After (again) watching other MINIs in front of me with two sets of brake lights (the factory ones and the rear fog lights used as brake lights) at this past weekends mini MOT, I decided it really was time to do the mod on my car.
I need the “diode mod” because my rear fogs can be used as rear fogs. I did not want to do the “quick and dirty” push-wires-in-holes mod, but a proper solder mod. I started by reading Greatbears post on NAM which details the mod – but I could not easily get my tail light fixture out of the car (big hands? HK amp and Kenwood Keg in the way?)
However, it was easy to get the connector out, then I found this write-up on OctaneGuys site which details pushing the diode into the connector.
I decided to do a combination, soldering the diode into the connector … I removed the connector from the tail light, then removed the plastic clip and released connector pins 1 and 4; next I soldered the diode to the pins – cathode to pin 1 & anode to pin 4. After that I pushed the pins back into the connector and refitted the clip:
Once I had done this on both sides the job was complete. Finally I have five rear brake lights, like all the other fanatic-owned MINIs! And I still have rear fogs when I need them.
M&I / GBMINI 
Finally! Now all I have to do is pay the $75+.5hr labor for the rear fogs. 🙂
Maybe I will do that at my next service in ~1500miles and hope I won’t get charged the .5hr labor.