EEUUGGHH, yet another Angel Eye LED Thread!

[UPGrayd]

So I was playing with the Xtrons head unit I put in the wifes X today and playing around in the Ibus app and realised I hadn't taken the time to buy the licence and activate it (a bit silly after buying and wiring in the interface months ago).

After activating it and playing around with all the goodies the Ibus unlocks (I particularly like the PDC display both on the head unit, and on the information screen in the instrument cluster!) I found myself in the lighting settings and set the angel eyes to operate as DRLs, as it seemed like a really good idea at the time.

I got out to see if it had worked and it had....but now I suddenly NEED to get rid of those horrible globes and get a nice white crisp LEDs in there. I had a quick look around on here and saw a few things mentioned about "limitations" when changing the stock bulbs out for LEDs but nothing overly specific. I guess its a quick one, are there any issues or changes I'm going to have to make to keep the lcm happy, or is it simply going to be a case of buy a set designed for the e53 and throw them in?

As always, thank you in advance.

[Overboost]

I bought the Weisslicht LED bulbs for mine 5 years ago and they are still working fine. They will be plug and play with all of 10 minutes to install. The Weisslicht model will require disabling the cold start function in the LCM to avoid flickering when you start the car. I also heard good reviews on the Umnitza models that will not require and cold start disabling. Prices are right around USD $150/set.

https://weisslicht.com/products/weis...22512117973073

[UPGrayd]

Thanks mate, I'll have a look into whats needed to code the lcm for it. Very new to playing with bmws so still gathering alot of the things i need to tinker with the various systems.

[Fifty150hs]

Last set of LED lights for the angel eyes I bought required no coding. Just plug and play. I bought the highest wattage I could find. They look better than stock, but they still don't throw the kind of light the newer ones do. I think they use cfl's. Not sure. Since I have a 2006, there isn't much in the way of replacements I've been able to find that would be brighter. I'm contemplating buying some old ones out of a junk yard and cutting them open and modifying them. Just haven't decided if I want to spend that kind of time on it.

[Purplefade]

If you're just trying to change the color to a nice, crisp white, search ebay for "E53 led angel eyes error free", I picked up a pair of all aluminum, actually decent quality, 60W LEDs off ebay probably 4\5 years ago now and not to jinx myself, mine are still going strong - and they're decently bright, bright enough to know they're not stock but to everyones point, they'll never be "E70" bright without major surgery on the light itself. Best part, Ionly spent like $30 on them....

[UPGrayd]

My Angel Eye LED globes came, put them in..nice crisp white angel eyes now...no flickering and best of all, they only cost me $16au, literally cheaper than a fast food meal.....however looking at the way it works when I was putting them in got me thinking. A while ago Headlight Revolution featured a new "laser" headlight kit that looked very similar to the angel eye led globes in design. The problem with these laser headlights is there was nothing to scatter or spread the light, so you just got 2 small white dots infront of your car.....insanely bright white dots but yeah...Sure you can see where this is going. I guess the question is, the base and locking tabs for the angel eye globes, are they shared with a standardised base (h11, h13, etc etc?)

If so it might be worth grabbing some of these laser headlights in the matching base and throwing them in?

[Purplefade]

Unfortunately they seem to be proprietary fitment and don’t share commonality with any other base that I know of. There have been a ton of guys on here who have modified their existing socket with better/brighter bulbs, but I have never found a solution for making them much brighter.

There was a thread some time ago that better explains how the optics are the limiting factor, not the brightness of the bulb itself, it’s actually how the “angel eye ring” diffuses the light vs “projects” the light in to the housing...

We’ve had guys try all kinds of things and short of opening the headlight and installing upgraded rings “that’s all the light you get” out of the factory setup.


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[UPGrayd]

Oh well, I guess 2006 bmw really didnt want people playing with such things. None the less I am extremely happy with the way they turned out with the leds...a huge difference for very little time and money

[bcredliner]

Until around July of 2002 the headlights could be opened easily. After that they were sealed. They still can be opened but it takes a very long time and it is pretty easy to mess up the housing. I opened mine several years ago. I had one of each type. I did some modifications and installed LED angle eyes. They are wired so they come on when the doors are unlocked, when a door is opened and are always on when the key is in the on position. Note that the picture was taken in daylight.

[crystalworks]

As redliner said, very difficult to open them up and not damage anything.
Took me a week. This is what the OE halo rings look like:



The light coming off the bulbs is run through a tube into the back of each of those rings at the top. You can just see the entry point in the first photo at the top of each ring. It diffuses the light nicely, but loses a lot of the brightness as designed. No bulb will change how much light is emitted past a certain maximum. You can just see the black tubes at the top of the lights in the photo below.



This is what they look like retrofitted to a modern LED ring setup.