Hello From a new E53 Owner...And 1st question
 

Hello Everyone,

I'm a long time bimmerforums and bimmerboard member and I have finally decided to add a E53 to the stable. That being said I will be hangin out in here with you guys, picking your brains as I learn more about this platform and hopefully I can develop my E53 into something more personal "ie. Rims,Audio,Video,lighting,tuning and Suspension." With your guys knowledge and insight.

I picked up the vehicle yesterday afternoon. And I will post pics ASAP

I spent several months looking for a prime example and I believe I have found it.



06' 4.4 Black on Black 90K
Sport Package, Premium Package, Cold Weather Package,Rear Comfort Package. Navigation, Panoramic sunroof, Bluetooth, Heated Sport Steering Wheel, Heated Rear Seats, Reclining Rear Seats, Ect.


So my first question:
OEM Angel Eyes Bulb Upgrade "LED"
Does anybody have any recommendations for LED Bulbs for the OEM A.E. Rings? The OEM light output on my new X5 is barley visible. I guess I'm used to aftermarket AE's on my other BMW's
I know Umnitza and Habbie @ Bavtoys have options but I'm not going to pay 150+ for two small LED Chips on a heatsink.

Does anyone here run the Ebay cheapies or any from another tuning supplier with a more reasonable price point without issues....ie Check Control errors?

Any pics would be appreciated?

TIA

-Alex

Welcome. Pics or it didn't happen.

As far as angel eye bulbs, get your car coded first. You need to turn off cold monitoring on your drivers angel eyes. Even the $100 Umnitza flicker. Yes I have them. By the time I got the cold monitoring off, my driver side already changed color. So I have to do a warantee claim in it. But I am quite confident that now all the cheap eBay shit will work just fine. The Umnitza ones I have are 10w, so they are really bright.

So before you blow your money, use NCS expert to turn off the angel eyes cold monitoring. Then buy whatever bulb.

Here are the first pics of my new 06' 4.4 Sport

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...stE53Pics1.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...stE53Pics2.jpg

I had to leave her outside last night http://images.bimmerforums.com/smilies/frown.gif Unfortunately my 7 was in her spot. I have to move my E38 to storage for the winter to make room for the new accusation.


Here are some no snow pics from the ad

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Exterior1.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Exterior2.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Interior1.jpg

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Interior2.jpg

I love the Black on Black W/ the black headliner and light wood trim. It came with OEM Winter Rubber Mats and OEM Carpets Mats for
summer in great condition too.

I'm excited to start modding.

The first order of business will be lighting.

1. Previous Owner replaced a low beam with a cheap 8000K HID the other is stock and of course a few thousand degrees lower makes it look super yellow next to the 8000K
So I'm gonna swap them with a matching pair @ 6000K

2. Then I'm going to need new LED HIGH WATTAGE bulbs for the OE Angel Eyes to match them closer to HID color.

3. 6000K HID H11 Kit for the fogs to match everything else

4. LED Lic. Plate bulbs, a few sets of t10 LED wedges for the puddle lights on the mirrors and map lights. And 39MM LED Festoons for the footwells, Doors , glovebox tailgate and rear overhead bulbs.

Any input is always appreciated.

Nice. See my reply above angel eyes.

Hi, Thanks for the welcome and reply.

So whats the deal with cold weather monitoring?

Does it throttle the current and cause flickering when its cold out? Is that why my AE's dont even look illuminated because it 28 degrees out?

Also I've heard of NCS Expert but don't know anyone locally with it. I only have a handmade protobox Ibus input and Navcoder Software. "HMM I have coded E38 & E39 LKM's with navcoder to eliminate check controll errors. I wonder if it has support for e53??"

That brings me to another question. Does anyone bypass the normal switching of the OE rings and power them with a relay to use them as DRL's And fade in and out with key remote like I have done on my other cars?

I have yet to check when rings are engaged and not. Do they only come one with Parking lights or low beams? Or are they always on in key pos 2?

Not cold weather. Cold monitoring. It is BMW thing to check the lights even if they are off (cold). It also check the when they are on (hot). The cold monitoring check is the LED bulb killer. Even though you don't get an error, it still makes the LEDs flicker. it is enabled only on the driver side for some reason. Same for the licence plate lights. Cold monitoring off, and no more flickers.

Your lights look dim because of the factory bulb being weak sauce. Also if your corner lights are on, it makes it look dimmer.

The angel eyes cannot be coded to run as DRL. You can code DRLs off, corner lamps off. Angel eyes will turn on with parking lights.

using the NCS coder, you can turn off the yellow front corners off, so those turn signal lights will continue to operate as turn signals, but will not be on a parking lights. do a search on this forum, we have posted multiple instances of the programming options, and what to program, and what does not make sense...

the LCM on iBus cars (and on the MOST cars too), sends a series of impulses on start up of the car, through the lights in the system. Most external lights are monitored and in case of blown light bulb an indicator comes on in the dash indicating a defect. LCM continues to Pulse Modulate Wave (PMW) monitor those lights when they are on, to report if the bulb blew while it was on... For some reason, it seems that a quick series of impulses does not sit well with the LEDs, and their circuitry, that in most cases is designed to prevent the error code gets blown, and then you get the half dead LED, even though, still no error code... Turning off the Cold monitoring altogether, seems to eliminate the issue...

While programming, you may consider other things, such time sync for the car clock with GPS beacon, fog lights on at the same time with high beams - a must, if you are planning on fitting HIDs into the fog lights, as flashing high beam to pass the traffic, will alternatively turn off the fogs and will kill the ballanst (same thing as on the LEDs, just on a bigger voltage scale) - when you program the fogs to stay on, you can still flash the high beams without frying the fog HIDs...

looks nice. I would stay away from Umnitza. I've had a bad experiance with them. I am getting some LED ebay bulbs hopefully in the mail tomorrow. as long as its not nasty I will code the cold monitoring off and then install the new bulbs. Will also probalby do the parking light thing, although I am big on being highly visible while driving. Just saying.

The corners make the clean look of the rings look stupid. I'll post a pic of mine when I get un-lazy, and go to a computer.

Just out of curiosity what is the process for replacing the OE angle eyes with new LED HIGH WATTAGE bulbs?