Angel Eye Bulbs
 

So, I'm not the brightest light on the tree, and happened to have the misconception that the Angel Eye Halos on my 2005 E53 were a tube of halogen being fired (yeah I know I'm dumb :chair: )
My original idea was to have multi-colored (ie. full spectrum) LED lights, but I want some help with finding out what will fit and what won't.
The first ones I was looking at are here: amazon link

or these
ebay link

So if those fit, I will order those, and if you don't think they will, I was hoping to find out the traits that would cause for them to be incompatible.
(I already tried sorting by car/trim, i kept getting no results and figured there HAS to be one of these that works)
Thanks for any help!

Not my cup of tea but your eBay link items should fit - the Amazon ones won't.

The AE lamp fitting is a triple-pin custom bayonet and requires a specific fitting to work - like this: -

http://bimmerboard.com/members/q/ori...20vs%20LED.jpg

from this thread...

https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=893089

HTH... :thumbup:

BTW, don't expect these to be very bright - the optic light path system used by the e53 LCI headlight limits how bright the rings can get.

Later cars use a very different system to achieve those massively bright DRLs...

+1 on that. I've put the brightest LED bulbs I could find in and you just don't get much more brightness out of them. I like the white light better than the halogen so I've kept them.

+2. I was hoping for brighter.

AM.

I did this test write up right after I got the first X5.

X5 Angel Eyes | Crowz Nest

This shows what fits and how far you can push the light output till you reach the point of diminishing returns so to speak. Includes lumen measurements of each bulb type etc.

Okay, thanks for that tip. Will it still be worth having if what I'm going for is the customizable colors?

Crowz
That's for reposting actual measurements of the bulbs, as this ends once and for all the bigger is better approaches on angle eye replacement bulbs.

If all you want to do is be able to change the colors and don't expect them to be brighter, yes, they will work.

Thanks. I was disappointed I couldn't push the brightness higher since I really wanted them be as bright as my other angel eyes but with the weird setup they did on the e53 there just isn't any way to get them very bright.

My E70 is mega bright and so are the rings I added to my 323i.

To the op as mentioned by Fifty150hs if all you want to do is change the color it will work fine but I would go with the brightest bulb I could get since your going to loose brightness the farther you get away from yellow white in color. Plus the crappy design of the factory angel eyes cuts into the brightness to so start with a very bright bulb/led.

FTFY. :D Yeah, only way to get bright AE on a facelifted E53 (or E39 or pre-LCI E70) headlight... is to cut them open and replace the factory light-pipe system. Only way. :(

But the results of that effort are really nice...

https://i.postimg.cc/9FvmY7j9/Headlights-54.jpg

That looks great. I just don't want to cut mine open. :saad:

So, I was wondering, does anybody have a tutorial for how to convert the default daytime running lights over to the halos? The plan was to run just the halos during the daytime and turn everything else on at night/darkness.

If I recall correctly. You can't program the headlights as DLR's, you have to modify the wiring.

Fixed that for you :thumbup:

would you happen to know a good way to do this without making too big of a mess with everything?

I used a relay tapped to the interior lights and an ignition power feed.

This way the angel eyes come on when you unlock the doors remotely and come on when you crank the car.

I did this because I had to splice new ends onto my angel eye sockets anyway because heat and age had broken down the insulation right before the factory halo eye sockets. So I had access to the wires there and just spliced on my wires in place of the factory wires.

Or if you have an Android radio fitted you can use the iBus adapter and iBus app to turn on the halos when the key is on.

would either of these systems cause lcm issues? I'm trying to avoid damaging the computer so idk how not to.

I had to code it to ignore the bulbs not being there. It showed a blown bulb when I removed the factory wires from the bulb.

Has anyone found LED bulb replacements that are closer to the OE colour? Not a fan of the white on this bodystyle, I think the OE halogen colour looks more authentic.

I can only seem to find white or blue...

Is that a difficult task to complete or is it fairly simple? If they would know how to I can always take it to the certified bmw shop and see if they know how to do it.

I used pa soft to do the coding. If you have the software it takes a few seconds and your done. Very easy.

But you will need to get the software and cable. Ebay is probably the best source for it.

Given that no LED will be much brighter than the OEM 10w halogen and you like the colour, why not stick with the OEM stuff and not have to worry about setting up the car to run with LEDs? ;)

Do you own this equipment? If so is there a chance I could borrow it or rent it from you? I think this is a one time use situation and I wouldn’t want to spend all that money, if not that’s okay.

Mine are night and day difference from stock. PropellerHead and I compared ours just last night.

Best I remember you can get the cable and software off ebay for $30 or something.

Trust me its worth having for a whole lot more than light bulb coding :)

Just to make sure I’m getting the right thing could you give me a link to amazon or eBay for it? Thanks!

Found this for under $12

https://www.ebay.com/itm/V1-4Diagnos....c100005.m1851

I cant promise this is perfect since I just googled it and found it on ebay.

Agreed. Much prefer LED to OE lighting. Mine are brighter and of course are instant off/on. More modern looking.

Also agree LEDs are brighter & look crispier.
Regarding OEM color, I have the cree array (the one with 16 LEDS & the magnifying glass).
It looks close to oem, but I think they color shifted.
One of the guys at the last east coast meet told me they look green compared to his :rofl:

Im not too sure though im sort of colorblind :cool::cool::cool:

So i was wondering, what would the reprogramming do? and could I reprogram it so that I don't have to rewire? Like changing the programming so that when I have no lights on, the halos are on, or will I just have to change it so that the normal DRL lamps are disabled?

You cannot simply code what you want. You can code the current DRLs off but you cannot code the angel eyes to work as DRLs. To that requires either re-wiring or the use of a software solution like the iBus app running on an android head unit, which can be set to turn on the angel eyes as DRLs.

iBUS app is the only way to turn them on automatically with ignition on without physically tapping rewiring the car.

What sucks about that is that our halo bulbs are inside the housing under the cover unlike the e39 where the connectors are exposed out side.

BMW never designed our halos to be DRL as they aren't bright enough so legally they couldn't have so there's no coding for it.

iBUS doesn't code the car but runs them only when the app is running.

Seems like everyone loves the LED angel eyes but since I really like the OEM look and colour, I've never considered changing them to LED.

Anywho, I've just have yet another AE bulb failure - I think it's the fifth or sixth failure in four years. The 12v 10W BA9s bulbs only last about 250 hours (10,000km) and while they are cheap enough (around $10 each), I'm getting sick of changing them.

So rather than chuck in the standard LED replacement the most folk seem to use, something like this: -

http://www.bekkers.com/Merchant2/gra...0BULBS_400.jpg

I'm going to pop a couple of these in, just for S&Gs...

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1fycKa...aX.jpg_q50.jpg

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/hlxg...954566661.html

These things are 5W, 10-14v, non-polarised (must contain a bridge...), put out 500 lumens @ 6,000K and are good for 50,000 hrs. And hopefully they don't get too hot!

I don't expect them to be as bright as the regular "cree" units and I know I'll have to code out the hot and cold monitoring but for less then $10 shipped for the pair, I figure it's worth a try - just to see.

Wayne, those will be just as bright as the Cree units most likely. The light piping limits the output anyway. If they are quality bulbs you shouldn't have to replace anytime soon. Welcome to the > 3000k color temp club. ;)

In that quote I was referring to the led vs tungsten/incandescent/halogen signal lighting but I do prefer the whiter color of the led rings as well. The heart wants what the heart wants right?

Help
 

Okay so the lights that I ordered, just came in, but I have no idea what most of this is, someone help!
https://ibb.co/gjp7thk If image doesn't work, link is here: https://ibb.co/gjp7thk

Looks like the resistor and the control module for the lights to change the colors. You got the RGB lights version?

Wow... I give all of that a 6 month life span in an under-hood environment. It looks like they might have provided just enough of an extension for you to get the control box into the area by the brake booster. Still not ideal, but better than in the engine bay I suppose. Unless that extension is just the one that goes from one headlight over to the other... then it looks like they expect you to install all of that into the headlight itself.

Should be interesting. Keep us updated. Just start plugging things in and give it a good test before you install everything into the car.

Where is this brake booster you mentioned? I'm trying to run some of it, but I don't know how to avoid things that will melt the wires.

That's my guess - there is only one controller for the two lights, so one side gets a LED light, a resistor and the controller (all jammed into one headlight shell) and the other side gets an LED light and resistor (via the extension lead). It's all powered from one of the AE power feeds - no other power tap.

The resistors can get hot, so place them somewhere where they won't melt anything. Best bet is to discard them and code out any errors you'll get - they just waste power as heat and cause issues. But doing this may require re-wiring many of the plugs etc. :dunno:

Angel Eye Bulbs
 

The thing is on the e53 the ae bulbs are enclosed and you would have to drill a whole in the cover for all those wires. My OCD won't allow that lol

Oh yeah and those resistors will get pretty damn hot like burn your skin hot, remember it's getting constant 12v and resisting it... I burned the back of my hand once changing a bulb on another car and forgot I had a resistor mounted on the bumper beam.

I have the same issue... I pondered for days before I drilled mine (super small hole on the bottom of the housing) for the external ballast. But you bet you backside that I sealed that sucker up VERY WELL when I was finished!!



2005 X5 4.4i (04/05 build date)
Titanium Silver w/Black Interior

I measured 200+ F on the resistors for a switchback LED install on the wife's 2013 Kia Optima SX (yes I have to put the SX... ;)). I measured because I installed them at the LCM inside the vehicle rather than under the hood. Wanted to make sure I knew just how hot they would get so I knew what not to put them next to.

I don't understand all the complications to this.

Here is how I handled mine and probably had less in them than this all will in the end.

1. Bought normal led bulbs. No load ballast. Just normal bulbs.

2. Installed bulbs.

3. Fired up pa soft and changed the setting for monitoring the bulbs for that circuit.

4. Enjoyed brighter angel eyes with zero hassles.

I did end up replacing the sockets on my second time messing with them since the insulation was falling off the bulb wires from all the heat that had been generated inside the housing over the years. But that isn't the led conversion fault.

So $20 bulbs or something for the first batch. Second ones cost more which were brighter but didn't really make the angel eye brighter since I had reached max light than ban be transmitted by the plastic rings.

You can get pa soft and cables off ebay for $13 to $20.

$40 tops, no hassles. Also you will have pa soft for later projects which is worth the price of admission anyways.

This is the link to the ae upgrade I did.

X5 Angel Eyes | Crowz Nest

He had to have RGB. Soooooo... it gets complicated. lol

I agree with Crowz completely- that is the most straight forward way to do it and and with very good results.

I, BEFORE I understood the limitations of the optics for the angel eyes, went out and purchase 4 chip 40w LEDs thinking I would be able to see in to tomorrow with them.... but no such luck. They are significantly brighter than stock of course but no where near what I had hoped for.


2005 X5 4.4i (04/05 build date)
Titanium Silver w/Black Interior

I'm going even simpler and only replacing the bulb itself in the OEM reflector assembly. I'll let you know how that works out.. ;)

And the answer is in...

It didn't.

Work out, I mean. The BA9 LED bulbs arrived but due to the construction, (although they are the correct base) they don't fit into the AE fitting. The LED mounted on the BA9 base is too wide to fit in the OEM reflector.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2nkbqt.jpg

The white plastic ring is the issue...

I've pulled one of them to pieces to see if I can modify it but that kinda defeats the idea of a cheap simple LED replacement that fits the OEM AE holder...

Rats...

I'm still partial to cutting open the headlights. 100x more work. But 100x the reward too. ;) Plus, while the lenses are off you can do a smoking job of refinishing them. Sanding the lenses is much easier when they can lie flat on the floor.

+1

What were the bulbs you got? Looking for my next set of changes- AE's and LED's on fogs and signals.

I just did fog lights Prop. Might I suggest these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Really bright and I have used that seller for a lot of my LED upgrades. Haven't had a failure as of yet.

Since this thread was created by me, I probably should show everyone my setup, now that I have it finished. I just keep having issues with iPhones .HEIC picture files.


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I wanted to revive this thread to ask a quick question.

I’m doing research on the brightness output of lights since my RGB ones are barely visible during the daytime.
Those of you who have the very bright white bulbs, do you know the Lumen output? And color temp?

Side question: What’s the lumen output of the stock bulbs?

EDIT: Another Side Question: Has anyone checked to see what the loss is from the bulb in the OE halos to the actual output from the headlight? Like has anyone got a change % from bulb to output?


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Bugger all... the OEM Osram lamp (64113) is rated at 200lm +-15%

I haven't checked the actual attentuation but it's a LOT... like maybe 70-80% (that figure is a WAG). :dunno:

I was going to say AT LEAST 50% but 70-80 wouldn't surprise me either. It's A LOT of diffusing that takes place as the light travels through the tubes.

Don't know the lumens, but the brightest led angel eye bulb I've been able to find is 60 watt. I don't know what that equates to, but I can tell you looking at them out of the housing is painful. They're bright! Unfortunately, that does not equate to a lot of light at the angle eyes. I agree there's a 70 to 80% loss. When you look at the little tube all that light has to go through you can see why. If you want current day angel eye bright you'll need to retrofit LED rings into your housings.