25w Cree Led has just arrive. Guess what?

[TwinsPoppa]

People want the brighter AEs because they want it to be an effective option as daytime running lights (DRLs). DRLs are for safety reasons but some people do consider them cool looking when the DRLs are the AEs instead.

Obviously, if they can't be seen during the day they are not very effective as DRLs.

In low light, I think most AE replacement bulbs are adequate.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

why is everyone so concerned with angel eyes being seen during the day? is it such a cool thing to do, drive around with angel eyes on all the time?

[rant]I'm most likely going to get flamed for this, but I notice that what seems to be a trend on this forum although I adore these boards so much, is the need for a lot of members here to constantly have lights on in the middle of the day, whether it is their angel eyes, or their xenon headlights + foglights. Now, if you honestly do love a DRL (daytime running light) then I'm not hating, just stick to what is already a DRL from the factory. Turning on your low beams and fog lights every time you start up the car to go for a drive in the middle of a sunny day in the summer is a little bit of a weird concept to me. I just keep noticing that everyone complains about not being able to have their angel eyes as bright as the new E70's in the middle of the day, and this concept came to mind.

As far as I'm concerned angel eyes are parking lights, and parking lights are switched on as lower light situations arise and stay on during low beam operation. As long as they are visible in lower light/cloudy/rainy situations I'd say they are doing their job. My mom had an Audi Q7 with the LED parking lights, and we turned them off of DRL so she had manual operation to use her LED strips on the headlight as a parking light, or accent light. It's what their purpose was in my opinion, I feel that flashy lighting during the day just screams "look at me and my luxury vehicle" and it doesn't appeal to me. [/end rant]

pap smear, can you wipe your headlights clean first? they look slightly dirty, and get your amber corners coded off so that you can really enjoy the angel eyes as a parking light!

[pap smear]

my headlights are clean its just really sunny out

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by Sweep_the_Leg

Well, all the cool kids are doing it, so if you don't understand it, then I guess you must not be very cool.

For me, having bright angel eyes (that are on as DRLs) is just part of modernizing my E53 to bring it closer to the current look for E70s. It's the same reason I am also interested in switching out my courtesy/puddle lights to LEDs. White LEDs ar the newest trend in lighting, so anything not LED tends to look older. Regardless of any trends, I also think bright, white LED AEs look a lot better than the yellow stock halogens. It's a much better match for the stock xenons.

I certainly understand if someone would rather spend $70 on something else for their cars (or not spending the $70 at all).

Sweep the leg (love the Karate kid btw),

I totally understand about having the white LED look etc, I have all white LEDs on my interior as well, and I totally sympathize with wanting to have a newer look a la the E70, as I wish in my situation my 2003 headlights had the "updated" look of yours as a facelift model.

However, I am only remarking on the disappoint shown many times before in this forum that no matter how bright the replacement LED claims to be it is well remarked that the facelift angel eye housings are a hard set of angel eyes to "make brighter" by LED bulb replacement only, because of the way the light housing around the rings are setup.

Someone like Spencer (X5SND) who has taken apart his headlights gained a true LED angel eye upgrade by installing new LED rings behind his OE rings, gaining a daytime visible angel eye upgrade.


I understand some may want to use angel eyes as DRL, I'm only saying if that is your main purpose, you may be disappointed by the daytime output by just replacing the bulb. However, in general, if I had a facelift the angel eye bulbs would be the first things I would replace, as a parking light I would "upgrade" to a white LED look, regardless if its bright enough in the daytime or not.


hope that clarifies, i'm not trying to be a dick here.

[TwinsPoppa]

Its all good. Nobody thinks you're a dick.

Its a cycle and will continue so don't get too frustrated. As new people come into the community they will get up to speed, like I had to, and then they will school the next bunch ... and so on.

Sometimes new people school the veterans too.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Sweep the leg (love the Karate kid btw),

I totally understand about having the white LED look etc, I have all white LEDs on my interior as well, and I totally sympathize with wanting to have a newer look a la the E70, as I wish in my situation my 2003 headlights had the "updated" look of yours as a facelift model.

However, I am only remarking on the disappoint shown many times before in this forum that no matter how bright the replacement LED claims to be it is well remarked that the facelift angel eye housings are a hard set of angel eyes to "make brighter" by LED bulb replacement only, because of the way the light housing around the rings are setup.

Someone like Spencer (X5SND) who has taken apart his headlights gained a true LED angel eye upgrade by installing new LED rings behind his OE rings, gaining a daytime visible angel eye upgrade.


I understand some may want to use angel eyes as DRL, I'm only saying if that is your main purpose, you may be disappointed by the daytime output by just replacing the bulb. However, in general, if I had a facelift the angel eye bulbs would be the first things I would replace, as a parking light I would "upgrade" to a white LED look, regardless if its bright enough in the daytime or not.


hope that clarifies, i'm not trying to be a dick here.

[X5SND]

PHEW!!! I'll admit that I was (slightly) concerned with this latest iteration of AE bulbs----that my upgrade may have been in vain. I think its now safe to assume that unless you change the optics; no matter how bright the source, they will not be bright enough for daylight.

[TwinsPoppa]

Originally Posted by X5SND

PHEW!!! I'll admit that I was (slightly) concerned with this latest iteration of AE bulbs----that my upgrade may have been in vain. I think its now safe to assume that unless you change the optics; no matter how bright the source, they will not be bright enough for daylight.

It would not have been in vain. It would just be another option.

Different strokes for different folks. Being different can be a good thing.

Regardless, your efforts contribute to the community and, I'm sure, appreciated by many others. Especially, those in search of the holy grail of facelift AE alternatives.

[ukrcan]

pap smear, thanks for posting your pic...My suspicions that these lights will still be not bright enough during the day were correct... i think i am going to stick with my yellow DRLs for now until i see a proven solution... X5SND's is still the best solution...i wish i had the skill the guts to do what he did

[pap smear]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

pap smear, can you wipe your headlights clean first? they look slightly dirty, and get your amber corners coded off so that you can really enjoy the angel eyes as a parking light!

I'm looking into buying something to code my car but I don't know where to start. I use to have vag-com for my audi and it did anything and everything so I was looking for something equivalent

[Christiano]

Bad news. One bulb with 2 leds burned today.
Back to start with OEM bulbs again. Case opened in ebay.

Chris

[X5SND]

Originally Posted by TwinsPoppa

It would not have been in vain. It would just be another option.

Different strokes for different folks. Being different can be a good thing.

Regardless, your efforts contribute to the community and, I'm sure, appreciated by many others. Especially, those in search of the holy grail of facelift AE alternatives.

Vain probably wasn't the best choice of words. The point I was trying to make was that I would have been a bit miffed to go through all that damn work only to have it rivaled with a simple bulb swap three months later! lol. Regardless though, I'm always happy to contribute to the community!

Holy Grail eh?....Guessing I set the bar pretty high with those?? :P

Originally Posted by Christiano

Bad news. One bulb with 2 leds burned today.
Back to start with OEM bulbs again. Case opened in ebay.

Chris

Yikes. That does suck, especially since they started out looking so promising!