the vague diagram that all wires would connect to a switch/knob but the Mini rocker switch appears not to be set up this way.

If DIMMER means DIP I just need to move some wires around to accommodate the Dip(Dimmer) Power wire because the Dip (Dimmer) Switch is in the steering column with HighBeam control on the Mini vs in the switch/knob on the dash panel/floor like older American cars are equipped with.

Comments, Feedback, Advice are all welcome.

[MPlayle]

The short answer to your basic question is: "Correct - dimmer = Dip".

The basic wiring configuration to achieve:

The main headlight switch has three positions:
1 - Off
2 - Park only
3 - Park and headlights

Your harness's 12v Power feed goes into the main switch.
Front and Rear Park go on the output of the main switch for "#2 - Park Only"
Dimmer power goes on the output of the main switch for the headlights.  This then runs to the DIP/Dimmer switch input of the column stalk (I believe it is a solid blue for the Mini harness).  The outputs of the high/low switch of the column stalk are a blue/red and a blue/white wires - one going to the low beams and the other to the high beams.  (I forget at the moment which is high beam and which is low - my manual is not handy at the moment.)

[BruceK]

The UK perspective, formed long ago in England, is that a driver would run high beams for most of the his driving (in the countryside) then dip the headlights (put on low beam) when driving through a village or when encountering another car.  Then back to high beam. 

[SoCalMiniFan]

Thanks Guys.

It's sunny today and my 3pm meeting was moved to tomorrow so that frees up my afternoon.  I'm going to try and knock out some of the steering column wiring connections/light switch.  I'm coming into the homestretch as far as things that NEED to be connected to turn over and check for smoke!

Over the weekend it rained intermittently so I worked inside and out on my rear speaker board.  Surprisingly the measurements I found online were correct so I didn't have to fuss too much with it, I'm having major measurement/fit issues with my Dash but I'll fabricate something awesome.  I used some left over 1/4" backboard from my kitchen cabinet project, black dash vinyl and Gorilla Glue heavy duty spray adhesive(highly recommend this stuff, best I've used yet as far as spray adhesive), and the kitchen's rolling pin to smooth it down.  I dropped in the 4x10" Kenwood speakers and I think it came out nicely, speaker grills are on their way.

[MiniDave]

That does look nice!