Angel Eye Bulbs - suggestions please...
 

Hi All,

I searched but did not find any substantially good answers. I have been screwed previously buying LED Angel Eyes on Amazon without too much research - never again.

I am willing to pay more for proper bulbs that you can SEE DURING THE DAY (not these 3W - 5W weak lights that you only see at night - already wasted $50). I want to know from you E53 X5 OWNERS...please post your bulb suggestions and please, if you can, post a pic of your front end with the Angel Eyes ON DURING THE DAY.

Love this forum - saved my tush more than once :thumbup:

Thanks so much!! ~ Joey

You're not going to find much better than those if you go with stock replacement type bulbs - LED or not. Even the 10W will be weak. The ywill be brighter yes but none of them are going to be bright as the new BMWs.

The design of the way the angel eyes work in the E53 is not that great.

You will have to do major mods to your headlight if you want something coming close to the new BMWs.

...so how are YOURS so bright in your avatar? What did you do?

For the moment, before I go FULL custom, I used the ones they sell on ijdmtoy.com

They're a brighter white with no yellow twinge to them. I've tried several, and these are ok, so far...

That just LOOKS bright. That pic is in early evening and when you're taking pics in a darker environment lights are way brighter than real life.

Do a search and look at all the pics of angel eys on 2004+ models that changed their AE bulbs. ALL of them look WAY brighter, right? Well, in fact, they are NOT as bright as in the pics.

It is very very hard to get pics that represent the actual brightness.

Look here at my comparisons of that exact AE bulb(angelibrights) to stock.

See how even the STOCK AEs seem so bright? Do you really see a big difference? Nope. That's the reality of ALL those replacement bulbs. Believe it.

http://www.xoutpost.com/563548-post44.html

Mine don't even look THAT bright though. I would be happy with what you have going on there :(

Thank you TwinsPoppa for your time - appreciate it :)

No problem. Believe me. If you want bright as mine or little brighter get one of those new fangle 10w deals for I think $100 - $150. Mine cost $300 and less wattage! Mine are about 4.5 years old still going strong. Because of the higher wattage the new ones MAY not last as long - dunno.

However, just keep in mind that in real life, NO WAY they are going to be as bright as in my avatar. Its all illusion my friend.

BTW ... that Lemans Blue ... oh man ... just look at it! Love LeMans Blue! :2thumbs:

Here. This pic is more closer to reality.

http://thumbnails11.imagebam.com/111...e111212525.jpg

Thank you brother. Looking at these on Amazon - what do you think...worth it?

2 X H8 20W SMD LED Halo Bulbs BMW Headlights Super Bright White Angel Eyes Lamps : Amazon.com : Automotive

Let me know - gonna purchase now.

BTW...I waited for YEARS to find this color blue / 4.8is / with the black comfort seats. It is my absolute favorite color blue - thanks for that :thumbup:

...and, oh yeah, there's a polished stainless steel Billy Boat (B&B) exhaust system in a box in my garage that is being installed Thursday morning!! CANNOT WAIT!! Pics & audio / video to come!! :2thumbs:

Unfortunately, that's what everyone would have liked to use but those are for the new BMWs - can't use in our E53s.

Let me see if I can find the names for you here on the forum. There's only a few I think that I would try myself.

Thanks Twins!

I'd like to try them out as well!

The ebay item you listed are for H8 bulbs in which will be totally different than our stock size. It will not work. The only solution that will result in drastic difference during the daylight is to have either the Orion V2 or V4 installed. I will be sending my M5 headlights for some custome light work soon. I wish there are easier way opening these facelift lights. GL with your search.

I just ordered and installed the ijdmtoy.com version myself. Better than the factory halogens, but definitely not as noticeable during daylight hours as the E70 and other newer models.

Yea, you won't get near to those without doing some custom work.

Oh man, not to get off-topic but ljnlaw's B&B Triflows is one of my favorites of all time.

http://www.xoutpost.com/510678-post6.html

Looking forward to videos of yours when installed!

I need details on the bulbs...which ones are you using (part numbers / manufacturer)? 3 / 5 / 6 / 10W? Please provide links to the bulbs.

OT for a minute:

Yeah TwinsPoppa...that is the video that Bill Boat HIMSELF sent me the link to for me to check out THE SOUND before I bought the system. I am going to keep the resonator for now...keeps that nasty "gurgling" sound out. We'll see how it goes and I will post up the vid!

I need my angel eyes sorted out first though :(

Thanks guys!!

K k k k ... :rofl: Let me search! :p: :stickpoke :slap::beerchug:

U ROCK MAN :)

Here's the link to the bulbs I bought:

https://store.ijdmtoy.com/ProductDet...-Angel-Eyes-S0

Looks like they are 5W, 600 Lumens, 7000K in color.

Here are a couple pictures of my car with them on (during the evening hours, sun is behind the car).

As you can see from the post above. They will probably all look about the same. Those are good because they only cost $35! LOL

I have the $300 AngeliBrights - which are no longer sold.

Check this thread out. Either the CREE or MTEC.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...tried-one.html

Your AngeliBrights look like they're probably brighter than the cheapos I got from ijdmtoy, but I don't know if they're $265 brighter. :yikes:

I forgot about this one.

Umnitza ICE V5 (N) BMW LED Upgrade Angel Eyes (WL) [V5-L56EXXV] - $79.99 : Umnitza|BMW Angel Eyes|LED Angel Eyes|Headlights|Lighting|Performance|Service|87748 66489

EDIT: http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...rm-issues.html

Those Umnitza's might be good, although I notice that the stated wattage of "5W+" doesn't appear to be any better than the $35 ijdmtoy.com version. Not sure if that's the ultimate litmus test of brightness, however.

Whichever ones you go with, just be glad they are easier to install than on the E90s. Holy $*#+ was that a pain in the ass. Jack the car up, take the wheel off, remove the plastic liner from the well (held on by 8 or so different screws), dig into the front of the car blindly grasping for the plastic cover, somehow unhook the cover by feeling around with a flat head screwdriver, unplug the old bulb, switch to a different screwdriver to unscrew the mounting screws for the bulb itself, stick the new one in, blindly try to reinsert the mounting screws and seal it all back up. Not much fun just to update the angel eye look. And I did both sides twice on my old car because one of the first LEDs I installed went out after a few months.

how about a 15w hid kit? you think it would melt the housing?

Absolutely. You simply can't get around the limitations of the factory optics. A hid kit would probably worse than all because you need to focus the light into the fibers.

I read somewhere that an alternative to the Philips 12082 bulb is a sylvania 3893 can someone confirm?

Its not so much a question of the AE's being bright or not bright, thats a function of the wattage. without too much wiring, you cant really have the AE's on without the rest of the lights on (cant use a DRL's)...so, the way around this is to use a coding tool and turn off the turn signal lights so when the lights are on, you would only see the AE's. I've got a spare set of umanitza 6w (I think) lights that I never installed sitting around I would probably part with for pretty cheap... I think I've got 6w in mine and I am very happy with the way they look.

Actually its pretty simple to wire the AEs as DRLs. However you need to have the factory DRL option turned off - by the dealer or person/shop that has equvalent software.

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

The AEs are not going to be bright enough to use as true DRLs but they look nice like that.

Are these still working fine. Any flicker problems?

I've found both 32w and 40w Angel Eyes LED bulbs on ebay lately. Has anyone tried them? The 32w has four 8w CREE chips in each, and the 40w has four 10w CREE chips in each.
Would be interesting to know if they are THAT bright when installed in the OEM facelift headlights. Unfortunately the estimated delivery date to Norway is mid-december. Over a month shipping time for a small box... That's just sick:wow:

WeissLicht from bimmian.com love mine people ask me about them all time.. You get what you pay for..

They certainly look good. How are they during daylight?
Would have been interesting to compare them to the 32 and 40w, as the WeissLicht are 1x10w. I have no doubt that the WL's are built good and of high quality, but people tend to want the brightest possible light :D

I'm also considering the WeissLicht. I'd like to understand what the extra money get you. They all claim to use cree LEDs, they look very similar. If the WeissLicht last longer or they fit better, it's a no-brainer. Seems like the optics are the limiting factor on how bright they will be.

Still going strong. No flicker or heat issues that I've noticed.

has anyone tried the 60W CREE LEDs on ebay?
Might try it out.

60W CREE LED Angel Eye | eBay