One side of factory angel eyes went out...
 

Is the factory bulb not LED? Is there likely a different cause than a burnt bulb? What is the best aftermarket, whiter, alternative? Thanks for any feedback. It's an '04.

It's a small halogen bulb. Easy to change. I recently replaced both of mine with an LED aftermarket bulb for a whiter appearance. It's not much brighter but definitely whiter. Went with the e53 led angel eye bulbs from here:

LED BMW Angel Eyes Upgrade | E90 LED Angel Eyes | BMW Angel Eyes | Angel Eyes | BMW Lighting | E90 E91 E60 E61 LED ANGEL EYES

Mine went out recently too on the passenger side (05 X5, here is the thread http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...rror-both.html)

I checked with the local BMW dealership (Stevens Creek) and never mind the parts person's lack of knowledge on the fact that regular lights do come with an angel light, here is the part number he provided to me after doing a lot of search:

63-12-6-916-097 for $44.33 from the dealer.

Realoem has it listed for $28.56

It seems to be item 14 here:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/diagrams/n/c/229.png

I am looking at ebay and some sellers are selling a set of 2 white 5w LED angel eyes for $33 or so. Does anyone have any feedback on those ebay items by any chance?

(I am doing a search for angel eyes... that is how I came across this thread. :))

Phil,
Any pointers or links on how to do the change? I believe there are 4 bolts to be removed (2 on top, 2 on the back/bottom) and the whole headlight housing slides forward and off the car?

Thanks.

I heard 5 mins to change out, so am curious about...
 

...potentially NOT having to remove entire headlight. Also, I was leaning towards Mtec v2.1 as replacements for $119.99. They seem to be $139.99 everywhere else since the v3.0 came out. Any feedback on these? They sure like to push comparison photos around the interwebs.

Yeah, it seems like it is accessible; here is another thread with a picture of the passenger side in it:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ngel-eyes.html


I was looking at the DIY info on angel eyes which refers to this post (http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...placement.html) for removing headlight units, but that is for installing the angel lights on the older models that didn't come with it.

No, not necessary. Bulbs are housed in a small black compartment on the back of the headlight housing. Lid opens by hand. Passenger side takes 5 minutes. Drivers side requires removing 3 bolts to shift the power steering reservoir forward to acces the compartment. 10 minutes total.

Thanks Phil, appreciate the feedback. Lucky for me the passenger side is burnt, which now makes me want to go with just a replacement OEM one.

Mine is a 3.0 so I will look and see whether the driver side needs any extra steps or not. (I think the power steering reservoir is somewhere towards the middle of engine for me.)

Really not tough for either side. Took 30 minutes total. FYI...I misspoke...it's the small tank where you fill the coolant that you unbolt and shift.

Thanks. I finally got a chance to get away from work and baby duty and .... and go open the hood and see that both sides on 3.0i are easily accessible, right next to the main light. They are as simple as taking the cover off and twisting the light bulb/assembly out, less than 2 minutes each side.

What gets me is that BMW had to make this an expensive assembled part, instead of a simple socket with removable bulb in it.